WINGS OF SERBIA

Infinitas d.o.o, Gospodar Jovanova 33, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia
540pp, 210×297mm, hardback.
ISBN 978-86-6045-005-2, €55 + €24 registered airmail Europe, €28 overseas
Website: www.wingsofserbia.com, or email the publisher: book@wingsofserbia.com

Don’t be deterred by the Serbian Cyrillic typography on the cover of this splendid volume: it is a thoroughly bi-lingual production, with everything but the titles of individual museum archive files translated into English. The English may not always be idiomatic, but it does the job of making accessible to a wide public the most detailed study of early military aviation in Serbia and Montenegro yet produced, and the very first in English.

Work began to establish military aviation in the Kingdom of Serbia as early as 1893: it is a story deeply unfamiliar to very many of our members, drawn from sources that even the most dedicated of researchers may never have been able to consult.

The most immediately obvious wealth of the book lies in the 519 photographs (many of fine quality) of personnel and aircraft, in both of which areas the extent of Franco-Serbian co-operation is immediately clear. The reference lists at the end give the details, names and dates: French personnel serving in Serbia, Serbians in the Aéronautique Militaire in France, to mention only two.

66 perspective colour drawings of aircraft by Dragan Å aler (with bi-lingual captions, like the photographs) enhance the pages of the Serbian text. The English section has no illustrations, just the translations of original documents, artistically presented in the same style as in the Cyrillic section.

Extensive details of the book are available on the website, plus a sample download in PDF format, and an errata sheet (with English translation).

As co-author, Boris Ciglić has previously published Croatian Aces and Dornier Do.17: the Yugoslav Story. His first solo venture, Wings of Serbia (Krila Srbije), published in an edition of only 700 copies, is a fine record for a small but determined pioneering nation: don’t miss it.

 

BH Volume 40 Number 4