Helion & Company continues their series on Asia at War with the first of two volumes on the Sino-Soviet Border Skirmishes of 1969. The author is Russian and it was translated into English. From time-to-time there are some cumbersome sentences and the perspective of the author comes through as you read on. The book is full of contemporary photographs, so they are in black and white. There are several pages of color profiles of vehicles and uniforms as well as several maps of where the incident occurred. Please note, that there are several grizzly, close up photographs of dead Soviet border guards. If you are not accustomed to seeing dead bodies, close up, be warned.

Fiat’s CR.42 Falco was one of the last biplanes to serve in an air force at the beginning of World War 2, and as such was essentially obsolete from the moment of its activation. Nonetheless, it served with some distinction in the early air battles both during the Battle of Britain and in the Libyan desert campaign before being relegated to second tier operations. In this instance, serving as both a night fighter and intruder kept this elegant fighter flying long after it would otherwise have been scrapped. Both the Italians and Germans used it in these roles, and ICM’s latest version of this aircraft presents the Italian make. Two different muffler system extensions are offered, as well as a couple of unusual underwing search lights, angled to shine sideways (presumably so as not to interfere with the pilot’s night vision). In addition, the kit still has a couple of bomb rack assemblies, although these are not intended to be used.

This is volume 75 in the monograph series. The book follows the usual monograph format. Included along with 1/48 drawings bound into the volume is a separate 2-sided page of 1/32 drawings.

The first 16 pages of the book discuss the A5M’s predecessors such as the Nakajima A1N2, Mitsubishi 1MF10 and its immediate predecessor; the Ka-14. The bulk of the book is dedicated to production and combat usage of the A5M, most of which was in China. Assigned the Allied code name “Claude” with “Sandy” reserved for the inverted gull wing version that never went into production. At the time of Pearl Harbor 193 A5Ms were in service. Most of these in rear units. The Claude stayed in service with operational units until April of 1942 with some air defense units using them until near the end of 1943.