Osprey Publishing keeps expanding its Combat Aircraft series with its latest book, F9F Panther Units of the Korean War. I personally think that the F9F Panther is among the most beautiful jets of the early era—together with the F-86 Sabre—so I might be a bit biased on this topic.

Clearly, from the beginning of the book you realize the author, Warren Thompson, is extremely well versed in the Korean conflict, and he is a great researcher. The level of detail and accuracy in his narrative is outstanding. He is really good at combine first hand narratives and mission reports to allow the reader have a sense of the pilot experiences, as well as the overall combat record of each unit, and the strategic situation in the Korean Peninsula during the conflict.

This book, being from Osprey has plenty of pictures; about half of them in color. The book also has 24 gorgeous color profiles by Jim Laurier.

The book is divided in the following chapters:

• US Navy Panthers Strike Early
• The War Drags On
• More Missions and More MiGs
• Interdiction, RESCAP, CAP and More MiGs
• Marine Panthers Enter the War

Each chapter covers roughly 12 months of the US Navy F9F carrier-based operations from 1950 to 1953, while the last chapter covers the whole conflict from the point of view of the Marine Corps (land-based operations).

This book taught me a lot about what the F9F was capable of doing, from aerial supremacy in the early phases of the conflict, to escort of slower propeller ground attacks airplanes, to even conducting its own ground attack missions, mainly in the interdiction role.

This book also covers the very unique CAS mission where a single F9F engaged seven MiG-15s (that were actually Soviet airplanes, not Chinese) and shot down four of them. This material is well worth reading.

I recommend this book to aviation history aficionados. You won’t be disappointed.

I would like to thank IPMS/USA and Osprey Publishing for the review sample.