This was AirDoc's first book in their Post WWII Combat Aircraft Series and like many of their initial offerings, deals with the F-4 Phantom II.

In particular, this one is on USAFE Phantoms based  in Germany. This includes those US based units that were part of the NATO/Germany commitment.

The book is arranged by wing and so that makes things easy to follow. Each section is in both German and English with a lot of very nice color photographs and some equally well done color profiles.

Those wings and their aircraft are:

• 26 TRW  at Zweibruken with the RF-4C

• 36 TFW at Bitburg with the F-4D/E

• 49 TFW at Holloman with the F-4D

• 50 TFW at Hahn with the F-4D/E

• 52 TFW at Spangdahlem with the F-4D/E/G

• 86 TFW at Ramstein with the F-4E

On the inside of the front cover is a short list of those aircraft lost while operating in Europe. As is to be expected, some of the units above no longer exist or are now doing some other mission. To my knowledge, only Ramstein and Spangdahlem, are still being used by the USAF with the others turned over to the German government.

Overall, this really is a superlative work. This is especially true due to the quality and range of photographs that are included. Many of us build models because we like the schemes these aircraft carry and for that reason alone I can highly recommend this one.

May 2006

My thanks to AirDoc for the review book. You can find these at your local hobby shop and if not, ask them to order them for you. You can also order direct by e-mailing them at www.airdoc.eu

If you would like your product reviewed fairly and quickly by a site that has over 300,000 visits a month, please contact me or see other details in the Note to Contributors.