Number 59 in the Aces series, this book concentrates on what was little known and in fact, considered to be a secret and that is the names of those Israeli pilots who had fought in the various Israeli wars.

While I'm not sure how long these folks have been known in country, darn little has been published about their exploits. I did note that most of the bibliography is less than ten years old so it seems as if the tight information blackout about these folks has relaxed considerably in the last decade. I found it quite refreshing to read about the exploits of these pilots as they fought as equally as intense a campaign as did US pilots who were in Vietnam at the same time. Perhaps the only difference is that the US campaign was more protracted.

If you like air to air combat stories, photos of planes being blasted from the skies and images of the victorious pilots and their planes, then this is the book for you. I had no idea at the number of aces that Israel had and the rather long listing in this book only covers those who flew the Mirage or the Nesher. A real plus to me is the number of uncensored photos. Too often period photos of the aircraft have had the serial crudely removed by an uncaring Israeli censor. It seems as if the images in this book came more from unofficial sources so they are, for the most part, unblemished.

As you might also expect from an Osprey book, there are many pages of profiles of the Mirage and Nesher. These profiles cover all aspects of the aircraft in terms of the different camouflage schemes carried and the different unit markings. Two pages are dedicated to a superbly done montage of nose and tail markings. As with post WWII US aircraft, the kill markings marked on the nose of the plane were more often a cumulative total of those obtained by the different pilots who flew that specific aircraft. It meant that some planes had a very impressive tally on the nose!

Bottom line is that this is an excellent book on the subject and one that should find favor with those who are interested as much in the exploits of the men as with the machines they flew.

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