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Book Review
Manfred von Richthofen
Inside the Victories of Manfred von Richthofen
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by: Stephen T. Lawson [ JACKFLASH ]

Introduction
The subject of Rittmeister Manfred von Richthofen has been a topic almost everyone interested in WWI aviation has touched on at one time or another.

Truth be told much of the information that has been spread concerning this man is a regurge of information that was published by authors who limited their comments to text publish by previous authors. They were a product of their times.

The reputation of any author should tell you whether the published text is a viable source.

Two authors in recent years published works on the final hours of 2nd Lt. Frank Luke AEF. Their work was impeccable and resulted in hard core evidence that was almost lost to us.

Mr. James Miller is one such credible author. He has spent the better part of his adult life getting to the truth and discarding the bad research that has dogged other publications to bring the unvarnished truth to light.

It was an honor to contribute to this text when I was asked.
Mr. Miller has poured over the available documents and photos spending years separating the wheat from the chaff.

His first major work was “Manfred von Richthofen -The aircraft, Myths and Accomplishments of” was published in about 2009.
We have had conversations concerning various subjects for about 11 years now and his knowledge is very impressive.

The Contents
Initially, it took about 3.5 hours to do a quick read through.

Overall one of the finest collections of images and documents I have ever seen.

Because MvR has such a great weight with all of us, I have spent the better part of my research time this past month going from chapter to chapter. I must conclude this is one of the finest texts on Rittmeister Manfred von Richthofen that has ever been published.

My own meager contributions aside the whole body of these books goes into greater depth than anything on this subject that has come before. Only Jim Miller and the collective staff at Aeronaut Publishing could have done such a meticulous job to this high a caliber.

You get two volumes 474 total pages in a coffee table size format.

Images of MvR at his ease and visually jovial that has not been seen by the public.

Conclusion
There are analysis of aircraft he flew and remnants of the ones he brought down. You will see details of the museum he had at Roucourt and the one his mother established after the war.

In these books you will find factual statistics and large higher resolution images.

On the minus side there are only a couple of glitches.

Note that on the spine of Volume #2 that the words Volume #2 have been overprinted.

The typos are very few and I only found 3 in 474 pages.

The good thing is with modern desk top publishing these will be ironed out in future printings.

Please remember, when contacting retailers or manufacturers, to mention that you saw their products highlighted here - on Aeroscale.
SUMMARY
Highs: All in all these two volumes are seriously well worth the investments one will make.
Lows: The typos are very few and I only found 3 in 474 pages.
Verdict: Recommended
Percentage Rating
97%
  Scale: N/A
  Mfg. ID: ISBN 978-1935881421 - Vol #1, 978-1935881438 - Vol
  Suggested Retail: $49.99 each.
  PUBLISHED: Jul 11, 2016
  NATIONALITY: Germany
NETWORK-WIDE AVERAGE RATINGS
  THIS REVIEWER: 90.97%
  MAKER/PUBLISHER: 95.40%

About Stephen T. Lawson (JackFlash)
FROM: COLORADO, UNITED STATES

I was building Off topic jet age kits at the age of 7. I remember building my first WWI kit way back in 1964-5 at the age of 8-9. Hundreds of 1/72 scale Revell and Airfix kits later my eyes started to change and I wanted to do more detail. With the advent of DML / Dragon and Eduard I sold off my ...

Copyright ©2021 text by Stephen T. Lawson [ JACKFLASH ]. Images also by copyright holder unless otherwise noted. Opinions expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of AeroScale. All rights reserved.



Comments

Thanks for posting this Richard.
JUL 13, 2016 - 11:48 PM
I still have my maroon plastic Aurora DR-1 I/Dad built back in 1956/57. Some time during that build, he told me the story of the Red Baron, the fight with Brown. I was hooked. Now I specialize in my hobby. Early WW1 for the most on this subject. I would like to know what the date split is between the 2 volumes, as I am In an Albatros period. right now. Great review, Captn Tommy (I too made a tiny contribution to a rather good Helicopter History Book, when I worked with that book's author. We were Engineers (I was very new). He passed his manuscript across the desk, "take a look I'd like your opinion." What a thrill and honor you must have felt to be asked.)
JUL 14, 2016 - 06:58 PM
The split between the volumes is when MvR received the head wound. Volume 1 covers von Richthofen’s career up to his wounding in action on 6 July 1917 and has 203 photos (81 in color), 12 illustrations (8 in color), and a painting plus color profiles in its 240 pages. Volume 2 covers von Richthofen’s career from his wounding in action on 6 July 1917 until his death in action and has 163 photos (44 in color) and color profiles in its 234 pages.
JUL 16, 2016 - 03:15 AM
Thank You Sir.. Captn Tommy
JUL 17, 2016 - 10:38 PM
No worries.
JUL 17, 2016 - 11:00 PM
This looks excellent! Are the photos shown colorized?
JUL 19, 2016 - 10:53 PM
In most cases yes. But Colorized images of WWI subjects were the earliest attempts predating color film. The way to tell if it is WWI era or modern is that early colorized images have much harsher shadows than modern attempts.
JUL 20, 2016 - 01:38 AM
   
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