German Aircraft Weaponry
Machine Guns, Cannon and Aerial Artillery in Luftwaffe Service 1939 - 1945
by
Tim Heath
Just like many books that I have been receiving from Casemate Publishers to review, this book can be accused of lying in its title. In actuality the first three chapters are about aerial weaponry in the First World War and the intervening years. This is in fact a very good thing and gives the reader a background in German aerial weaponry that can then be followed through the rest of the book. In fact, the book gives the whole story behind even the weaponry that was designed outside of Germany before and during the Second World War.
The reader is introduced to machine guns first and then is shown all of the experimental weapons of this type. There are even comparisons between the Allied weapons and the German ones. Next, we are shown the larger caliber auto-cannon weapons. The author takes us through the first tentative steps to get these larger caliber weapons in airplanes. Then we are shown the ultimate types of these weapons used in the war. Of course, we are also shown the various dead ends that designers took on the way. The book also has information on both the Italian and Japanese use of this type of weaponry. The next stop on our journey is to the land of actual cannon sizes that would be used on the ground battlefields by soldiers. These would be calibers of 50 millimeters and more, with warheads that had so much recoil that drastic measures had to be taken to deal with it and the actual weapons weight.
On the way through we are shown Schräge Musik (Jazz Music), and its application in various night fighters (these would be cannon placed at an angle firing diagonally upward toward the bottom of a bomber). We also see the rebirth of the Ju-87 in its G configuration as a tank killer.
The book also has a good number of photos of the actual weaponry and the effects it had on Allied planes etc. However, we are presented with six photos that, in my opinion, may not have been needed to be reproduced in its pages. These photos are essentially autopsy photos of the effects of the weaponry on human bodies. Yes, many books feature pictures of dead soldiers and some of them quite shocking. I do not remember ever seeing photos like these in a military history book. Maybe it is a good thing that we see the actual results of warfare. That is a question above my pay grade.
Thank you, Casemate Publishers for allowing me to review another fine book from your stable, and also thank you to Pen & Sword for publishing the book.
Robert Peterson
Book: German Aircraft Weaponry
Author: Tim Heath
Publisher: Pen & Sword
Distributor: Casemate Publishers
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