Air Battles over Hungary 1944-45 Book Review
By David L. Veres
| Date of Review | August 2021 | Title | Air Battles over Hungary 1944-45 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Author | Dmitriy Khazanov | Publisher | Helion |
| Published | 2021 | ISBN | 9781913336202 |
| Format | 150 pages, softbound | MSRP (GBP) | $45.00 |
Review
Dmitriy Khazanov competently captures desperate, late-WWII aerial actions in Air Battles over Hungary 1944-45 from Helion.
Available in North America from Casemate, contents chronologically cover, in fact, all campaign phases – air, ground, support, and supply.
Fighting marked a number of “firsts” – including initial clashes between Romania and its former Axis partners, and early use of Ilyushin Il-10s.
Hundreds of illustrations support the study: period photos, color profiles, and personnel shots. And extended, explanatory captions accompany most.
But don’t expect Helion’s two small, Russian-language maps to clarify geographic comments.
Nearly every page comes packed with fascinating facts – and intriguing anecdotes. One spread alone explored:
- constructing makeshift airstrips with local materials,
- disassembling, towing, and redeploying fighters overland, and
- creatively communicating with locals.
Those details, however, expose two key troubles: no annotations – and just random remarks on text sources.
All those statistics. All those claims. All those quotes. All those excerpts. But no attributions. And no selected bibliography.
Watch for typos and misidentifications, too. Is that “Bf 100” a Bf 109 or Bf 108? And is that Lisunov Li-2 really a “night fighter”?
Concerns aside, I really enjoyed Helion’s engaging, informative Air Battles over Hungary 1944-45. Make it your introduction to this pivotal closing campaign of WWII.
Recommended!
My sincere thanks to Casemate for this review sample!