One of the more aviation-progressive nations of Central America was the island nation of Cuba. The first volume covered Cuba's aviation history up to the mid-1950s. By that time, Cuba had a pretty hefty military aviation that was basically made from WWII era aircraft. This included B-26 Invaders, P-47 Thunderbolts and T-6 trainers. The service wasn't free of jet aircraft as they eventually got a number of T-33s, each of which had wing pylons and a pair of nose .50 caliber machine guns. All of the B-26s were the 'glass nose' B-26C variants. Despite the attempts at getting jet fighters, that was not immediately forthcoming.

The mid-1950s were also a time of what we could easily call a time of civil war with the Castro brothers and Che Guevara doing what they could to remove the US supported dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. Not surprising was that Batista came into power via overthrowing the previous democratically elected government, part of many such events that had plagued Cuba and other Latin American nations.

Though Cuba had a fairly large and well equipped Army, it was the Air Force that seemed to be the most effective. The pilots had been trained in the US and the service had a fairly large fleet of C-46 and C-47 transports that were able to keep the Army supplied during its battles against the insurgents. Against this, the insurgents had better tactics, but other than a few light aircraft, lacked any sort of airpower. To make a long story short, the insurgents were able to win battles and force Batista's government off the island. This left them with a powerful air force with few pilots as all those loyal to the previous regime were jailed.

Eventually trained pilots were found (as in many mercenaries) and some additional aircraft that had been ordered by the earlier government (Sea Furies) were added to the force. This was a good thing for Castro as the P-47s had been pretty well grounded due to lack of parts. These aircraft along with the T-33s were put to good use during the Bay of Pigs invasion. It also helped that the USS Essex did not intervene, though kept a close eye on things. This particular campaign also takes up a fair amount of page space with most of the combat sorties covered. The book stops right after that and just before Soviet aircraft were inducted into the Air Force.

As usual the book is very well researched and quite image intensive. This is something I appreciate and it makes for one of the quicker reads. I can imagine that doing research on a subject like this is not the easiest, but they have pieced together quite a readable history. It makes for a great read and I can recommend this one to you. 

June 2026

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