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• French Magazine Replic • 2011-04-12
• AIR Modeller no 30 • 2011-04-12
• Storia Militare Dec. 2010. • 2011-04-12
• Storia Militare Dec 2010 Translation • 2011-04-12
• amazon.fr • 2011-04-12
• Amazon.co.uk Bestsellers list • 2011-04-12
• FIRE Reviews • 2011-04-12
• www.cybermodeler.com • 2011-04-12
• www.aerostories.org • 2011-04-12
• Military Aircraft Monthly 5-2010 • 2011-04-12
• SAM 5/2010 • 2011-04-12
• JP4 Magazine 06/2010 • 2011-04-12
• JP4 Magazine 06/2010 English translation • 2011-04-12
• amazon.co.uk customer review • 2011-04-12
• Master Modelers No. 48 jul 2010 • 2011-04-12
• Amazon.co.uk customer review (3) • 2011-04-12
• IPMS UK Magazine 03/2010 • 2011-04-12
• stonebooks.com • 2011-04-12
• Plastikowe.pl • 2010-05-18
• Skrzydlata Polska 05/2010 • 2010-05-18

• French Magazine Replic • 2011-04-12
  
• AIR Modeller no 30 • 2011-04-12
  
• Storia Militare Dec. 2010. • 2011-04-12
  
• Storia Militare Dec 2010 Translation • 2011-04-12

  Translation of Review Storia Militare December 2010

  Years of demanding researches in the Italian and British archives , have made the authors of this interesting book, able to reconstruct a complete and true picture of the aerial war in the first six months on the war in North Africa. The outcome of this effort is a result that will make historians and enthusiasts changing somewhat their opinion based on teens of years of repetitive studies based one upon the other.

  The meticulous but luckily not pedant , daily analysis of the aerial combats , shows some unexpected truths. The first is the substantial evenness of the losses suffered on both sides of the Libyan-Egyptian border in the summer of 1940. No one had an obvious superiority over his opponent even more because the numerical strength of the opposite aerial forces operating in the desert was, in fact, almost equivalent.

  The description of the tactics used during the first encounters between the opposing air forces , what was learnt and the subsequent evolution during the months it is very interesting and effectively portrayed.

  What comes out at the end is a story of men, more or less abandoned by their central headquarters that had to find for themselves a way to fight and to survive against an adversary reputed skilled and tough.

  Some firsthand accounts collected by the authors and some photos coming from private collections, enrich, together with the wonderful colour profiles, a book that will be soon followed by a second volume devoted to the British offensive of December 1940-February 1941 and that will be eagerly anticipated by those who have read the first one.

  Enrico Cernuschi

• amazon.fr • 2011-04-12

  5.0 étoiles sur 5 Real passion behind this book, 21 avril 2010

  Par Mussati Luca "Insuber" (France)

  This book covers with great detail the North Africa air war theater of operations in WWII; it is the first volume, covering 1940-41, the second one, Desert Prelude 2: Operation Compass, will follow this Fall. T

  he period and the area are not very popular among air war specialists, and this books fills a rather empty space. Biplanes on the two sides saw their last daily operational use, and the first monoplanes were severely tested in tough environmental conditions. The Regia Aeronautica was involved in offensive actions against ground and sea targets, and tried hard to keep air superiority.

  Aces flew on the two sides, Hans-Joachim Marseille, Pat Pattle or Adriano Visconti.

  I enjoyed the accuracy and details of this book, structured as a day-by-day description of events and air battles, completed with first-person accounts of pilots and witnesses. The individual accounts are frequently backed up with archival research, to precise names, squadrons, dates and details of each episode. In this book you can find the description of an air battle, followed by personal accounts of the men involved, and then confirmed by written records of both sides, when available. A typical page will for instance contain the memories of a carrier Hurricane who attacked and shot down an SM.79, and damaged another. Then official records of the Italian side, detailing (or not ...) the loss of a plane, the list of the MIA crew, or the recovery by a CANT Z.1007 of the survivors, or the fate of the damaged plane landed behind enemy lines and so on.

  All in all a very clever format, which required undoubtfully efforts and rigourous research by the authors, rewarded by the ease and interest of us readers ...

  Regards,

  Luca

• Amazon.co.uk Bestsellers list • 2011-04-12
  
• FIRE Reviews • 2011-04-12

  DESCRIPTION:

  This is part of the MMP White Series that provides detail history together with many photographs and some colour drawings. The publisher's roots are in producing special interests books that are aimed at model makers and model engineers. From those roots the publisher has developed into ranges of books that continue to provide the photographic and drawing detail that a modeller would require, but including that in a book that contains extensive and detailed text to satisfy the historian and aviation enthusiast. Desert Prelude, Early clashes The Battles of Norway, of France, and of Britain and the Eastern Front where Germany fought the USSR were the battle grounds that had first priority. All of the new weapons and equipment were tried in these areas of the conflict. At sea the main preoccupation was in the North Atlantic. All other battlefields took second place. Similarly, the Pacific was the main area of focus for the United States although its forces made an important contribution in Europe. As a result, authors and publishers have followed the priority battles. The Mediterranean and North Africa have received less attention that they deserve. What attention has been given has concentrated largely on the duel between Montgomery and Rommel, with some coverage of the US Torch landings after the British had defeated Rommel. In the process, very little has been written of the first battles in the Mediterranean and North Africa and even less of the air war there. This book goes a long way to redressing the omissions. In the period June to November 1940 covered by this book, it was a conflict between the British and Free French against the Italians and the Vichy French. In the air, it was largely a battle between biplanes with a few obsolescent monoplanes. The twin engine Blenheim MkIF passed for a high performance fighter. British Gauntlet and Hart biplanes fought Fiat biplanes were their armament was essentially from WWI. The British Gladiator was an advanced biplane having four rifle calibre machine guns, enclosed cockpit and radiotelephone. The authors have captured this well and the many photographs include rare and unseen images. All in all, this is an excellent book at a very affordable price.

  This entry was posted on Monday, March 22nd, 2010 at 10:05

• www.cybermodeler.com • 2011-04-12

  By Ray Mehlberger

  Date of Review April 2010 Title Desert Prelude

  The campaign in North Africa in 1940, between Italian and Commonwealth forces, has been little studied or written about. In this, the first of two volumes, the air war from June to November of 1940 is described, along with the associated ground and naval campaigns. For the British and Allied forces, this was a minor campaign, involving mostly aircraft types considered obsolete elsewhere, and this was the last aerial battlefield between biplane fighters. Nonetheless, on both the Italian and British sides the top aces of WW2 made their mark, Teresio Martinoli and Thomas “Pat” Pattle respectively.

  The book is profusely illustrated with many rare photos. There are 139 black and white ones of these. There is a battle map, covering 13 Sept. 1940 to 9 Feb. 1941.

  In the rear of the book, there are color profiles for the British of:

  The Hawker Hart

  The Gloster Gladiator Mk. II (2 profiles. One in British marks and one in Egyptian)

  The Gloster Gauntlet Mk. II as a 2-view

  A 4-view of the Gloster Sea Gladiator

  The Blenheim Mk. IF

  The Blenheim Mk. I

  For the Italians:

  The Breda 65, a 2-view with an illustration of a squadron logo included.

  Three profiles of the Fiat CR-32

  Five profiles of the Fiat CR-42

  Two profiles of the SM-75

  The back cover of the book shows the cover art for the second book in this series “Desert Prelude – Operation Compass”

  The book is 224 pages long in a 11 5/8” x 8 ¼” page format and soft cover.

  This book will be of great interest to aircraft historians and enthusiasts and also to modelers.

  Highly recommended.

• www.aerostories.org • 2011-04-12

  The air war in North Africa has been so far a bit forgotten in the last decades, only a few books having been released. This is probably due to two factors, the lack of interest of the Italians for this part of their history, and the British archives which are far to be complete for this theatre of operations. Some of these books are now obsolete and need to be really updated. Two authors, well known for their great interest for the biplanes fighters (H. Gustavsson) and for the Italian air force (L. Slongo) have decided to update a part of the air war in North Africa beginning with the first clashes in 1940 and 1941. This first volume covers the period from June 1940 to November 1940, and will be followed by another volume covering the period from December 1940 to the arrival of the German.

  After an introduction establishing the situation in June 1940 in detailing the British, French and Italians forces, the authors narrate day after day, the air war in this part of the World from 10th June, 1940 to 30th November, 1940. Some recollections and combat reports are also included to illustrate the text which is backed by a good selection of photographs and a few pages of colour profiles, the whole giving a very interesting book. Very well documented, the book brings new details of the war in this area which actually started with poor means.

  The book will for sure interest any historian or enthusiast and can be recommended without hesitation. Phil Listemann

• Military Aircraft Monthly 5-2010 • 2011-04-12
  
• SAM 5/2010 • 2011-04-12
  
• JP4 Magazine 06/2010 • 2011-04-12
  
• JP4 Magazine 06/2010 English translation • 2011-04-12

  This huge volume of 224 pages by an Italian and a Swede , published by a Polish editor and written in English, chronicles the air combats in North Africa between the Regia Aeronautica and the Royal Air Force at the beginning of World War 2, from June the 10th to the end of November 1940.

  It is the period during which Italy carried over its “parallel war” and, after the fall of France, the only front where the Axis confronted Great Britain in the field.

  The story covers the initial, senseless period in which the country that had declared war remained on the defensive while the attacked country struck back; the death of Balbo; the ineffective Graziani Offensive up to the eve of the Commonwealth’s counter-attack.

  Events are recorded month by month, there is short summary at the beginning and then an analysis day by day of the air combats, described with a previously unseen completeness, thanks to access to the combat diaries of the two contenders enriched by a number of personal recollections of the pilots.

  The result is a complete and perfectly balanced narration, while the overall picture that came out is that of a particularly hard conflict where predominance was quickly gained by the British despite numerically inferior forces, thanks to superior aggression, better techniques and above all the use of the radio.

  As predictable, the number of claims on all fronts was superior to what was really obtained by the pilots, but it is well explained what happened at each combat and why excess claims resulted.

  If the content of the book is unexceptionable the way it is presented may not be liked.

  All data are presented in the narration,n while some tables could have been useful, and there is a lone, very generic, map while it would have been very useful to identify all the airstrips quoted in the text. Finally, perhaps, the English reader would have been better served by an overview of Mussolini’s war and its quick stall, despite the undeniable valour and efforts of the Italian pilots.

  There are a lot of images, some of them already seen but well explained by the captions , most of them never published before with a lot of CR 42s and a lot of photos of men and machines of the RAF. An excellent name index at the end is followed by thirteen pages of colour profiles showing, from the Italian side, CR 32s, CR 42s, Ba 65s and SM 75 but no S 79.

  To summarize it is an excellent work that gives a definitive account of this conflict - which really says everything.

• amazon.co.uk customer review • 2011-04-12

  By MMG (Italy)

  Highly recommendable book, which fills a lacuna in the aviation history both in English and Italian literature. The Authors confirm the mastery they already displayed in their recent Osprey book devoted to the Fiat CR.42 Aces of WWII. This splendid work chronologically describes every documented air combat (not only on the desert but also from the desert bases against naval forces). After a general introduction, the narrative is divided into single chapters for each month of this much neglected campaign. Each chapter opens with the description of the situation of ground and air forces, the latter being further sub-divided by opponent (Italy, Commonwealth and, initially, France) and by type of aircraft (fighters, ground attack, bombers and recce). Noteworthy are the detailed index and the beautiful color profiles in the generous dimensions allowed by the book format. The reader must perhaps wait for the second and last volume to find not only the bibliography but also some general strategical and logistical assessments: sometimes the narrative is so detailed that the Authors tell how many MG rounds were fired; it would have been therefore appropriate to end each chapter with some statistical data (better in tabular form) indicating at least the order of battle, the number of sorties flown by each opponent and the losses incurred in the month (besides, the statistical work for the Italian side has been already largely done half a century ago by general Santoro in his celebrated semi-official history of the Royal Italian Air Force). Without such data it is difficult to compare and evaluate the magnitude of the effort made by the opponents; thus the fifth star will be retroactively assigned after reading the awaited second volume.

• Master Modelers No. 48 jul 2010 • 2011-04-12
  
• Amazon.co.uk customer review (3) • 2011-04-12

  4.0 out of 5 stars Desert Prelude : Air War in North Africa 1940-41, 12 April 2011

  By MTJ ALLEN "Mike" (Beds. UK)

  Very good book for the person interested in the day-to-day activities of the early Desert Air Force. This is for those interested in the history and not the heroics of the battle. The slow, everyday slog of endeavouring to wrest control of a large area of air and ground over a prolonged period of time. Echoes, to a certain extent, the present problems in Libya albeit not with the fight for air superiority but developing into the same backwards and forwards ground war.

• IPMS UK Magazine 03/2010 • 2011-04-12
  
• stonebooks.com • 2011-04-12

  In 1969, the release of Fighters over the Desert by Christopher Shores marked a new level of detail and precision in chronicling air operations in the Second World War. That book went on to become a highly regarded classic and the first of many similar day-by-day accounts of air action written by Shores. Back in those olden days, it seemed likely Fighters over the Desert would not ever be surpassed in its coverage of air ops in North Africa.

  With publication of Desert Prelude, it might be time to reconsider that assessment.

  Although the title and sub-title generate a little ambiguity, the new book from Gustavsson and Slongo focuses on air operations. The theater is mostly Libya and Egypt, but also includes action above Tunisia and the western Mediterranean prior to French capitulation. The chapters encompass the full spectrum of aircraft at war, such as transport missions and air-sea patrols.

  The opening section of the book describes the state of the Italian, Commonwealth, and French air forces in the theater in mid-1940. This includes fairly comprehensive OB material with types and numbers of aircraft. For the Italians in particular, the authors identify many individual pilots. This section also explains some of the last-minute shuffling that occurred immediately prior to the outbreak of hostilities in Africa. Here's a brief example:

  The 50th Stormo Assalto was based in Libya from the summer of 1939 and equipped with Breda Ba.65/A80s. The aircraft were worn out even before the beginning of the war, and because of this serviceability was down to very low levels, sometimes only 18% of the flight line. Apart from this, the Bredas were considered unsafe because of a string of accidents (sometimes fatal).

  The HQ in Rome took the decision to replace the Bredas of the 50th Stormo with a new plane, and the choice fell on the Caproni Ca.310B Libeccio.

  During the second half of May 1940, the Bredas based in Libya were discharged (83 planes in various degrees of efficiency and not all in charge of the 50th Stormo; there were also some Breda Ba.65/K14s which had been left behind by the 2nd Stormo after an unsuccessful attempt to use them in the dual role of fighter/fighter-bomber).

  After a brief period of training in Northern Italy, some pilots of the Stormo came back to Libya with the first examples (nine) of the new aircraft....

  Following that introductory section, the book divides into six chapters, one for each month of the period June through November 1940. Each chapter is organized in identical fashion, beginning with a short overview of progress of the campaign on the ground. The authors then review changes to the organization, command, location, equipment, and strength of units for each air force, including Italian, Commonwealth, and French. The small Egyptian air force (REAF) isn't ignored. For example, the overview of June 1940 includes this paragraph:

  After the first raid on Alexandria during the night of 21-22 June both REAF Gladiator squadrons were placed under command of 252 Fighter Wing RAF. 2 Sqn was based at Helwan under command of S/Ldr Muhammed Ibrahim Abu Rabia, while 5 Sqn was based at Dekhalia.

  Notes for other air forces in the overviews are rather more extensive.

  Within each of the six chapters, following the overview for that chapter, the authors proceed to deliver a day-by-day chronology of operations on each front within the theater. This is the real meat of each chapter and the book as a whole.

  With the Italian declaration of war against France and the UK on 10 June 1940, the war in the skies above Africa began. Here's how the authors report the first action.

  10 June 1940: British-Italian Front

  It has often been reported that during the night of 10 and 11 June, Air Commodore Collishaw undertook an unofficial bombing mission accompanied by a volunteer crew in a Vickers Valentia nicknamed 'Bessie.' They took off from Ma'aten Bagush with a crate of hand-grenades stowed on board, with which they attacked an Italian camp. Collishaw's second pilot was F/O Harvey. After the 'attack' the aircraft returned to Ma'aten Bagush.

  The authors haven't so far been able to find corroboration of this action in the official documents of 70 and 216 Sqns, the two units that operated the Valentia in Egypt.

  That's the only record of action for 10 June. For 11 June 1940, however, operations on the British-Italian front in the Desert encompass three pages, while aerial operations on the Franco-Italian front in Africa and the Med comprise an additional five paragraphs.

  As the authors zero in on the battle in the sky, along the way they address a variety of related issues. For example, the entry for 11 June discusses the Italian system for classifying lost/damaged aircraft ("Fuori Uso," "Riparabile in Ditta," and "Riparabile in Squadriglia") and what that actually meant to units in the field. They also discuss the difference between the Italian and British reckoning of time, which in some cases meant the opponents were recording the identical clock time, but mostly they were operating with a one-hour difference of GMT+1 versus GMT+2. This represents part of a larger discussion of occasional difficulties reconciling Italian and British accounts of what happened and exactly when it occurred.

  In that regard, it's interesting to consult another book on air ops in the Desert, Royal Air Force Bomber Losses in the Middle East and Mediterranean, volume 1: 1939-1942 by David Gunby and Pelham Temple, which lists these RAF bomber losses on 11 June 1940:

  45 Sqn: Blenheim I L8476 -- Sgt P. Bower -- Damaged by flak near El Adem, crashed into sea, crew killed

  45 Sqn: Blenheim I L8519 -- Sgt M. C. Thurlow -- Damaged by flak near El Adem, force-landed, crew killed

  47 Sqn: Wellesley I K7730 -- P/O B. K. C. Fuge -- Damaged by ground fire, force-landed, crew captured

  113 Sqn: Blenheim I L4823 -- F/Lt D. A. Beauclair -- Shot down in flames by three Italian fighters after attacking El Adem, crew captured

  By comparison, Gustavsson and Slongo, in their three pages dealing with 11 June 1940, note the following Italian claims and RAF losses.

  [Against RAF bombers attacking El Adem, CR.32]...pilots claimed two [Blenheim] bombers shot down (one into the sea and one from which the crew was seen to bale out) and four damaged....

  ...Bissoli shot down a Blenheim that fell down close to T3 [airfield near El Adem] (nobody was seen to jump from the aircraft), while his wingmen claimed damage to two others....

  ...Blenheim Mk. I L8476 was reportedly hit by light flak shortly after the last attack, caught fire, and crashed into the sea killing the crew—Sgt Peter Bower....

  ...Blenheim Mk. I L8519 was damaged during the raid and crash-landed at Sidi Barrani, where it burst into flames killing its crew—Sgt Maurice Cresswell Thurlow....

  ...Blenheim Mk. I L8466 [F/O A. Finch and crew] suffered an engine failure over the target (possibly hit by Italian fire), the other engine failed...and the aircraft made a wheels-up forced landing near Buq Buq [and was later repaired]

  ...one Blenheim Mk. IV of 113 Sqn was admitted lost to [Italian fighters] when L4823 [F/Lt D. Beauclair] was shot down....

  As with all pilots of all air forces, the Italians seem to have over-claimed RAF losses on 11 June, and there's also some disagreement about which losses were caused by fighters and which by flak. On the other hand, Gustavsson and Slongo make no mention of the Wellesley I recorded as lost by Gunby and Temple.

  The "Operations" section of the chapter for June continues in this manner with daily entries—some lengthy, some shorter—for each date through the end of the month. In total, the chapter on June 1940 amounts to almost forty pages.

  The chapter for July 1940 picks up in exactly the same fashion. A paragraph about the ground campaign during the month. Roughly five pages concerning changes to the Regia Aeronautica during July. (For example: "On 1 July the 13th Gr. moved to El Adem T3 airfield with the 18 CR.42s left and was still there at the end of the month.") Two pages concerning changes to the Royal Air Force. (For example: "In the beginning of July two French Martin 167Fs from GB I/39 (Nos 82 and 102) escaped to Egypt. On 13 July, they were attached to 8 Sqn at Khormaksar (Aden), and flown by their French pilots in RAF uniforms.") The log of daily operations in July amounts to about thirty pages and includes, for example, material regarding aerial ops during Operation Catapult (the British attack on French warships at Mers el Kebir) and French attacks on Gibraltar.

  Chapters for August, September, October, and November are organized in the same manner.

  So how does Christopher Shores stack up against Gustavsson and Slongo? Using 11 June, the first day of battle, makes a reasonable comparison. Here's what Shores reports for that date:

  11 June 1940

  As has already been noted, the RAF were quick off the mark on the declaration of war, twenty-six Blenheims from 45, 55, and 113 Squadrons attacking Italian aircraft on the ground at El Adem during the early morning of 11 June. No enemy fighters were reported met, but 55 Squadron encountered heavy anti-aircraft fire; one Blenheim crashed into the sea in flames, one crash-landed, and a third was so badly damaged that it was forced to make a crash-landing at Sidi Barrani, where it burst into flames. However, at this time seven CR 42s of 8th Gruppo, 2nd Stormo, reported attacking nine Blenheims near El Adem and claimed two of these, one crew becoming POWs. It is possible that the bomber crews were so intent on their first attack of the war that they did not see the attacking fighters. A second raid was made during the day, and eighteen aircraft were claimed as having been damaged or destroyed. In the early afternoon two CR 42s of 2nd Stormo reported intercepting three Blenheims, one being shot down by Ten. Bussoli, who had already claimed one of these aircraft during the morning. Italian losses were reported as three Ro 37s and two Ghiblis badly damaged, two Ro 37s, five SM 79s and six SM 81s slightly damaged.

  That's the full extent of the entry for 11 June activities in Fighters over the Desert. On the other hand, Desert Prelude, as noted above, measures approximately three pages for that date, including information about other RAF operations (such as patrols by Sunderlands and Lysanders) and other RAF movements (including those by some Gladiators and Bombays), as well as considerably more about the Regia Aeronautica and a bit about French aircraft on the 11th. Shores appears to misspell Gioacchino Bissoli as "Bussoli." Gustavsson and Slongo quote Italian reports that their AA defenses were practically non-existent, and credit victories to CR 32 fighters, although Shores calls them CR 42s. Desert Prelude also gives slightly different figures for Italian losses on the ground: "The 44th Gr. lost one completely burnt out SM 79, two more lightly damaged (RS) and two more seriously damaged (they had to be repaired in the local S.R.A.M.) The Gruppo also suffered three dead and twenty-four wounded. Three Ro.37s of the 137th Sq were also destroyed and two Ca.309s were also heavily damaged and two Ro.37s and six S.81s more lightly damaged. Ten more soldiers were wounded."

  These sorts of niggling contradictions might never be fully resolved to everyone's satisfaction. Although Shores provides plenty of detail (and sometimes gives a better overall summary of the daily action), for the most part Gustavsson and Slongo offer substantially more information about more operations over the Western Desert each and every day. And they include material about the Franco-Italian front in Africa, which Shores leaves out. Consequently, anyone who has enjoyed Fighters over the Desert will almost certainly find even more to like in Desert Prelude. Keep in mind, however, this is only the first volume of Desert Prelude. MMP's publication schedule shows the second volume, extending through arrival of the Luftwaffe, due for release in November.

  The authors illustrate all their chapters with black-and-white photographs of planes, pilots, aerial views of targets, and other images. They also include several pages of color profiles of aircraft. The index seems to be missing geographical names, mostly being limited to the names of airmen. The book contains no bibliography, but the authors promise one for the second volume. It would have been nice to see for each day (and perhaps for each month) a table comparing losses and claims for each side, but no tabulations of that nature appear.

  Overall, however, this is a very satisfying book. The text occasionally stumbles slightly (perhaps due to translations from Italian sources) but that's a minor point that never really interferes with the content. The authors have done a commendable job compiling and presenting so much information, and MMP Books, previously specializing in material about aircraft modeling, continues moving in a new direction with some strong offerings.

  It took forty years for Gustavsson and Slongo to unseat Fighters over the Desert at the top of the heap of books about air ops in North Africa. It will likely be at least that long until something more impressive than Desert Prelude comes along—and maybe never.

  Highly recommended.

• Plastikowe.pl • 2010-05-18

  Autor: Piotr 'Mikołaj' Mikołajski

  Opis szczegółowy

  Tematyka

  Polscy czytelnicy właściwie pozbawieni są informacji o walkach w Afryce. O ile oblężenie Tobruku czy działania Cyrku Skalskiego są opisywane, o tyle właściwie nie ma rzetelnych publikacji dotyczących walk w początkowym okresie zmagań. O starciach francusko-włoskich w czerwcu 1940 praktycznie nie wiadomo nic.

  Książka jest skonstruowana wokół chronologii zmagań. Każdy miesiąc omówiony jest osobno, z podziałem na krótkie omówienie działań lądowych oraz zmagania powietrzne. Te z kolei za każdym razem szczegółowo omawiają stan sił oraz uzupełnienia na początku miesiąca z osobna dla każdej z sił powietrznych. Następnie opisywane są wszystkie działania dzień po dniu, najczęściej zweryfikowane na podstawie źródeł z obu stron konfliktu. Lektura jest naprawdę wciągająca.

  Jakość edytorska

  Powtórzę z poprzednich recenzji: wysoka jakość papieru i druku to znak firmowy MMP. Jedynym słabszym punktem tej książki jest miękka okładka. Dla książki formatu A4, ważącej przynajmniej kilogram, bardziej praktyczna byłaby twarda okładka. Z drugiej strony twarda okładka to wyższa cena, więc decyzja wydawnictwa nie powinna dziwić.

  Plany, zdjęcia i profile

  Planów brak. Zdjęcia opublikowane w książce w większości są mało znane i unikalne. Plansze barwne są duże i przedstawiają głównie myśliwce Gloster Gladiator oraz Fiat CR.42. Modelarzom powinny się przydać przy budowie modeli, spokojnie mogę polecić np. malowanie egipskiego Gladiatora.

  Podsumowanie

  Książka jest obowiązkową lekturą dla osób zainteresowanych zmaganiami nad Afryką. Osoby zainteresowane działaniami powietrznymi podczas II wojny światowej też nie powinny być nią zawiedzione.

• Skrzydlata Polska 05/2010 • 2010-05-18