Relatively new from Classic comes this 176 page hardbound book on FW-190 operations in North Africa. Specifically Tunisia if you want to get right down to it as the 190 only arrived in theater when the Germans had been pushed back out of Egypt and Libya. It wasn't until November of 1942, around the time that the Allied invaded North Africa in Morrocco that the FW-190 came on the scene.

Interestingly, it wasn't as a fighter that the FW-190 was called into the desert, but as a ground attack aircraft. In fact, the majority of 190s used from its introduction until the collapse of Axis forces in May of 1943, were the ground attack variety. That isn't to say that there were no fighter 190s; II/JG 2 was in theater at about the same time, primarily to provide escort for the jabos as well as to fend off attacks by Allied bombers.

The main ground attack unit was III./ZG 2 which came from Russia when the winter set in there and air operations were severely curtailed due to the weather. In late December of 1942, this unit was redesignated III./SKG 10 and operated as such until it was finally withdrawn at the end of fighting in May of 1943.

What the authors have done, is to provide a day by day diary of those units. An account of the air war in Algeria. What it was like to fly in less than hospitable conditions and against an enemy that was growing stronger day by day.

In addition to a most thorough operational history, there are well over 100 photographs, most from private collections and published here for the first time. The appendices are most complete, providing a complete loss and victory listing, a list of captured 190s (most of them hulks) and a camouflage section amongst them. There are also several superb color profiles and maps of operational areas, something that many books seem to leave out.

It is obvious from reading this that the authors have spent a great deal of time on primary research and the quality shows. This is a book that will be enjoyed by both the historian and the modeler alike.

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