Over the last couple of years, I've become quite attracted to Harpia's books on world wide air forces. In particular, I've found the MiG books to be excellent. They are superbly researched as best as can be and the authors are completely neutral in terms of the political situation revolving around their use. The narrative sticks to the facts (as well as they are known) and it does not hesitate to admit it when the facts are fuzzy or contradictory. It is this approach that makes the books so appealing.

This is their first volume on the operation of MiG and Sukhoi fighters in sub-Saharan Africa. This is an area filled with paranoid governments where secrets are a way of life and finding out any information is tedious and time consuming. There are huge gaps in available information as governments are quite fluid and record keeping is spotty at best. While often the authors will interview the parties who were involved, often time double checking their commentary shows considerable bias in one way or the other. Finding photographs of the subject aircraft is also exceedingly difficult where foreigners with cameras are often seen as spies. Despite this, there are quite a few excellent photos in the book, most of which I've never seen.

The book provides complete stats on the aircraft and nations in question and there are well over 100 full color profiles of many of the planes in question, their schemes gleaned from personal recollections along with those few images I mentioned that even include stills from television broadcasts.

This is the second edition of 2010 with additional information added to the original 2004 edition. Each nation is covered alphabetically with this volume stopping at Ivory Coast. A brief history of the nation's air arm is included and concentrates on their use of MiGs and Sukhois. In several cases, the history is quite extensive and that includes the wars in Angola and between Ethiopia and Eritria. I learned more about those nation's conflicts from this book than from any other source and this information alone is worth the cover price of the book.

It is a book that any aviation enthusiast will find interesting and entertaining. It is a great resource and book that I most highly recommend. I'm looking forward to volume 2 coming back into print.

September 2015

Review book courtesy of  Casemate Publishing, where you can order your copy at this link.

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