The newest in Osprey's Combat Aircraft series is authored by Peter E. Davies. A noted author with over twenty-six aviation books published, Peter E. Davis' focus has been on Vietnam War era aircraft. He has had a long relationship with Osprey and has authored 13 titles and co-authored another two.

Illustrator Jim Laurier, a native of New England, provides the color profiles. Jim has been drawing since he could hold a pencil and throughout his life he has worked in many mediums creating artwork on a variety of subjects. He has worked on the Osprey Aviation list since 2000, and has been featured in hundreds of aviation books.

Gareth Hector is a digital artist of international standing as well as an aviation history enthusiast. Gareth Hector provides the cover artwork of pilot Lt. Grover Erickson and RIO Lt John Perry in their F-4B attacking Bach Long Vi island on the night of October 26, 1965.

I counted seventy-six photographs, forty in black and white and thirty-six in color. Additionally, there are thirty color illustrations on ten pages with a short caption supported by a detailed summary in the Appendix.

Peter E. Davies opens up with the changes in air tactics brought on by the Vietnam War politics that was more focused on a "precise application of military pressure" rather than winning the war. Of course the result was the military slowing down the North Vietnamese aggression rather than stopping it. This background focuses in on the development of the Phantom II going back to the first generation Navy jets like the McDonnell FH-1 Phantom and Douglas F3D Skynight. The development of the Phantom II's air to air weapons are also detailed with sections on the medium range Raytheon AIM-7 Sparrow III and the short range Raytheon AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles. Of course the Phantom II quickly became more involved in air to ground missions and Peter E. Davies includes a good discussion of those bombs and missiles used in ground attack missions.

Chapter Two further engages in the change of missions for the Phantom II from taking advantage of their radar and missiles, to shoot down the enemy before the enemy could see them, to being able to dogfight in close range engagements that the F-4 was not designed for. The Phantom II's first encounter with MiGs was on April 9, 1965 when a flight of four F-4Bs were bounced by four Chinese J-5s (Mig-17F). A supersonic melee ensued while the F-4Bs were awaiting permission to engage from the USS Ranger. After 18 minutes of engagement, the end result was eleven missile launches from the Phantom IIs where all failed to perform for one reason or another except for the one that shot down F-4B BuNo 151403 " Showtime 611". Peter E. Davies covers in detail the first MiG aerial kill by the Phantom II on June 17 by Cdr. Lou Page, and amazing achievements since standing orders were not to engage with enemy fighters unless they showed 'hostile intent'.

Chapter Three focuses on the changes required for the Phantom II's mission changing to primarily ground attack. Of course the Phantom II was not designed as a bomber, so the crews had to adopt other methods for placing 'dumb' bombs on target. Peter E. Davies relies on interviews such as the one from John Nash to explain these various trial and error approaches. Avoiding SAM attacks evolved much the same way as the unsustainable losses in Rolling Thunder forced the development of a response to this new threat. 'Smoke' Wilson notes that the early radar warning receivers were a real 'Rube Goldberg' setup. Unfortunately, F-4B crews who might be able to evade the first and second SA-2 rockets often got hit by the third or fourth.

'Tools and Tactics' dives deeper into the problems of the Phantom II's weapons. The US Navy's kill ration of "2.42 to 1 between 1965 and 1970 was much lower" than in any previous conflict. This prompted a multitude of reviews into the un-reliability of the AIM-7 and AIM-9 weapons systems. Of course, conventional weapon systems were having their issues as in the fires aboard the USS Coral Sea and USS Forrestal revealed.

The final chapter, ' Refining the Breed', addresses the improvements that were implemented into the F-4J and their operational use. These included more powerful engines and leading edge slats to improve performance along with a real-live gun mounted in the nose. Additional upgrades in the fire control system and radar were also implemented in addition to a bona-fide bombing system in the AJB-7.

The Chapters include:

• Chapter One – Thunder Clouds [Page 7]
  • Alpha Teams
  • Daily Duties – CAPs
  • The Weapons – F4B Phantom II [Page 15]
  • The Weapons – AIM-7
  • The Weapons – AIM-9
  • The Weapons – Bombs and Rockets
• Chapter Two – Into the Cauldron
  • Opening Shots [Page 31]
  • Operation Barrel Roll
  • The Opposition – MiGs
  • Colour Plates [Page 39]
  • The Opposition – Ground Defenses [Page 51]
• Chapter Three - Adaptations
  • Fooling SAMs [Page 59]
  • Robot Phantom IIs
• Chapter Four – Tools and Tactics
  • Sixth Fleet [Page 75]
  • Forrestal Fire
• Chapter Five – Refining the Breed [Page 80]
  • Combat Debut
  • Versatile 'Spooks'
  • Achilles' Heels
  • 'Beacon' Bombing [Page 89]
• Appendices
  • US Navy F-4 Phantom II Unit Deployments to TF 77 1964-69
• Color Plates Commentary
• Index

If you own one the previous releases in the Combat Aircraft series, you know what you are getting. If this is your initial entry into this series, you will be pleased. I really enjoyed the use of first hand reports reports to flesh out the combat experience of the Phantom II from Peter E. Davies. My thanks to Osprey Publishing and IPMS/USA for the chance to review this great book.

Highly recommended!