This is a new series for me at least. This is a nice hardback book that covers the Grumman F4F Wildcat and the FM series of Wildcats built by Eastern Aircraft Division of General Motors during WWII. The Wildcat continued in production and to fight throughout the war even as newer and better aircraft became available.

The book has 12 chapters each covering the different variants. The layout is the first chapter on the XF4F-2, followed by chapters each on the following: XF4f-3 and F4F-3, the F4F-3 in detail, XF4F-5, XF4F-6/F4F-3A, F4F-3S, XF4F-4, F4F-4, F4F-7, XF4F-8, FM-1, FM-2 and Wildcat in combat.

If you are a person interested in the Great War, you will likely enjoy this new release from Osprey as part of their “Campaign” series of books. In this new offering from Osprey Publishing, author Alister McCluskey writes about the late war offensive on what the Allies referred to as “the Hindenburg Line” on the Western Front. The story along with photos (both historical and of the landscape today), artwork, and maps helps to tell the story of the battles that raged from late September into early October 1918.

History

The N1K was originally developed as a floatplane for forward land bases but by the time it entered service Japan was on the defensive. Kawanishi engineers had proposed in 1941 that the N1K could be a formidable land-based fighter too and a land-based version N1K1-j (J indicated land based fighter modification of the original floatplane version) was produced as a private venture by the company and first flew in December 1942. Due to it being a mid-wing design (because of the floats & large prop) a new design was begun just 4 days after the first test flight. The major defects being addressed were the wing and long landing gear. The wings were moved to a low position, which permitted the use of shorter, conventional undercarriage, the fuselage was lengthened and the tail redesigned. The first flight was on January 1944 and production of the N1K2-J "Shiden-Kai" (Kai standing for Modified) started in April of that year.