A new book in my library.

special ed said:

Some one has been in my bookshelves! Wait while I check.

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It's OK, There still there.

Christmas all over again Karl.

Good buy on an interesting subject with a patchy and short history.

It is probably the best book out there on the bird. It is interesting to do a comparison between the F-20, the JAS-39, the FA-50 and the T-7A - I will present this in the coming days.

Newest Arrivals

Top two look interesting Paul

fubar57 said:

Top two look interesting Paul

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Thanks George

Micdrow said:

Thanks George

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I'm with fubar57 , Paul. How are they, worth?

The C-47 book looks good too - well done Paul!

Micdrow,

I got the top two when they first came out. Volume 1, the early chapters on the formation of Army Co-operation Command (ACC) and early years in the UK I was not particularly impressed with. I found too many errors and poorly or incorrectly captioned photos. He missed the significance of many of the photo subjects and in quite a few instances got them completely wrong.

As some examples, Mustang Mk.I aircraft of No.26 Squadron being captioned as being photographed during Exercise SPARTAN in early 1943, when in fact the photo shows Mustang Mk.I aircraft of that Squadron from early 1945 when they were involved in Naval Gunnery Spotting against German hold out ports along the French coast. Another being, the Typhoon on page 62 which is labelled as temporary markings for trials purposes, when in fact it was a temporary recognition marking applied to Typhoons for a short period not long after they were introduced into RAF service. And there were more.

On a listing of RAF Army Co-operation Command Squadrons in the UK 1939-1941 the author includes No.168 Squadron which was not formed until June 1942, along with No.171 Squadron which was also not formed until June 1942. Omission of squadron codes in Appendix for a number of the ACC Squadrons that did carry squadron codes on their aircraft at various times in the period the Appendix covers. This I found particularly annoying given his other previous works in the Combat Codes books where he did include them - inconsistency.

Also statement on page 63 about the ACC Tomahawks not being fitted with cameras "so recce was by eye, note and radio". Not so, ACC Tomahawks were fitted with both oblique and vertical reconnaissance cameras, that being the reason why many ACC Squadrons kept a couple of Tomahawks on strength after they got Mustangs to keep particularly the vertical camera capability available for use in exercises and training whilst the vertical camera installation was sorted for the Mustangs. Photo attached shows three Tomahawks of No.26 Squadron RAF over the UK in 1941 with the port in the fuselage side for the oblique camera lens clearly visible - arrowed on the rearmost of the three. There are a number of detail photos around showing the exact installation arrangement for the oblique camera installation in the RAF Tomahawks, even Airfix on the 1/48th Tomahawk kit got it right.

Sorry guys took so long, between going back to work and switching back from 1st shift to 3 shift hours has taken a toll and still going through Airventure pictures. Between my son and I we took around 12k of pictures. Weeding out the good from the bad well taken time. As far as questions on the books looks like Colin gave a good discription of the book. I just opened both of them for the second time to scan these pages on topics in book. First scan book one and second scan book two.

Hope it helps

Paul

Today's delivery from the post man. The latest release from Avonmore Publishing in Australia, with a quintessentially Australian aviation topic, the CAC Boomerang. Typical Avonmore style, size, format, and is the first book by author Don Williams. Illustrations by Michael Claringbould. Contents look interesting, and I would best sum this up as a good primer on the CAC Boomerang, with a balanced depth of information for someone who may not be overly familiar with the type and its history, without diving down into the weeds of 'rivet counter' detail. Includes a number of original period photographs as well as photographs of a number of Boomerangs that have been, or are in the process of being, restored to flight via the expertise of Matt Denning. I have a personal interest in the history of the Boomerang, as a family member worked at the CAC factory during WW2 on the production line building the Boomerang, and also its use in the Tac/R role by the RAAF during WW2. On my initial look through the newly delivered book I found plenty to catch my eye and will probably be heading rapidly to the top of my 'to read' pile.

Great buy Col.

Good stuff Paul... and Colin, will get my copy of the Boomerang book tomorrow...!

My latest collected yesterday....