This work represents the "gold standard" of books on the "Greif," with the unfortunate reality that you'll now have to pay hundreds of dollars for a copy, as there is no sense that Crecy Publishing has any plans to reprint this work anytime in the near future. I picked up my copy cheap at the time when it was published. As for the overall flavor of the work, Smith & Creek are unrelentingly critical about the machine, and find no saving graces in it. One gets the impression that they have a lot of sympathy for the men who were sent up in these deathtraps; even if they were the enemy at the time.

As for the dual-coupled engines, and the attempt to make the 177 a dive bomber, one does get the clearest explanation of how these features became the foundation of the design. It turns out that Heinkel's designers had something of a fixation on duel-coupled engines from the perspective of drag reduction, whereas the initial main mission for this plane was going to be maritime patrol and attack, so dive bombing was desired as a feature. Though there is no denying Ernst Udet's obsession with that mode of attack.

It always amazes me that there was no more than a month between when the "Greif" and the Consolidated "Liberator" flew in late 1939, but that the American machine was entering operational service by the end of 1941, whereas it was almost the end of 1943 before the "Greif" was massaged to the point where flying it was not like playing Russian Roulette. Call this a great example of the military-industrial complex syndrome in action, where corporate reaping of income from "development" becomes more important than actual implementation. ( )

Good overall book on the Heinkel He 177. Technical side of aircraft is covered very well. The aircraft unit history seems to be lacking in my view or I would have given it a five star rating.. ( )

I was half-expecting the authors to rehabilitate the He 177 in this new work - according to the author of the Warpaint book the He 177 was 'designed with a touch of genius' and ruined by political interference, but no, it gets completely trashed here, Creek & Smith describing it at one point as "completely useless " - so much for German aeronautical engineering prowess, especially when compared -as the authors do over the first twenty pages- with concurrent heavy bomber developments in the US & UK. The prototype He 177 first flew in late 1939 (three of the first five machines crashing & burning) and the type wasn't cleared for operations until mid-1943. Less than a year later the He 177's operational career was effectively over; from page 39 the book is one long litany of failure. Engine fires, diving & stalling trials, the poorly designed & weak wing, all killed many skilled crews as the Luftwaffe struggled to bring the He 177 into service. Over one thousand were built; less than 200 flew combat sorties. As for political interference... Göring appears to be one of the saner, more rational voices in the whole sorry business, but rather like AH & the Me 262 the scientists and engineers weren't listening to him. The increasing frustration among the higher ranks of the Luftwaffe with the delays and failures soon led him to demand a conventional four-engine type to replace this "ramshackle old tin can". The various plans to replace the coupled engines with four single engines, and/or create a new aircraft based on it such as the He 277 or the high-altitude He 274 are also covered.

The brief late war service of the He 177 gets a number of chapters. Particularly interesting are the reminiscences from a KG 100 missile technician - operations with guided anti-ship weapons such as the Fritz-X and Hs 293 are described in some detail. While Ulf Balke is credited with some photos, some pilot accounts from his KG 100 book would have been useful here - his father flew the He 177 with KG 100. In the west the type flew sorties in the 'mini-Blitz' against London (Steinbock) and attacked shipping off the D-Day beaches, while on the Eastern Front some strategic bombing raids were flown along with suicidal low-level sorties against Soviet tank formations. By now the design had "matured" into the He 177A-5 sub-type, strengthened and re-engined, potentially a capable bomber if well trained crews and (importantly) maintenance support had been available. But they rarely were. The British and Americans each flew a captured He 177 at the end of the war and there is a chapter of pilot impressions (Capt. Eric Brown and Col. Harold E. Watson) - 'a real clunker of an airplane'. There is also a lengthy set of appendices & more importantly for the modellers a nice reproduction of the type handbook with lots of clear images.
To sum up, well produced, copiously illustrated and very readable. Comparisons with the Griehl book published by Airlife are probably inevitable... in some areas Griehl has more detail (French service) but Smith & Creek tell the story of the He 177 in a much clearer & a more 'entertaining' way. Unfortunately many of the photographs are the same in both books but reproduction is better in the Classic volume. The Classic colour artworks are an additional feature of course and are well done, but the book has to be turned up the other way to view them. I'd also liked to have seen more pics from those expensive French archives - the He 177 saw most of its service in France - but then I guess you can't have everything.
Difficult to resist, especially with the excellent Amazon discount! ( )