La Legion Condor

By Patrick Laureau and José Fernandez
Collection Histoire de L'Aviation no. 7
Avions, 1999
ISBN 2-9509485-7-
256 pages

Reviewed by Chris Banyai-Riepl

With all the attention given to the Luftwaffe during the Second World War, it is surprising how little there is out there on their baptism of fire during the Spanish Civil War. Lately, though, there seems to be a growth of interest in this area, and this title is one of the many cropping up. And what a great book it has turned out to be, too! The only downside of it, at least for me, is that it is entirely in French, and my knowledge of French isn't all that great. But the pictures more than make up for it, and if I really need to have a section translated, I can type it into Alta Vista's online translator and get a pretty good rough translation back.

That said, I would really like to read the text and see how it compares to other titles I have on the Spanish Civil War and the Condor Legion. The pictures speak volumes, though, and this book covers all of the planes used during the Spanish Civil War, as well as a brief section on German armor and naval usage. The book starts out with a brief history of the conflict, then breaks down into short histories of each unit, starting with the reconnaissance units and moving on through the fighters and on to the bombers. The armor and naval sections bring up the rear. Interspersed amongst these pages are single page histories of individual planes that took part in the conflict, accompanied by scale drawings. The last few pages of the book are made up of some very well done color illustrations and profiles of tanks, soldiers, pilots, and planes.

All in all, this is a very comprehensive book on the Condor Legion, and to a lesser extent the whole German influence during the Spanish Civil War. If you're interested in this conflict, or want to know more about the beginnings of the wartime Luftwaffe, definitely look into this title.

I bought mine at Aviation Usk for the bargain price of $57.95.