Anyone know of any enjoyable-to-read historical books about the WW2 Eastern front that would fill in on the background for IL-2? I was at Borders today and there were a couple of books about the Eastern Front...though it wasn't clear how much the emphasis was on the air war, and neither had maps or other illustrations (not necessary, but nice).

Yep: you will find some of these at Amazon.com, others you'll have to surf around for, maybe Pacifica Press might have 'em.

Black Cross/Red Star by Bergstrom & Mikhailov, Vols. I and II

Swastika in the Gunsight by Igor Kaberov

The War Diary of Hauptmann Helmut Lipfert, by Lipfert & Girbig

Early next year, Guenther Rall (now the living top ace of all time) will finally have his 1st person account published; mine's on pre-order!!

Stuka Pilot: War & Warrior Series by H.U. Rudel. (NOTE: not to be confused with the coffee table pictorial book with the title of Stuka Pilot!!!!) This one's a narrative by the most decorated German serviceman EVER. (Shame to say, he was also a strident Nazi...but if you can merely only concentrate on what his aerial accomplishments were, it does make interesting reading)

I've seen on one of the IL-2 community pages a book about the Soviet P-39 pilots; the name escapes me right now.

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Stigler, Staffelkapitaen of 9./JG52: The Karaya Staffel. A historically-based, full realism Bf109 squadron flying in IL-2.

[This message has been edited by Stiglr (edited 12-23-2001).]

S! HerkyDriver,

Welcome to the SimHq.com IL-2 Forum Community! Would that be "Herky" as in the C-130 Hercules?

I think the book Stiglr is referring to is
"Attack of the Airacobras: Soviet Aces, American P-39's and the Air War against Germany" by Dmitriy Loza (who served in the Red Army in World War Two). Here's a link to the book at Amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0...2844748-8342106

I'd also recommend clicking on the word "Library" in the column to your left. Once there move down to the IL-2 section. You'll find a lot of suggestions for reading there. The "Black Cross/Red Star" volumes are the best IMHO.

There's an Osprey book, Soviet Aces of WWII or similar, by Hugh Morgan that's supposed to be good. Enemy at the Gates is a very readable account of the Battle of Stalingrad (a major turning point in the war), and there's Richard Overy's "Russia's War", which has good write ups (my copy is wrapped up under the christmas tree right now ).

I hear good things about John Erickson's two volume series (The Road to Stalingrad and The Road to Berlin) and David Glantz' work, but I've not read any yet myself. Stopped at Stalingrad sounds interesting too, there's a review in the library section of SimHQ.


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Flt. Lt. Bertie "Binky" Farqhuarson,
No.1 AGHL Squadron
"Nous Sommes Tous Les Singes"
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Thanks much for the input guys. Gotta print this stuff out and start checking around. I read several modern fighter-warfare books during the time I was playing Falcon 4.0 and it really enhanced that experience.

Swoose, yes I'm an ex-USAF C-130 pilot. So to be more accurate I suppose I should put "Ex-" on the front of my nick, but I did get the type rating put on my pilot's license so I'm still technically qualified...

"Enemy at the Gates" was a cool film...I saw it a few months ago on video...I hadn't previously realized that a WW2 battle had involved that type of protracted urban guerilla warfare. I remember that Borders did have The Road to Stalingrad and The Road to Berlin on the shelves. When resorting to online, I usually go to Abebooks...I've got a thing against Amazon's privacy policies (or rather the lack thereof...).

• Von Hardesty's Red Phoenix. Though somewhat dated it's a good book even now about the VVS.
• Stalin's Eagles by H.Seidl. A very comprehensive book on the Aces of the VVS, and their units(regiments and divisions).
• J.Gunston's Osprey Encyclopedia of Russian Aircraft. Amazing amount of basic data on nearly every aircraft built in the Soviet Union/Russia.
• A.Werth's Russia at War truly captures the atmosphere among the people of the Soviet Union during WWII. A BBC journalist in Moscow, Mr.Werth's book brings the thoughts, concerns, the character of the Soviet people during the Great Patriotic War. He also uses his unique position to relate on the bigger events going on from the Soviet's abortive attempts to start an alliance with Britain, France, and Poland till the day the Red Flag hung atop the Reichstag.

Personally, I cringed at all the inaccuracies in Enemy at the Gates, but if it ended up getting people interested in the Great Patriotic War, then it wasn't a total waste.

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5 GvIAP VVS-KA , Kompol
"Our cause is just. The enemy will be crushed. Victory will be ours."

[This message has been edited by leonid (edited 12-24-2001).]

rgr that, Werth's book is fantastic!!, all 900+ pages

S! Herky Driver,

Always nice to meet former military on these boards. I'm retired Army Reserve. I spent a fair amount of my career on jump status. Maybe you were the A/C or copilot on one of my C-130 jumps? If so, I apologize for messing up the back of your plane when you were flying nap-of-the-earth over those North Carolina cornfields enroute to Sicily DZ at Fort Bragg.

I have a fair number of the books mentioned in this thread. They've helped me get a better appreciation of the history behind IL-2 Sturmovik. I'd be willing to loan them to you. All I'd ask is that you send them back when you're done. If you're interested, send an e-mail to reaj591@attbi.com on or after New Year's Day and we can talk more about it. Have a Merry Christmas!

Bill J. Gunston's Osprey Encyclopedia of Russian Aircraft. Amazing amount of basic data on nearly every aircraft built in the Soviet Union/Russia.

I agree. My copy 1875-1995 by Motorbooks International.

S!-CD.

I remember picking up troops to drop out of Benning but not Bragg...most of my duty was in the Far East based out of Clark AB Philippines...then I finished up my commitment based in Texas in '85. While in the P.I., Korea was our home-away-from-home and the only place we did troop drops (dropping ROK soldiers). For those missions, we would place an 80-gallon drum or trash can at each end of the seats for the paratroops to lose their lunch in, demand was so high. A troop drop mission on a cold day in Korea flying NOE over rough/hilly terrain in extremely choppy air was the closest I've ever come to upchucking in an airplane (luckily I never did), and I know from experience that flying in the back sitting sideways with no real view of the outside was much much more nauseating than sitting up front facing forward.

Thanks for the offer on the loan, but I do like to keep the books around for reference and getting books thru places found via Abebooks is real cheap...for example the last book I got that way was a mint-condition (including dust jacket) hardbound copy of "Warthog: flying the A-10 in the Gulf War" for ten bucks plus postage. (great book BTW, and makes me look forward to getting the game "Lock-on")