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Henschel Hs 129, by Dénes Bernád

Henschel Hs 129, by Dénes Bernád

Published my MMP,
ISBN 978-83-89450-46-3
RRP £17.00

Henschel Hs 129

This book needs no more elaborate title. It is essentially a detailed history of the Henschel Hs 129 from its RLM requirement, through to inception and into battle, and onto demise.

The Hs 129 was borne out of the Luftwaffe’s need to have a close ground support aeroplane that could coalesce with the troops over a battlefield. No other aircraft the Germans had as the time could take on such a role, whether it be the Bf 109, or the Fi 156 Storch. These aircraft were both unsuited due to speed, armament or rigidity. With this in mind, in 1937 the RLM issued a rather open-ended requirement to several companies not already engaged in the production of major aircraft types, for a machine to fulfil this role, with the only stipulation being the use of the Argus As 10C powerplant. The necessity of this was brought on by the fact that more powerful and common place engines were already being used en-masse by other aircraft, namely fighters, and these themselves were undergoing shortages, in both numeracy and reliability.

Three main designs for the new RLM requirement were submitted by Henschel, Focke-Wulf, Blohm und Voss, and Fiesler, but the latter two companies, who submitted the amazing looking Bv 141, and the twin boomed Fi 168, were canned by the RLM, probably due to their unusual design. While the Bv 141 prototype was constructed and flown with great success, the Fiesler machine never even saw this level of completion. When one looks at the semi complete prototype within this book, you can easily understand why it never progressed.

The race was now on between both Focke-Wulf, with their newly re-engineered Fw 189, and Henschel with their now assigned ‘129’. Both machines had advantages and disadvantages in design and application, as was shown with no outright winner at this stage, for this particular tender. The Fw 189 modified airfame was a little disappointing overall compared with the more conventional Henschel machine, despite the Focke-Wulf machine being a variant on a machine already in use, and thus being in a position to be able to manufacture it more quickly due to current jigging and tooling.

The overall winner of the RLM’s tender was Henschel, with a machine which was both rugged, if not a little ‘agricultural’ looking, and with the ability to withstand serious damage in the battlefield, and still be repaired. The main problem with this machine still lay in its Argus engines, which seriously underpowered the type, now known as the Hs 129A-0

This book takes you through the trials of the A-0 machine and its deficiencies, and even shows you one unfortunate pilot killed in an A-0 crash, though the photo is quite grisly.

The A-0 type needed some serious remedial work in order to make it less deadly to pilots; upgrade it to  a more powerful machine, and also to make it slightly easier to produce. The RLM did order an upgraded cockpit for the machine too, as the current one had extremely poor vision, leading to accidents. The new cockpit, despite still being very cramped, offered far better visibility and protection for the pilot, and gave the He 129 its now distinctive shape. The wings were also redesigned so the leading edge had no taper, but was entirely straight. One of the most obvious changes was the uprating of the engines to Gnôme Rhône 14M radials. This completed the look of the machine that we are now familiar with. The new powerplants didn’t give the airplane the real power it needed, and still had a degree of unreliability. So through an intermediate B-0 version, the now more common B-1 was borne. This was now, the machine, that through several other sub-variants, was to see service on several fighting fronts, and also with several different airforces.

I feel I have said enough to give a basic insight into how the Hs 129 initially developed, and only touched the detail given in this book, but what I will not go into more detail about are the many sub types of this machine, through to the tank busting variants. You really do need to read this fascination information published within this book. Trials of the various sub types at Rechlin, and in action on various fronts are well documented here, and immaculately illustrated. I have seen so many pictures of the He 129 in my life, but we are presented here with so many new photographs of the type in action, and those of machines which had come to grief through their service. This book has been lavishly published with so many line drawings in both 1/48 and 1/72 scales, which clearly show the variant revisions which were built.

With regard to modellers, then again, there is no better book. The latter part of the book, entitled ‘Details’, is furnished with close up photographs, drawings and cutaway illustrations that any modeller would be proud of. Several kits of the He 129 exist in all scales, right up to the Jerry Rutman 1/32 resin model, and any modeller who would want to add detail to these, or see a way to modify/accurise them, really should invest in this book.

One of the crowning jewels of the book has been left until the last pages, and these are the many colour profiles showing different schemes and sub variants. Schemes include those used on differing fronts such as the Eastern and African theatres. Romanian machines are also illustrated.

So what do we think?

MMP’s book is an absolute mine of information and Illustration with regard to this machine. I have long been a fan of the Hs 129 and read articles in the past with regard to its development etc, but nothing has been published which is as concise and thorough as this book. Despite the sheer quantity of information present, along with the superb photographs and pull out drawings, this book is both a delight to read, and easy to digest. So many books make you want to read the last chapter again so you can correlate information presented, but not here. As a source of information regarding the type, then there is no better book around. Very highly recommended.

Overall: 10/10


Many thanks to the great people at MMP Books for the review sample.