This is an interesting title in Frontline's 'Air War Archives' series. The series is basically a lot of photographs with some historical background on the particular subject. In this case, the book basically covers the operations of 252 Squadron, RAF during WWII.

Initially formed on the Blenheim, it was soon to reequip with the Beaufighter. It was then sent overseas where it spent most of the war. The unit started operations from Malta in 1941. It then began operating out of North Africa so that it could attack shipping in Greece and the surrounding area. It is in this theater where it performed the major number of missions, finally moving to some of the Greek islands late in the war as the Germans left the theater.

Though there were pilots who scored air to air victories, the vast majority of the tasks were anti-shipping with some general ground attack (trains, truck convoys, etc), tossed into the mix.

We are fortunate that many of the more interesting missions were captured on film and it provides us a unique look at the sort of war 252 squadron fought. The majority of the images are nice and clear so that we can see details. It also helped that these folks flew quite low to perform their attacks.

We get to see things like an Italian seaplane base being shot up, vessels of various sizes and types under attack as well as installations being brought under the gun. In all, it is a superb photo record of an aspect of the war that is rarely published. Very much worth picking up and at today's prices a real bargain of a book.

December 2017

Copyright ModelingMadness.com. All rights reserved.

Review book courtesy of  Casemate Publishing, where you can order your copy from this link.

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