Osprey Publishing has recently released a very interesting book covering the history of RAF and Commonwealth aircrews shot down behind enemy lines and their escape stories.

The book is neatly organized in the following chapters

• The Escape and Evasion Organization
• North-West Europe
• Middle East and Mediterranean
• The Far East

The first chapter describes the whole organization (MI-9) being setup in the early years of the war charged with establishing escape routes and networks for any personal behind enemy lines (not only for aircrews). In addition of setting up escape routes, this organization was in charge to develop escape aides, tools and supplies, which were part of an ‘escape kit’ provided to armed personnel. Some of the escape aids included miniature compasses, pictures of the themselves (for fake IDs, maps, et).

Italeri recently started producing a line of 1/56 scale AFVs and figures. This might be an unusual scale for most model builders, but is a fairly common wargaming scale equivalent to the 28mm scale. The Soviet KV-1 tank kit is one of their newest kits that also promotes the on-line video game, World of Tanks®.

The Kliment Voroshilov (KV) series of heavy tanks came as a surprise to the German army at the start of Operation Barbarosa. The tanks proved to be nearly impenetrable to all the German anti-tank weapons, other than the 8.8cm gun. The KV series featured heavy armor, and strong weaponry, with the KV-1 fielding a 76mm gun, and the KV-2 fielding the 152mm howitzer. The Soviet tanks so outclassed their German counterparts, that there were instances where a single KV tank, with supporting infantry, was able to hold off entire German columns in the early part of the war.

The Bf-109F had three different types of seats throughout its development. One being the early style similar to the style of seat in the Emil but completely different. It was more representative of the style of seat used in the Bf-110. Then the seat moved towards what we are familiar with but with a different backplate. This was short lived and the familiar backplate that would be in the Gustav was the final version.

With the release of the Bf-109F-2 from Eduard, they have added this early style of seat. Some of the most famous aircraft, such as Galland and Molders, have the early style of seat.