This book covers the end of World War II in Europe from the campaign level. There is little examination of tactics or individual heroism; instead it looks at the challenges and opportunities faced by the top-level military leaders as the Third Reich neared its end.

Until I read this book, I had the concept that the Western Allies (US, Britain, France) had a pretty easy time after stopping the Ardennes Offensive in December 1944, and moved up to the Elbe River line to wait for the Russians. At the same time, I thought the Russians were pretty much beating up on the Germans and making their way toward Berlin and eventual victory. I was pretty much wrong.

The Mk. 20 Rockeye is an unguided cluster bomb weapon and has been used since 1968. With this kind of longevity and the fact it is used by Navy, Air Force and Marines, it is not unusual to find this under the wing of many types of planes including A-10’s, F-15E’s and many others.

Once again, extreme appreciation and thanks to Ross at SAC for sending us another of your expansive line of metal landing gear, and thanks also to IPMS USA leadership for sending it to me.

This is the standard SAC upgrade to the kit plastic. The set consists of 11 parts: Two main struts, two main strut actuators, and the remainder builds up into the detailed nose gear assembly of strut, nose gear fork, and steering actuators with shimmy dampers.

The SAC solution for stronger gear; superglue the upper strut and lower fork together, let it cure. The shimmy damper arm and the damper itself are cemented to the strut, and the extension/drag brace is glued into place. Then carefully glue the whole thing into the nose gear well.