Les Avions Allemands aux Couleurs Francaises, Tome 1, by Philippe Ricco and Jean-Claude Soumille, Association Airdoc, 1997, 103 pages, French text.
This book is the first in a two-volume set an unusual subject, German aircraft captured and evaluated by the French Air Force. Volume one features two sections covering WW1 and WW2 types from Arado to Heinkel. Each section then documents captured aircraft alphabetically by manufacturer.
In the section on First World-War machines, the authors note that records for the total numbers of Fokkers or Pfalz machines captured are incomplete, but they attempt to document serial numbers of known machines. Overall, the text is very brief and captions are printed in both French and English.
There are numerous photographs, 8 pages of color profiles, and color printing inside and outside the covers. While the color paintings are well executed, color schemes documented for several of the first war types betray glaring inaccuracies, such as lozenge camouflage in the garish colors found on a number of early, poorly researched decal sheets. This sort of thing has been well-documented elsewhere, so it is hard to overlook.
Still, the book offers a new perspective on a very familiar aviation topic, and some rare, possibly previously unpublished views of German aircraft.
Recommended with some reservations.
Text © 1998 by Charles Hart. Used by permission.