Historical Background

The Fairey Firefly was originally conceived in the late thirties as a carrier based fighter for the Royal Navy. It was built as a two seater because the authorities felt that a single pilot would not be able to navigate and fly under combat conditions at sea. While other similar aircraft, notably the Defiant and Blackburn Skua and Roc had power operated turrets, the Firefly dispensed with these, and throughout the protracted development of the type, the rear gun was never adopted for widespread use. Performance, however, was exceptional, and the type was ready for limited service in 1942. Development was slow, and it never really made the grade as a carrier based fighter, although many variants were developed for specialized uses, including night fighter, target tug, attack bomber, and trainer.

Here’s a really neat book for modelers. Illustrated and written by renowned profile artist Chris Sandham-Baily, aka Sandworm, RAF Cold War Jet Aircraft in Profile covers 14 different aircraft types designed and built by British companies and operated by the RAF between 1945 and 2010.

The book features over 300 different colour profiles of the following types: Gloster Meteor, de Havilland Vampire, de Havilland Venom, English Electric Canberra, Supermarine Swift, Hawker Hunter, Vickers Valiant, Gloster Javelin, Handley Page Victor, Avro Vulcan, Blackburn Buccaneer, English Electric Lightning, Hawker Siddeley Harrier and SEPECAT Jaguar. Two types most notable by their absence are the McDonnell Douglas Phantom and the Panavia Tornado, both of whose omission is a major fault in my view.

This is the 30^th offering of this series and the 7^th in the detailing of the Tiger I and Tiger II .

The book is divided in 8 section/chapters, and include an Introduction, The Eastern Front- August, 1942- March, The Tiger Units, Camouflage and Markings, Model Showcase, Modelling Products, Technical Details and Product Contact Details.

The book focuses on the first vehicles that left the production line and that went into battle during late 1942 and early 1943. There is a detailed description of the use of the vehicles from 1 August, 1942 through 31 March, 1943. This is followed by a table stating the number of tanks in each Tank Unit in August, 1942.

Next, we go into the reporting of each unit that used the Tiger I during the time previously mentioned. There are several tables indicating the table of operations for units 501 and 503, as well as the allocation of vehicles received, lost, on hand and operational.