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This third volume of Claringbould’s aircraft profiles, the first of Allied aircraft, highlights the Douglas A-20 Havoc (Boston to the Commonwealth forces). The A-20, and its stablemate the B-25, were the two-workhorse low level attack aircraft of the US Fifth Air Force in the Southwest Pacific.
Kagero Publishing is widely known in scale modeling circles as producers of reference books that often come with a bonus decal sheet. That all started in 2001, with their immediately successful “Camouflage & Decals” series. Apparently, they had technical issues surrounding the decal sheets so the series was, unfortunately, short-lived.
“Japanese Fighters” brings the series back to us. Consisting of 40 pages, this A4-sized book starts on page one describing the history of the series, and where the company hopes to go with it. Also on the same page is a chart of colors the Japanese used in WWII, complete with the correct Japanese names for them. All text is in English and Polish.
Kagero Publishing, from Poland, is one of the major military history publishing houses. Since 1998, when Kagero started publishing in English, over 600 titles have been produced at a pace of 60 per year or more. Topics focus on specific planes, armor and ships, along with a bevy of focused topics, such as a class of warships or an armor type. Kagero caters to ship modelers by turning out books filled with line and 3D computer-generated illustrations, with incomparable accuracy to details. For warships, Kagero has two series: 1) Super 3D Drawings and 2) Top Drawings, focusing on a single ship per book. The topic of this book review is one of the Top Drawings series, which are designed for modelers to have a reference for detailed appearances of individual ships. Top Drawings consist of color covers with black & white (B&W) line drawings of the ship, particular features, and equipment, especially armament.
Toward the end of World War 2, the Germans were coming up with more and more desperate attempts to halt the U.S. and British aerial juggernaut that was daily pummeling their cities and the remnants of their industrial capacity. Cheap, easily assembled point defense weapons became the order of the day, resulting in such oddities as the Me163 Komet rocket fighter and the He162 Salamander, both of which were as much a threat to their pilots as to any Allied airmen. The Junkers EF-126 and its rocket-powered alternative, the EF-127, were supposed to be the logical descendants of the Komet, and although none were built by German industry, the Soviets made prototypes of both aircraft after the war. Apparently the sole unpowered version of the craft crashed on its maiden flight. I couldn’t find where powered versions were ever run.
The BR 20 "Cicogna" low wing medium bomber was developed by the Italian aircraft manufacturer Fiat during the 1930’s. It entered service in 1936 and was characterized by its metal frame and retractable landing gear. Modern and fast for the period, it was deployed by the “Aviazione Legionaria” and had its baptism of fire in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War. In September 1940, the “Corpo Aereo Italiano”, consisting of the 13th and 43rd “Stormo da Bombardamento” were similarly equipped with the BR-20. The “Stormi” were stationed in Belgium and supported the Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain. Despite operational comparisons with modern R.A.F. fighters that exposed the BR-20’s limits, it was used for the duration of WW2 on various fronts by several Regia Aeronautica bomber squadrons.
