The Bulgarian Air Force might have been modest in size compared with other Air Forces during World War 2, but certainly saw its share of combat. While located near the Eastern Front, it was not involved in combat against Russia, but against the Western Allies, when in late 1944 with the Soviet Army amassing on its borders, Bulgaria switched sides and fought its former allies, the Germans.

During the early part of World War 2, Bulgaria had a “symbolic war” against the Western Allies. After the 1943 Ploesti raid that changed rapidly. Germany provided Bulgaria with more modern airplanes plus allowed the purchase of more obsolete types from other occupied countries. This book is the second of the series and covers, in extensive detail the following airframes

• Messerschmitt Bf-109G-2 and Bf-190G-6
• Avia B.135
• Dewoitine D.520
• UMe-109G (a local modification to G-6s to be used as trainers, not to be confused with the G-12)

Basically the book covers the 1943-1948 period, given the airframes listed in this volume. It makes some reference to previous sections of the Volume 1, but you can read each section as a standalone book.

The book has chapters for each aircraft type in detail, including an introduction of how the airframe entered service, the historical strategic situation at the time, and it includes combat record (if applicable) for each type. It also finishes each section with a sub-chapter devoted to the camouflage colors, patterns, and gorgeous color profiles (sometime even 3-view) of different aircrafts, next to a historical picture of the airplane.

You can see a full preview of the book on YouTube.

The book has several appendixes covering details of the Bulgarian Air Force combat record, including victories, losses, fate of the crew, and even fate of different airframes.

I’ve truly enjoyed reading this book. It is a great historical read; it has very good quality black and white pictures and amazing color profiles.

This book is highly recommended to historians, modelers, and aviation aficionados.

I would like to thank Mushroom Model Publications, Casemate Publishing, and IPMS/USA for the review sample.