ISBN 1-86126-326-0
383 pages

Acknowledgements; Introduction; Introduction to the English Edition; maps; tables; Notes; Bibliography; Index

Appendices: The Most Successful Fighter Pilots; Aircraft Production of Germany's Allies, including Finland and Vichy France; Training of Foreign Personnel; British Interrogation Report of Major Neumann; Air Force Ranks in the Second World War

   Hans Werner Neulen has assembled the best compilation of information about the (more-or-less) Axis air forces in World War II yet published in English. For some air forces, ample material is available elsewhere. For some air forces, there is little else to be found. In a few cases—such as Danish and Russian pilots in Luftwaffe service—Neulen brings to light hitherto unknown stories. In sum, this is a valuable survey of the Axis skies. This is not, however, a book of aircraft specifications or markings, nor is it a photo album (although it has two sections of photos of unlikely aircraft in unusual markings in unfamiliar surroundings). Rather, the author provides a narrative summary of each nation's aircraft industry, air strength, organization, and air operations, along with tabular data for some specific OBs, air campaigns, and overall aircraft production
   The first part of the book contains six chapters and covers the air forces of Germany's formal partners.

   Italy: While there are some very good books about the Regia Aeronautica (including Courage Alone by Chris Dunning and parts of many works by Christopher Shores), there is no full treatment of the Italian air force as a whole in English (along the lines of, for example, John Terraine's classic about the RAF, A Time for Courage). Thus, Neulen's seventy pages about the Regia Aeronautica (including about a dozen on the post-Armistice Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana) make worthwhile reading. In addition to the overall summary of their activities on all the fronts where Italian air forces fought, he includes stories of some individual missions, several OBs, and an interesting table of Italian raids on Gibraltar from 1940 through 1944.

   Rumania: The Rumanian Air Force is covered in about thirty pages, a fair proportion of which uses Mark Axworthy's Third Axis, Fourth Ally as a source and much of which (with considerably more illustrations) is also covered in Rumanian Air Force by Denis Bernad (although Bernad's book was published after the German edition of In the Skies of Europe, and Bernad acknowledges Neulen's cooperation).

   Hungary: Thirty pages on the Hungarian MKHL deal with somewhat less familiar ground and include more OBs and organizational tables, such as "Aircraft Park of the Hungarian Air Force on 6 May 1941" and "The Fighting Formations of the Hungarian Air Force, June 1941." This chapter also includes, in addition to the story of Hungarian aircraft versus the Soviets, accounts of Hungarian interceptors versus American heavy bombers. Remnants of the MKHL fought until the end of the war, with their last air-to-air victory coming on 17 April.

   Bulgaria: With the Bulgarian air force, Neulen moves into little-known territory. The Bulgarians "shot down at least 53 British and American aircraft and damaged another 71" while attacking Allied bombers over Bulgaria and Bulgarian-occupied territories. As usual, In the Skies of Europe provides some OB information and strength figures.

   Croatia and Slovakia: These small German satellites had their own tiny air forces and Neulen devotes about a dozen pages to each.

   In the second part of the book, "Special Cases," the air forces of Finland and Vichy France are investigated in separate chapters. Each nation warrants about twenty pages, and for the Vichy air force this is especially scarce information in English, although some of it comes from the omnipresent Christopher Shores and some data is available in A History of French Military Aviation by Christienne and Lissarrague. Neulen mentions Vichy French air activities in Djibouti, Indochina, and Madagascar, but mostly focuses on the Levant and the Allied invasion of French North Africa.
   The third part of the book, "Foreign Flying Personnel in the German Luftwaffe," brings to the reader the most obscure information on individual Norwegians, Danes, Frenchmen, Belgians, Dutch, Spaniards, Estonians, Latvians, and Russians who served as Luftwaffe pilots and aircrew. About seventy pages tell the stories of those men who chose to serve with Germany, such as seven Danish pilots who volunteered to fly for the Finnish air force in 1940 but transferred to the German air force in 1941. (Three of the Danes were killed in action.) There are also detailed stories about the other foreign volunteers, including one Latvian pilot in the Luftwaffe who strafed and bombed his family home rather than let it fall into the hands of the advancing Soviets in 1944.
   The book closes with lists of the leading fighter aces for each Axis air force; tables of aircraft production figures (some fairly detailed, some less so) for Italy, Rumania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Finland, and Vichy France; and some other appendices.
   Although a bit uneven (it would have been a pleasure to see consistent, standardized strength and OB tables for all the air forces for a common set of dates), and in a few places duplicating material readily available elsewhere, In the Skies of Europe does a good job of assembling considerable amounts of data about the air forces that flew alongside the Luftwaffe, some of it quite obscure. Even more, Neulen has unearthed and brought together a great deal of remarkable information about individual foreign volunteers flying in Luftwaffe service. Recommended.
   Available from online booksellers, local bookshops, or directly from Crowood.
   Thanks to Crowood for providing this review copy.