This volume is #75 in the Aircraft of the Aces series and covers the exploits of those pilots who reached ace status while flying with the Fleet Air Arm in World War II. We almost never think about the Royal Navy when we think of aircraft aces, yet there were a considerable number of them, and here, for the first time, is their story.

The FAA was responsible for the first and last British air to air victory of WWII. The first was a Do-18 shot down by an 803 NAS Skua while the last was an A6M5 shot down by a Seafire III. In between all this were pilots flying Rocs, Fulmars, Wildcats, Hellcats, Corsairs and other types. Their total scores were not that high as the Royal Navy never had the sort of opportunities to participate in major battles that the US Navy had, but they did their job.

Initially poorly equipped for modern naval air war, the pilots of the FAA were eventually to get suitable equipment, much of it in the form of US naval fighters. They served in every theater of operations during the war from the frigid waters of the Arctic to the warm seas of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. This is all divided into five sections; a prologue, the early war, Mediterranean battles, European ops, and the fight against Japan. This book covers their exploits with first hand accounts of the action, a superb choice of photographs and the excellent profiles of Chris Davey.

Overall, it is a book that both historians and modelers alike will find to be invaluable and one that I can recommend with confidence.

March 2007

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