Jagdwaffe:
The Spanish Civil War

Luftwaffe Colours Vol. 1 No. 2
Eric Mombeek
Classic Publications, 1999
ISBN 0 9526867 6 7
98 pages

Reviewed by Chris Banyai-Riepl

This title is the second part of the first volume of the Jagdwaffe series in the Luftwaffe Colour books. It picks up where the first one left off, with the beginning of the Spanish Civil War in 1936. This was the first combat experience for the Luftwaffe. In fact, the civil war in Spain was used by many European countries as a place to try out tactics and weapons against the enemies of a future, inevitable war in Europe. It was in Spain that the Bf109 showed its performance off, and proved to the world that biplane fighters were obsolete. The Heinkel He111 also made its combat debut, but this book only covers the fighter end of things during this conflict.

The book breaks the conflict down into roughly 6-month sections, starting in 1936 and moving through to just before the invasion of Poland. In the early months in Spain, the main fighter of the Condor Legion was the Heinkel He51, which was evenly matched against the Soviet biplane fighters that it ran up against early on. With the introduction of the I-16, though, something more potent was needed, and the first Bf109Bs were sent off to fight the new threat. This it did very well, effectively shutting down the opposition and establishing air superiority over Spain.

During this time, the markings and camouflages of both the He51s and the Bf109s underwent some interesting changes. The overall RLM63 upper surface color was often oversprayed with RLM61 and RLM62 in random patterns, helping the planes blend in a bit more at low altitude. Contrasting this, though, was the standard white wingtips, which would stand out from quite a ways away. So much for camouflage.

Personal markings exploded onto the planes during the Spanish Civil War, most likely because they were far from the inspection fields in Germany and didn't need to have everything spit-n-polished. Many of the planes had names written on them, but some carried interesting artwork, often in the fuselage roundel itself. This seemed to be a popular place for individual markings, and this book covers many of those variations, both in photos and in profile illustrations.

The text is somewhat basic, letting the photos do most of the talking. The captions are very thorough, though, and between that, the photos, and the illustrations there shouldn't be any questions regarding the planes depicted. If you're looking for a more in-depth historical look at the Spanish Civil War, though, you probably won't be happy with this title. But as a pictorial history of the beginnings of the Luftwaffe and their first combat experience, this book is an excellent addition to a Luftwaffe library. If you enjoyed the first book of this series, you'll definitely want to pick up the second. I only hope that they can keep up the good work through the entire set.