German Fighter Units Over Russia - First Edition - Signed - Werner Held - Bauman Rare Books

German Fighter Units Over Russia

Werner HELD

Item#: 84042 We're sorry, this item has been sold

German Fighter Units Over Russia

German Fighter Units Over Russia

FIRST EDITION OF GERMAN FIGHTER UNITS OVER RUSSIA, SIGNED BY 10 LUFTWAFFE PILOTS

HELD, Werner. The German Fighter Units Over Russia. A Pictorial History of the Pilots and Aircraft. West Chester, Pennsylvania: Schiffer, (1990). Quarto, original gray cloth, original dust jacket.

First edition of this photo-illustrated history of the air war on the Eastern Front, with a tipped-in bookplate signed by 10 Luftwaffe fighter pilots.

Werner Held, an expert on Germany’s role in World War II, focuses here on the role of the German Luftwaffe in the War and the 1941-44 air war that took place on the Eastern Front. Held concentrates on seven fighter units that fought over Russia and enriches his account through his personal acquaintance with many of the fighter pilots who actually participated in the air battles. The work also contains 500 photographic images that depict everything from the airfields to the planes to the pilots themselves. The pilots who have signed this copy include: Hans Busch, Hubert Heckmann, Walter Boerner, ”Hago” Hermann, Walter Schuck, Diethelm von Eichel-Streiber, Horst Petzschler, Kurt Schulze, Wolfgang Falck, and one additional ace whose signature cannot be identified.

A fine copy.

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Aquatint Copperplate process by which the plate is “bitten” by exposure to acid. By changing the areas of the plate that are exposed and the length of time the plate is submerged in the acid bath, the engraver can obtain fine and varying shades of gray that closely resemble watercolor washes. Although the name contains the word “tint”, this is a black-and-white printing process; aquatint plates can often be hand colored, however.
Armorial Used to describe a binding bearing the coat of arms of the original owner, or with bookplates incorporating the owner’s arms.
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Wood-Engraving Engraving made with the graver or burin on the cross-section of a piece of boxwood; the harder wood and finer tools allow for more delicate, finely detailed images, while the block can still be set in the page alongside text and printed on the same stock as the text. While much older, wood engravings enjoyed an important renaissance in the late eighteenth century through Thomas Bewick and continued in popularity thorugh the nineteenth century.
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