Mortons Media Group was established in the 19th century and has been producing book-length publications since the early 2000s. The company established a dedicated books division in 2019 and Mortons Books has already earned a reputation for publishing high-quality titles by authors who are true experts in their field. For the best reads on rail, aviation, nostalgia and history, look no further. This book is part of their imprint: Tempest Books addresses all aspects of aviation history are covered in authoritative detail. The aviators and aircraft of the Second World War are profiled by our titles alongside more modern fighters, bombers, reconnaissance aircraft and transports. 'Secret projects' and experimental designs are also an important part of the Tempest Books portfolio.

Ronny Bar was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on February 11, 1951. Growing up near El Palomar Air Force Base, Ronny Bar was an early fan of aviation drawing and making models of aircraft. He achieved his first flight at the age of 12, in a Beechcraft T-34 Mentor. Despite that early passion, Ronny Bar found success and a career as a bass player and singer in rock and roll bands, recording ten albums and appearing in concerts and TV shows. Ronny still maintained an interest in aviation and would hit aviation museums along the way. He began producing aviation profile color illustrations in 2005 for well known WWI aviation authors along with his illustrations appearing in Windsock Datafiles, Cross & Cockade, Over the Front, WWI Aero, and Luftwaffe in Focus. Since 2006, Ronny Bar was a member of director Sir Peter Jackson’s New Zealand-based Wingnut Wings team where is color profiles found their way in the Wingnut Wings instructions, along with the Wingnut Wings website. This book follows the success of his first collection of his astonishingly detailed First World War aircraft profiles – British Two-Seaters of the Great War, and German Fighters of the Great War Volume 1, both in hard cover format. Ronny Bar can be found on Facebook.

This tome is Volume Two on German Fighters of the Great War. Although some of these color profiles have been seen before in Windsock Datafiles and Wingnut Wings, the vast majority are new for this book. This landscape hard cover book features a gorgeous cover painting of Ernst Udet’s Fokker D VII (O.A.W.) circa June 1918 with Jagdstaffel 4 out of Beugneux, France. A color profile of both sides, along with top and bottom views, of this aircraft can be found on pages 231-233. I counted 1 black and white photograph, there are no color photographs, 383 color side profiles and 86 top or bottom profiles.

Ronny Bar presents the important German-built single seat fighters that were operational during World War One. This Volume 2, picks up where Volume 1 left off with Autumn 1917’s Albatros D Va and continues to the end of the war with the Junkers D I. Each profile includes a short description and any special notes. The sections include:

• Foreword by Josef Scott
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Albatros D Va [Page 025]
• Albatros D Va (O.A.W.)
• Pfalz D III
• Pfalz D IIIa [Page 092]
• Fokker F I
• Fokker Dr I [Page 144]
• Pfalz D VIII
• Roland D VIa
• Roland D VIb
• Fokker D VI
• Fokker D VII [Page 186]
• Fokker D VII F
• Fokker D VII (Alb)
• Fokker D VII (O.A.W.)
• Pfalz D XII
• Fokker E V
• Siemens-Schuckert D III [Page 278]
• Siemens-Schuckert D IV
• Junkers D I

I have to admit I have been a fan of Ronny Bar’s color profiles for some time. I have a nearly complete collection of Windsock magazine and Windsock Datafiles, along with all of the Wingnut Wings WWI kits. This is a great reference book for WWI German aircraft and is certainly eye candy. All of he aircraft in this volume are readily available in 1/72, 1/48, and 1/32, with the sole exception being the Siemens-Schuckert D IV. Hopefully that will be rectified soon, but it still is available in 1/72, with a Koester vacuform kits filling the void in 1/48. If you are interested in German WWI aviation, this is an essential volume for both the aviation historian and the scale modeler.

My thanks to Casemate, Mortons Books, and IPMS/USA for the chance to review this great book.

Highly recommended!