The Military and Police Forces of the Gulf States Volume 4: Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar 1921-1980 is the fourth in the series. The previous three volumes are:

• The Military and Police Forces of the Gulf States Volume 1 - Trucial States and United Arab Emirates, 1951-1980
• The Armed Forces of the Gulf States Volume 2 - Oman 1921-2012
• The Military and Police Forces of the Gulf States Volume 3 - The Aden Protectorate 1839-1967 (reviewed by Frank Landrus)

This volume covers three Gulf Arab states. While small in physical size, they have become an economic and security center of the Middle East.

Before World War 1, Finland had been part of Russia. However, during the Russian Civil War that followed, Finland was largely dominated by the non-Soviet White Russians, who successfully broke away from Russian to become their own independent country. This situation was to rankle Stalin, who still regarded the territories of Finland as belonging to his country.

Three months after the outbreak of World War 2, The Soviet Union invaded Finland. Having already made territorial demands of Finland and emboldened by their participation in Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland, 600,000 Soviet troops crossed the common border with Finland on November 30, 1939, probably assuming such an invasion would be a cakewalk against such a comparatively weak opponent. Some argue that their aim was the ultimate annexation of the entirety of Finland. However, despite the massive flood of invaders, most Soviet troops were ill-equipped and often barely trained.

The A3 Skywarrior was originally designed to be a bomber capable of carrying 10,000 pounds of bombs or a nuclear bomb. It holds the distinction of being the largest aircraft to routinely operate on and off of aircraft carriers.

This book has a brief developmental history of the major A-3 variants, starting with the prototype aircraft. It includes 73 photographs, of which all but a comparatively few are of the aircraft and variants. A small section has some interesting detail shots of the aircraft that modelers will find useful.

One very unique feature is the “Modelers Walk Around”. This nifty little two-page article within the book covers some of the lumps and bumps of several versions. Also included is a review of a build-up of the Trumpeter 1/48 scale ERA-3B kit.

Overall, I found this book to be an informative guide to the A-3, especially from a modeler’s perspective. Many thanks to Phoenix Scale Publications for my review sample.