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Air Fan - April - May 2023, No485

As featured by

Cocardes International, April - May 2023 - No26

This book provides a welcome chance to see the aircraft and vessels that, too often, are left only to the imagination. It’s definitely worth having, both to see the evolution of naval aircraft and aircraft carriers and to have at hand while one is reading less-comprehensively illustrated books.

Air & Space Power History

Another volume in this publisher’s “Images of War” series, this book tells its story mainly by means of extensively captioned photographs, the narrative being limited to a short introduction to each chapter. The numerous photographs are, in the main, reproduced sharply and as large as the page size will allow. The cover describes these as being “Rare Photographs from Naval Archives” and, as such, the majority were new to the reviewer.
The chapters are arranged in more or less chronological order and include such topics as “Pioneers”; “Aircraft Carriers”; “Airships and Flying Boats” as well as the various theatres of war in which the US navy operated.
The author, a former air traffic controller and active private pilot, has written numerous books on aviation, covering a wide range of topics and in this book he traces the history of US naval aviation from its tentative beginnings to the important battles at The Coral Sea and at Midway.
The book is well produced, value, and offers excellent value for money and is recommended to any member with an interest in US naval aviation.

Paul Hare, Cross and Cockade

This latest book in the Images of War series from Pen & Sword gives us a fantastic photographic overview of US Naval Aviation, right from it's start in 1898 to the end of the Second World War. Most pages have just one photo with an extensive caption, which allows the images to be reproduced at a nice size. There is even a chapter on the airship's aircraft carriers Akron and Macon and their little Sparrowhawk biplane fighters, which were air launched via a trapeze (I must get hold of the reissued Williams Brothers kit of this aircraft). This is followed by the main subjects of this title as just over half of the book is dedicated to the Second World War in all theatres where the US Navy operated.
The images in this book, many of which are published for the first time will be invaluable to modellers, showing as they supply details of the aircraft on their carriers, and many show the extensive weathering seen on naval aircraft thanks to their exposure to harsher elements than their land-based equivalents. I was surprised to see just how crowded some of the carrier decks were, and I am sure better modellers than I could create some fantastic dioramas based on the photographs supplied in this new title. As ever, this series and this title are recommended for your home reference library.

SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL January 2022

This is another splendid book from that prolific writer, Leo Marriott. The sub-title “Rare Photographs from Naval Archives” hardly does justice to the hundreds of superb pictures he has collated, supported by detailed captions and introductions to each chapter. The pre WW1 pictures are particularly interesting, such as Eugene Ely’s take-off from a ship in 1910, “a convincing illustration” of the potential for naval aviation. The interwar carriers USS Saratoga and Lexington are well illustrated, and in an article entitled “Coming of Age” the author describes the rapid evolution of both aircraft carriers and naval aircraft, such as of the first monoplane torpedo bomber, the Douglas Devastator (1947).

In “Going to War”, Marriott describes how the US Navy commissioned its newest carrier, USS Wasp – famous for its role in 1942 in ferrying Spitfires to Malta. President Roosevelt ensured the large-scle expansion of the Navy in 1940, enabling new carriers (the Essex class) to be laid down before USA entered the War after the attack on Pearl Harbour. New naval aircraft included the long-lived Douglas Dauntless, also the Wildcat fighter. Many dramatic photographs illustrate crowded carrier decks during the epic battles of the Coral Sea and Midway.

“Hard Times” describes the desparate battles in the south Pacific, starting with the invasion of Guadalcanal and the deployment to the airfield established there by the US Marines of naval aircraft flown in from escort carriers. “Destination Japan” describes the advance across the Pacific and the devastating effect of Kamikaze attacks. This chapter also indicates the huge scale of the expansion of US naval aviation forces. This splendid book closes with illustrations from 1945 of the new Midway class ships, capable of embarking 130 aircraft. “Images of War” is a reasonably-priced softback with an absolute treasure trove of photographs.

Malcolm Smith - Society of Friends of the Flet Air Arm Museum

"The extra text made this a good volume. Enjoyed it."

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The Historical Miniatures Gaming Society

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HeliData News and Helicopter International

"The photos give a very good impression of the nature of the war, and the text serves to explain it very well."

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IPMS/USA

 "...a fine inclusion into a popular series..."

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ModelingMadness.com

This offering from Pen and Sword as part of their Images of War series, covers a period of US naval aviation prior to the start of World War II, of which I knew little about, and proceeds through World War II and so covering a period I am much more familiar with. The contents are well presented, in a fairly chronological order, as well as the developments of aviation in the US Navy.

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Aeroscale

The book charts a rapid development in various technologies, in both ships and aircraft over the course of WW2, facing a very capable naval opponent in the form of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN). It also makes clear the incredible manufacturing capacity of the United States, covering a period where the aircraft carrier came to replace the Battleship as the most powerful vessels afloat. For both naval and aviation enthusiasts and modellers, the detail in here will provide some valuable references as usual.

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Military Model Scene, Robin Buckland

This book basically looks at the growth of the US Navy in the first half of the most devastating century there has been. It primarily follows the aircraft carrier fleet which when seen in quite a few of the photographs look spectacular. But this is really the look at the birth of a navy from the biggest superpower in the world, so we see from the start how they relied upon airships and bi-planes. This book ends in the period of the Second World War as the US are forced to take on Japan and their naval fleet. after the attack on Pearl Harbor that brought the US into the war. The pictures of these ships are always going to look amazing even just going by the sheer size of them. But the number of planes they held are staggering making for another brilliant book. As usual with these Images of Wat books, the pictures are excellent and the supporting text is first-class written by knowledgeable historians. As always a definite recommendation from me.

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UK Historian