Operation Studie Nord, the German plan for the invasion of Scandinavia was further developed into two separate plans that were to run concurrently – Weserubung (River Exercise) and Weserubung Sud (River Exercise South) for Norway and Denmark, respectively. The plans were drawn up after Germany’s invasion of Poland and during the “Phoney War” (Queen’s English as the book’s author is English). This often-overlooked campaign violated both Denmark and Norway’s neutrality before the German military campaign against France and the Low Countries and took place shortly after the Russian-Finish Winter War of 1939-1940. Besides Denmark and Sweden being neutral, both countries’ monarchs were brothers. The similarities between both countries continued with relatively low numerical military strength and modern weapons; the difference was how the countries chose to respond.

Casemate Publishing continues its series on modern conflicts in Europe with the first volume of a projected two that deals with the creation and evolution of the Soviet air defense system. As with many books in this series, it is richly illustrated with contemporary black and white photographs, maps, and a series of color profiles of Soviet and US aircraft. Using English and Russian sources, the volume provides an excellent introduction to the establishment and growth of the Soviet air defense system. Readers with a passing knowledge of the Russian language will note that in the title the authors use a different form of the familiar word Rodina or homeland. It is not a misspelling but the appropriate grammatical construction.

The British aviation industry produced a stunning variety of types in the half-century until 1953, from the famous Supermarine Spitfire and Avro Lancaster to the esoteric Planet Satellite and Armstrong Whitworth Apollo (Kudos to those who didn’t have to look up those latter two!). This new book from Key Publishing uses photos from the famous Aeroplane magazine archive to illustrate this wide variety, but does so through colourising those photos selected.

Author David Willis is well known for his aviation-related writing and he does a very good job with the concise, explanatory historical text and the informative and extensive photo captions.