I rather suspect that most non-French readers have a passing judgement on the actions of France in the Second World War that reads somewhat similar to the following: "A bunch of draft-doding yellow-bellies who were the only country that surrendered." I certainly admit to having such an attitude, one which was buttressed by the Frenchmen I met over the years. I well remember a social event here in the lower left corner a few years ago in which a "French intellectual" filmmaker took center stage with his devastating critique of all things American over the past 100 years. When he finally stopped to catch his breath, I interjected, that "yes, if it wasn't for us terrible Americans, you'd be a fifth-generation German-speaker." Needless to say, he left the event shortly thereafter. I have also been known to say that the French Army was the only army in history to be defeated by the same "secret weapon" (the English longbow) twice a hundred hears apart (Crecy and Agincourt).

So, please, take my opening statement about this book in light of the above. Ketley does an excellent job of explaining the milieu in which France entered the Second World War, and clearly shows that French pilots were the equals of both their allies and opponents. As he says, "The Battle of France was lost by the French Army, not the French Air Force."

The pilots of the French Air Force faced situations unlike any faced by any other group of pilots in the war. They were forced to decide whether they would accept the orders of their government - agree or disagree personally - or whether they would court a possible death sentence by opting to become "traitors." (Ultimately, as we all know, the "traitors" were the heroes, and those who "followed orders" lost all honor; interestingly, few in the Air Force were real supporters of the collaborationist Vichy regime.)

Ketley's capsule biographies of individual French Aces goes a long way to providing that kind of understanding that leads to my change of view. His tour de force in the book, is his capsule history of one of the most famous fighter units of the war - certainly for the French the Second World War equivalent of "Le Cigognes" of the First World War: the "Normandie-Niemen" group which fought on the Eastern Front. I personally had no knowledge beforehand of the difficulties these pilots went through to get to their battlefield, or of the difficulties the unit went through merely to survive. With that knowledge, my respect for these men (which was already there) increases very much.

Given that Tamiya has provided the Dewoitine D.520, and Classic Airframes has provided the Morane-Saulnier M.S.406 and Bloch M.B. 152, the profiles in this book are very useful as markings and camouflage guides. Modelers with the Eduard Yak-3 will also be happy with this material. Hopefully, Aeromaster will come out with decals based on these profiles.

Highly recommended.