The second part in the Black Cross/Red Star series focus on the air war between january - june 1942, perhaps the least know phase of the entire air war on the eastern front.
Knowledge of the air war on the eastern front has always been scarce in the west, and has mostly been influenced by the german point of view. This is a unfortunate result of the cold war, when access to soviet sources was almost nonexistant. But the cold war is over, and the soviet archives are slowly being opened for western scholars.
This book is full of interesting information about the equipment, aircraft, tactics and pilot training of the Luftwaffe and the V-VS (Voyenno-Vozdushnye Sily, Soviet Military Airforce. The included glossary is excellent!), not to mention the excellent photos and aircraft profiles.
Among the interesting information in this book are accounts of the V-VS and Luftwaffe activity during the soviet winter offensive, the airlifts at Kholm and Demyansk (with some very interesting observations the german leadership ought to have studied closer), the soviet attempt to resupply the trapped Second Assault Army at Lyuban and the air campain against Sevastopol.
The authors tries to give an impartial account on the events from the views of both sides, and I think they accomplish this task well. Few books on the war on the eastern front are so unbiased, and I have read many.
For the student of the air war in the east this book is necessary, as air, as bread.