First of all, let me dispense with the background info on the book.

The size of the book is B5 (250x174 mm) with laminated soft covers, 128 pages printed on glossy art paper. The main text is Finnish with an  English summary. Photo captions are fully bi-lingual for over 200 top quality pictures supplemented by color profiles inside the covers and several pages of scale drawings of the aircraft that are covered.

Unlike the unit books, this one covers specific aircraft types and is divided into sections, each detailing a single type. Here are the main types covered:

Letov S 218 A Smolik, VL Viima I/II/IIB, Focke-Wulf FW-44J Stieglitz, VL Tuisku, VL Saaski I/II/IIA/IV, Aero A-32GR, DeHavilland DH-60 and DH-82, and a final section covering some aircraft operated in ones and twos.

Each aircraft section includes a goodly number of superb photos (often of crashed aircraft!), a history of each type, a listing of each aircraft number in the series and its fate, and several excellent black and white profiles and three views. The listing above appears to be in order of importance as there were a lot more Letov S 218s than there were DH.82 Tiger Moths. The number of pages devoted to each type is determined by the number of planes in service. The final section includes such varied types as the Beech Staggerwing and J6 Jaktfalk.

As mentioned, the book is in Finnish, but all the photos have English captions. There is a two page English summary at the back of the book. Had I a reservation about this volume it would be that the individual aircraft histories and the stats page are not repeated in English. I'm aware that this book will probably not have the kind of interest outside of Finland as others just by the nature of its rather esoteric subject, but it would have been nice to have a complete transcription, perhaps as add-in sheets. The photos are excellent and include several in color on the outside covers. The profiles are also superbly done and combined with the photos are a real boon to modelers, though finding some of these subjects in kit form may take some serious hunting!

I can highly recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in the Finnish AF during the war years and who wants a superb reference. I can pretty well guarantee that you won't find this material from any other source!

Review book courtesy of  Kari Stenman Publishing, where you can order your copy of this and many other superb books on the Finnish AF.

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