This thick book gives one a close up look at the life of the fighting infantryman! Each of the 10 chapters covers a specific battle and the experiences of those who fought there. From the Pacific theatre to the European, from Vietnam to Iraq, you are there on the beaches, in the foxholes, the rice paddies and through the streets of Fallujah.

This book gives you a very good sense of the up close and personal war that is fought by each and every combat infantryman be they Marine or US Army. Harrowing accounts of night fighting and Banzai charges, fighting the elements and the Germans at the Bulge in this book you are there. Each chapter puts you in the heart of the action and gives you as close as any book can a sense of what it was like to be there.

The Aircraft

The F-4 Phantom first flew in 1958. Subsequent model improvements and Service Life Extension Programs keep it flying today, albeit in a secondary role. It has been used by the USAF, US Navy, US Marines and 11 non-US services. The Turkish AF probably has plans to paint an aircraft for the Phantom’s 50th anniversary.

The Kit

This is another of Hasegawa’s “modular Phantoms”. You get a whole box full of sprues which allow you to build the model on the box top by selecting the correct fuselage front, horizontal stabilizers and wing. This approach works fine for the F-4 B through S, except for the RAF M and K models, which had a slightly different fuselage shape.

I've always been a fan of the Gladiator and certainly in my eyes she is still one of the best looking biplane fighters ever produced. When I saw the chance to give this book a read and review I jumped on it. I'm very glad that I did. My initial flip through of the book left me speechless. The publication is printed on thick paper stock and is wrapped in a beautiful glossy cover complete with a sweet photo of a Gladiator touching down in a perfect 3-point landing.

The first 10 page chapter of the book includes a brief rundown of each of the known Gladiator survivors and a photo of each. I found this information to be very interesting although a couple of airframes only warranted a paragraph or two due to the fact little is known of its history. The second 13 page chapter of the book runs though the Gladiators operations manual step by step. This section is an interesting read if for nothing else to see what is required to keep this wonderful aircraft flying.