Always a delight to get to read another volume of Pacific Profiles. This series covers my favorite modeling area of WWII, the Pacific Theater. Frankly I have been amazed at what they can cover as the volumes progress. This is one of those more interesting and varied editions.

The book is subtitled 'American Night Fighters Pacific Theater' so it moves out of the Southwest Pacific that have been the norm of their earlier titles. Perhaps it is the start of the broadening of what area is covered, which opens up a number of other possibilities.

Night fighting during WWII was a separate skill that few could really master. Even with early radars, finding a Japanese intruder at night was extremely difficult, even for skilled pilots/radar operators. This volume does include a few shipborne night fighters, but not all as there are no Hellcats included in the book.

The book starts with a short introduction to night fighting along with technical notes on the three most used aircraft; the P-70, P-61, and F4U-2. The latter were all based on the 'birdcage' F4U-1 Corsair. With that out of the way, we get into the units themselves. Some flew a variety of types, but few were really successful. The P-70 proved to be a real disappointment as it took an age to get to altitude, by which time the intruder was already gone. More successful was the P-61 as it was designed as a night fighter from the start and the Corsair had some success. Other types covered are P-38s and PV-1 Venturas.

The majority of the book is broken down by squadron and provides a brief history along with the usual bevy of full color profiles and period photographs. Each profile has an explanation regarding that particular aircraft and it is this, as much as anything else, that makes this series of books so useful. It is a series I look forward to every time a new edition is printed and I know you will find it just as good.

March 2026

Copyright ModelingMadness.com. All rights reserved. No reproduction in part or in whole without express permission.

Review book courtesy of Casemate Publishers. You can get your copy from this link. 

If you would like your product reviewed fairly and quickly, please contact the editor or see other details in the Note to Contributors.