Now for volume two on the Brewster Model 239. The last edition left off in mid 1942 and was concentrated on the operations of LLeLv 24 (which later became LeLv 24 and eventually HLeLv 24). For those of you who are not familiar with the Finnish AF around this time. It was quite common for a major unit like this to be made up of one type of aircraft, assuming there were enough of them. The operations of this unit are fully covered up until 1944 when they traded in their Brewsters for Bf-109s. Then the remaining Model 239 were transferred to HLeLv 26, which continued to operate the type through the remaining war with the Russians and then the Lapland War with the Germans until the type was retired in 1948.

In addition, there is a section on the Finnish developed 'Humu' of which only one was completed and thanks to the long delay in getting it built, there would be no more.

This is followed by an extensive listing of victories achieved with the Brewster and a short history of each serial number. These last two sections are completely in Finnish, but are, for the most part, rather easily deciphered. The rest of the write-up and all the image captions are in both Finnish and English.

Then there is a map showing all the various airfields, followed by some period color images and color photos of the Humu, which is fully restored. Then there are nine pages of color profiles of some of the more important aircraft, all showing the color schemes used at various periods of time in the life of the aircraft.

An outstanding book with hundreds of clear, sharp period images (and a couple of fuzzy ones as well which are included due to their importance). This makes it an outstanding companion to the first volume and a must for anyone with an interest in an aircraft that was a disaster every where it flew except for Finland!

October 2005

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

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