From Barbarossa to Odessa: The Luftwaffe and Axis Allies Strike South-East: June-October 1941 Vol 2: The Air Battle for Odessa: August to October 1941 - A Day-by-Day Account

New, and often unexpected and controversial information continues to emerge on the massive air campaign fought over the Russian Front during World War 2. This book is the second of two volumes, the result of lengthy and meticulous study, on the air combat that took place on the southern flank of the Eastern Front following Operation Barbarossa. The period covered in these volumes saw the occupation of Bessarabia and southwest Ukraine and concluded when the area's regional capital, Odessa, was captured by the Germans on 16 October 1941. This was one of the most bitter and intensive air campaigns fought in the east due to the fact that local Soviet commanders dispersed most of their air assets in time, preventing their destruction on the ground. Thus, in this little-studied campaign, the Soviet Air Force was able to respond effectively to the Axis onslaught and achieved some of its greatest successes of 1941.The often overlooked involvement of aircraft from Axis states other than Germany, such as the Romanians who claimed a total of over 600 air victories, the Hungarians, the Slovaks and even the Bulgarians, is covered in the book. Their involvement makes this campaign of great interest because of the large variety of aircraft types employed by both sides. Aided by a large number of previously unpublished photographs, the book tells the story of the campaign from both sides and provides detailed eyewitness accounts from individual pilots who were involved in the fighting. Besides day-to-day operations, appendices contain comprehensive victory and loss lists.

About the Author :
Dipl. Eng. Dénes Bernád was born in 1964 in Transylvania (Rumania), in a family of indigenous ethnic Hungarians. He studied at the Transylvanian University in Brasov, where he graduated in 1988 as a Mechanical Engineer. From 1992 he lived in Canada, and in 2006 he returned with his family to Hungary. Currently, he works in the automotive industry as Program Launch Manager. He is fluent in three languages. His main interest is the military history of Central and Eastern Europe, especially Rumania, Hungary and Bulgaria. His books deal especially with air forces and aircraft of these countries. He has written or co-authored seventeen historical books. Aside from the above books, Dénes Bernád has published many studies concerning the history of aviation in Air Enthusiast, Air International and FlyPast (UK), WW1 Aero (USA), Avions (France), Repülés, Aero História and Új Szárnyak (Hungary), Militaria and Skrzydlata Polska (Poland) and Aeronatica, Aeromagazin and Model-Ist (Rumania). He is also the founding member of the Asociatia pentru Propagarea Istoriei Aviatiei (ARPIA) - Association for Propagation of History of Aviation (Bucharest, Rumania) and Magyar Repüléstörténeti Társaság (MRT) - Hungarian Society of Aviation History (Budapest, Hungary). He is also a foreign correspondent of the French aviation magazine Avions.