Introduction

'General Leclerc' was the nom de guerreadopted by the Gaullist officer Philippe de Hautcloque, to protect his family in occupied France. He became France's foremost fighting commander, and his armored division (the '2e DB') its most famous formation. Starting as a small scratch force of mostly African troops organised and led by Leclerc in French Equatorial Africa, it achieved early success raiding Italian and German positions in co-operation with Britain's Long Range Desert Group. Following the Allied victory in North Africa it was expanded and reorganised as a US Army-style armoured division, with American tanks and other armoured vehicles. Shipped to the UK, in spring 1944, it was assigned to Patton's US Third Army, landing in time for the Normandy breakout and being given the honour of liberating Paris in August 1944.

Introduction

This book is a fascinating account of the Central Pacific campaign and one of the most stunning comebacks in naval history when in 14 months the US Navy went from the jaws of defeat at Pearl Harbor to the brink of victory in the Pacific. The book’s emphasis is on carrier operations and on the air groups of the various fighters and dive and torpedo bombers that were instrumental in sending the Japanese fleet to its watery grave and ensure an end to the Pacific Theater of Operations. The chapters include:

Osprey Publications, the prolific publisher of books related to nearly every aspect of military history imaginable, has in recent years been branching out into more traditional history works. This work is a critical biography of Otto Skorzeny, the man who rescued Mussolini from captivity. The author, Stuart Smith, is a trained historian with a career in business. Using original records and a variety of sources, Stuart has put together a fascinating portrait of a man whose entire career was largely built on one exploit – rescuing Mussolini from captivity in 1943. As his actions in the post-war would indicate, he was also an unrepentant Nazi.

Matthew Moss is a British author and historian specializing in small arms development, military history, and current defense affairs. Matthew has degrees from the Universities of Liverpool and Chester and has contributed to publications in both the United States and the United Kingdom. He runs the website Historical Firearms, a blog that explores the history, development, and use of firearms. He co-founded the Armourer’s Bench (or on Facebook) with Vic Tuff a multi-media exploration of historic small arms. Matthew has contributed to a number of print and online publications including magazines such as Small Arms Review, Popular Mechanics, The Armourer, History of War and Classic Arms & Militaria. This is his first book. He lives in Lancashire, UK.

Croco Models from Latvia specializes in aftermarket detail sets and resin sets, mainly of armored vehicles. They sure know how to find unique and interesting subjects. Visit their webpage and you will see.

Besides aftermarket details and resin kits, they release small generic detail parts, in this case a perforated metal plate, with very small circular plates in a diamond pattern.

The size of the fret is about 2 inches by 1.25 inches and it can be used for detailing many different models, probably armor in 1/35 scale (engine covers), perhaps aircraft in 1/32 and 1/48 (air intakes filters).

You can see how finely and homogenous the perforations are, as you can “see-through” them and still see the mini-ziploc bag behind it. Just think of it as a way to dress up any opening towards the interior of a model where you want to make it look like there is “something there”, like a radiator, a screen or just “something” which is better than bare plastic.