Bf 109 Jabo Units in the West (Combat Aircraft, 149)

I am little biased: a few years ago I submitted "Bf 109 Jabo Units of WWII" to the suggestion box on Osprey's website. Maybe this is a coincidence, maybe not, but either way I am extremely pleased that this book has been written.Discussion of the Bf 109 in the ground-attack role usually takes the form of oblique references to staffeln converted to the task en masse during the Battle of Britain, or ships attacked in the Channel by single-engine fighters in 1940. Given the 109's fame as an air superiority fighter, I've always felt there was a story to be told in these references to fighter-bomber missions of the 109. Malcom Lowe has proven that this is indeed the case.The full story of the 109's early and late fighter-bomber operations is brought to light. Goering's strange decision to force the conversion of a third of the fighter strength in the Battle of Britain is given context by the remarkable successes of the first two prototype jabo gruppen. Although this decision proved extremely unwise, it becomes clear here that the issue was forcing pilots into a mission for which they were not adequately trained as opposed to the unsuitability of the 109 for this role.The second half of the book is devoted to Operation Bodenplatte, and particularly the 109's role in it. Again, this is information that has hitherto been extremely difficult to come by. Here we get a detailed accounting of each unit's performance in this crazy mission.What you will not find in this book is any mention of jabo operations that took place outside of strictly the Western Front, which leaves out the 109's jabo missions over Yugoslavia, Greece (including a wild raid on HMS Warspite by Jg 77) or Sicily, to say nothing of the gargantuan Eastern Front. While I would like details on these, the level of detail Lowe was able to go into makes me glad he stuck with a very specific setting and topic.The photos and profiles are simply excellent, including many photos I have never seen before despite years of trying to find information on this subject. Jim Laurier is a very respected name in aircraft profiling and he absolutely lives up to his reputation here. The profiles are extremely detailed and just downright fun to look at.I also want to commend Osprey for how it has improved the layout of these profiles over the years. In the print version of the book, the profiles are printed length-wise on the page so you have a larger, more detailed image, with the text blurb in a separate section in the back. On the kindle version, the profile is not rotated and the text is right next to it. This seems like a small thing, but it's really welcome adaptation of the format for the kindle, where it's not as easy to flip to a specific page as one would with a book. In the past my recommendation has always been to get the print version and skip the kindle, but I feel I can recommend them equally in this case.I would STRONGLY recommend this book to people who are interested in either the Bf 109, or ground attack aircraft, but anyone who has any interest at all in WWII or military aviation is going to have a very good time reading this book.5/5

thank you

The German Bf 109 fighter was consistently and famously a dangerous opponent of the Allies in the Second World War. Less well known is that Germany successfully experimented with the Bf 109 as a fighter bomber. This new Osprey Combat Aircraft entry has the details.The Bf 109 fighter bomber, better known as a Jabo, was first used in the Battle of Britain to hit various sensitive points in the British air defense. Later, the Jabos targets Channel shipping. Eventually, the Jabos would be shifted to the Eastern Front, but not without one last hurrah during the Battle of the Bulge.This is a fascinating and detailed narrative, based on careful research in the archives. For example, the author suggests the Bodenplatte offensive inflicted far more damage on the Allies than is usually acknowledged. The text includes lots of period photographs, illustrations, and color plates of aircraft types. Very well recommended to students of the air war of the Second World War.

nice read, useful reference

Tadellose Publikation & Abwicklung

Der erste Teil des Buches ist gut recherchiert, gute Zusammenstellung der Fakten und dem Beginn der dt. Jagdbomber!Anstatt dem Buch folgerichtig mit den FW-Jabos ein zweites Hauptkapitel zu geben, folgt eine kurze, gefällige Abhandlung über den "Großen Schlag" der Luftwaffe in der Ardennen-Offensive.Fazit: den ersten Teil des Buches kann man lesen, die Farbprofile sind top und für Modelbauer sehr zu empfehlen.Der Rest ist gängige, anglo-amerkanische Berichterstattung. Pierre Clostermann hat als beteilgter, alliierter Pilot in seinem Buch ein ganz andere, kritische Betrachtung auf das Papier gebracht.Leider wurde hier eine gute Chance vertan, um ein Stück Luftfahrtgeschichte des WW II neu aufzuarbeiten.