Always nice to see a new series and I do hope this one sticks around. I was equally jazzed about the Korean War aviation series of a few years back and it just stopped, much to my dismay. This one is called 'Duel' and it basically looks at what is hopefully a similar weapons system as used by both sides of the conflict. You might think this pretty easy to do, but if you really think about it, it is quite rare for two similar things to be developed at exactly the same time. There is going to be a disparity between the two chosen as one will always be newer than the other.

So it is with this first volume that looks at the P-51 Mustang and FW-190 'Wurger'. Work on the 190 began in 1937, while the Mustang was a 1941 project, so there is five years of aviation progress between the two. Not such a big deal today where it takes that long if not more for a new aircraft system to reach unit service, but in the late 1930s/early 1940s, it was often the difference between cutting edge and obsolescent.

As you might expect, the Mustang is the better of the 190 in all flight modes other than roll rate, where the 190 has the edge. You could also give the greater punch of the Focke-Wulf's cannon a bit of an edge, but the Mustang's .50 cal Brownings were much faster firing and in the end put a great amount of lead in a given area per unit time.

Not to say that the 190 was an outmatched aircraft, but the truth is that unless flown by an experienced pilot, the Mustang usually had the better of a fight. During the period chosen by the book, 1943-45, the quality of Germany pilots, aside from the shrinking number of 'experten', was significantly inferior to the American pilots, most of whom had hundreds of hours in the air during training before heading to the war. For the Germans, usually they had less than 100 hours of total flying time before being strapped into their 190s and sent against the enemy.

The book looks at several aspects of the two including the design and development of the aircraft, technical specifications, how they were used in combat, the quality of the pilots and some examples of men who flew both types, how they performed in combat, and a section on statistics and analysis of the types.

All this is further enhanced by quality photos and drawings of the salient parts of both aircraft. Though it is quite minor, I notice that the wing leading edge of the P-51B and P-51D drawings are the same and the one of the B should be shallower near the wing root. To the author's credit, there was no mention of the Mustang having been 'designed in 90 days'. There is also little mentioned on how much it was opposed by Generals in the top of the Army chain of command as it wasn't designed for the US but the Brits.

Overall a fascinating book that looks at two of the major combattants of WWII. I'm sure there will be others in the series and I look forward to them with great anticipation. A book I can recommend to you without reservation.

September 2007

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