Black Cross/Red Star Volume 5 info

[WWSandMan]

S! 

Latest IL2 Great Battles update included a blurb at the bottom about "Black Cross/Red Star" volume 5. The author, Christer Bergstrom, is asking for pre-orders/crowd funding in order to complete volume 5. More info can be found here:

https://vaktelforlag.se/produkt/black-cross-red-star-air-war-eastern-front-volume-5-great-air-battles-kuban-kursk-april-july-1943/

 

BC/RS volumes 1-4 can still be purchased, but volume one will set you back over $200 now. Vol 2 is about $80, Vol 3 is about $100, Vol 4 is about $40.

Volume 5's price, new, will be $60. Which is about where all the others started when they first came out. Volume 5 will cover the Kursk battle time frame. Ought to be an impressive edition. 

 

Quote

Christer Bergström

ISBN: 978-91-88441-57-7

384 pages

Hardcover

Large format

To be published in 2020

This is the direct continuation of Volume 4 in the Black Cross/Red Star series. This volume covers the air war on the Eastern Front between March/April 1943 and July 1943, with the focus on the great air battles at Kuban and Kursk.

More information will soon follow.

In order to bring about a quick release of Volume 5, I consider a crowdfunding-solution. The crowdfunders will also have their names printed as an acknowledgment in the book.

I ask everyone who wants to participate in the crowdfunding to e-mail me.

This also applies to people who don’t want to crowdfund, but who wish to pre-order a signed copy for $60.00 plus postage.

Please ask anyone interested in the Black Cross/Red Star series to just send me a short e-mail with the header ”Want info on Black Cross/Red Star”. The e-mail should be sent to me at vaktelforlag@gmail.com

And please spread the word on communities on the Internet!

One more thing: Please ask around at book stores in your country to find book stores interested in taking in a couple of copies. No one could inform them better than you of the great interest in this unique book!

/ Christer Bergström

[WWSandMan]

I received a nice reply from Christer: 

"Dear Monte Lewis,

Thank you so much for this! That is so valuable for the next volume of Black Cross/Red Star!

The Black Cross/Red Star book series is the only documentation of the true air battle on the Eastern Front during World War II, based on a wealth of primary sources from both sides as well as interviews with a large number of veterans from both sides.

Three volumes were published in the early 2000s, but they are sold out long ago. Now with a much greater access to archive material, I will publish new and heavily updated editions of those volumes.

But first I will do Volumes 4 and 5.

Volume 4 of Black Cross/Red Star – Air War Over the Eastern Front was published a couple of months ago. It is large size, 384 pages, 380 photos (probably most of which have never been published before), many detailed maps and carefully reserached aircraft color profiles by Jim Laurier. This volume deals with the air war on the entire Eastern Front between November 1942 and March 1943.

See:

https://vaktelforlag.se/produkt/black-cross-red-star-air-war-eastern-front-volume-4-stalingrad-kuban-1942-1943/

For a signed copy of Volume 4, which will be shipped immediately, please email me your postal address and transfer the payment of USD 60 plus postage of USD 25 to my Paypal account:
vaktelforlag@gmail.com

Volume 5 in the Black Cross/Red Star series will be published later this year. It will probably be even larher than Volume 4, and is the direct continuation of Volume 4. This volume covers the air war on the Eastern Front between March/April 1943 and July 1943, with the focus on the great air battles at Kuban and Kursk. See:

https://vaktelforlag.se/produkt/black-cross-red-star-air-war-eastern-front-volume-5-great-air-battles-kuban-kursk-april-july-1943/


Would you be interested in supporting it by crowdfunding $100, whereby you will receive a signed and individually numbered copy, plus have your name in the book? That will help to increase the graphic quality of the book, the photos, etc. Or would you only like to pre-order a copy at the ordinary price $60?

I am publishing this book by myself, so that I can keep full control of the product. In this way, I can have many more photographs and twice as much text in each volume as I was allowed when other publishing companies produced it. (By then I had a limit of 100,000 words per volume; now Volume 4 has over 200,000 words.)

By publishing this series by myself, this book series is, in fact, living from hand to mouth, and each subsequent volume is totally dependant on the success of the previous volume, and its crowdfunding.

My goal is to get just 125 crowdfunders to contribute at least USD $100 each for Volume 5 (plus postage). The crowdfunders will also have their names specifically printed as an acknowledgment in the book.

I also need as many ordinary pre-orders as possible for USD 60 (plus postage) for a signed hardcover copy.

Would you like to crowdfund or per-order Volume 5 also?

You don’t have to pay anything now (but of course it is welcome if you do), but even a promise for a preorder or a crowdfunding where you pay later this year would help very much.

I have no real budget for marketing. Although unique and groundbreaking in that it tells the full and detailed story of the air war on the Eastern Front from both perspectives, it is not particularly well-known, and therefore has not been as much read as I had hoped it would be. There are too many that don't know about it. So if you could help me by spreading the word, it would be of great help.

I attach a sample from the raw and unedited manuscript of Volume 5.

I hope to hear from you soon again.

All the best,

Christer Bergström"

 

~~~

I'll be buying Vol 4, signed, hardback with color profiles (the paperback on Amazon is only b&w) and crowd-source funding Vol 5. What the heck, I've got Vols 1-3 already.