Thank you to Marie Ray of Specialty Press, Crécy Publishing Ltd, and the IPMS/USA Reviewer Corps for allowing me to read and share my thoughts on this book. Mosquito Pathfinder is a detailed and engaging journal of a young English man enlisting in the RAF and surviving 90 missions in Wellington and Mosquito bombers over Germany and North Africa during World War II.

While it is tempting to recount and summarize the many experiences contained within the book, I will not put any spoilers here. After reading the 23 chapters and associated materials of Mosquito Pathfinder, I found myself with a much deeper appreciation of the human element of the history we recreate and model. This book will not provide you with technical details and reference photos for the next Wellington or Mosquito model you build. Instead, if your reaction is like mine, it will add yet another dimension to the subject. When you detail that cockpit, fold in seat pan belts, and close in the canopy, the courage and danger of operating the full-size version will become that much more real.

In all fairness, this book is not a “Clancy-esque” gripper, but a candid narrative of young Albert Smith answering his country’s call. You will read about early tenuous optimism (and sunburn in Florida during training), raw fear over German territory, different fears of centipedes and scorpions in North Africa, frustration with early “precision” secret navigation systems, and “debriefing” post-mission pub crawls. You will also understand Smith’s decision to re-enlist, eventual promotion to officer status, and pain of combat loss.

Sadly, when you are done reading this book, you will also have another sense of the human cost of conflict, search for closure, and how distant WWII is becoming. Mosquito Pathfinder preserves the experience of one who was there, and will help keep the memory and lessons intact for those who need to remember them.

Thank you again to Crécy Publications, Marie Ray of Specialty Press and the IPMS/USA Reviewer Corps. I am better for reading Mosquito Pathfinder, but in ways that I did not expect.