Osprey Publishing continues to expand the Duel Series with the 47th installment of this collection, Gladiator vs. CR.42 Falco. This book has the typical sections of the previous books in the series – i.e., Development, Strategic Situation, Combat, Statistics, and Analysis and Aftermath.

The book is well written and incredibly well researched. The main adversaries fought each other in what some historians would consider secondary theaters of war. However, those theaters expanded from sand dunes of North Africa and the Mediterranean to the green fields of Eastern Africa and into the Middle East and Iraq, certainly an area much larger of than the main theatre of operations of WWII.

Osprey Publishing continues expanding its New Vanguard Collection. This is the issue 195 of this line and it is devoted to the Italian Medium Tank.

The book sections covers the characteristics of the Medium Tanks (M 11/39, M 13/40, and M 14/41), plus a brief section on the Heavy Tank (P 40). It also includes the self-propelled guns that were based on the above-listed chassis. Later in the book there are two sections devoted to Italian armor in combat (both with the Italian Army and under German service). It finalizes with a brief chapter devoted to camouflage and markings and a section on surviving vehicles at different museums.

History

We are all familiar with the success stories of British World War II aircraft. but the author of this work examines the careers of some of the types that either didn’t make it to the production line or were never intended for service use. The author has made a life study of British aviation history, having worked in the industry for many years, and he has published numerous articles and books on the subject.

This book looks at the only enemy aircraft actually to drop bombs on the continental United States, the Kugisho E14Y “Glen”. We are given the history of its development and its technical details, as well as the details of the two bombing missions over the Oregon coast and other operations across the Pacific. It should be noted that the Japanese were the only nation to use submarine-based aircraft in any quantity.

This book begins with a discussion of the first Japanese experiments with submarine-based aircraft, as well as the aircraft preceding the E14Y in service. A nice overview of the E14Y follows, with discussions of its operations for the IJN. One thing of interest is the joint operations of both Japanese and German submarines from the base at Penang (part of modern Malaysia). It even appears that there was a possible exchange between the Axis powers with an E14Y being traded for an Arado Ar-196.

This is the newest title in Osprey Publishing’s Modelling Masterclass series. Written primarily by Brett Green (author of several other Osprey books and webmaster of the Hyperscale website), this book covers several model builds of Luftwaffe jets, as well as some historical information.

The book itself is in a very sturdy format. The covers are thick, glossy, and hard, and they enclose over 180 pages of text and photos. The pages are spiral bound, so this book lies completely flat when opened to any page – a very nice feature if you are using this reference at the model desk. All the pages are of medium-weight paper, and in a satin finish. All the model photos are in full color, and there are also many black and white photos in the historical sections.

There are 7 chapters in this book, as well as tables at the end listing references and available kits of the subject.