Customer Reviews

Dive Bomber

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The dive bomber was an important weapon of World War 2, whether it was the Stukas of the Blitzkrieg, the dreaded Vals of Pearl Harbor, or the Helldivers that sank the greatest battleships in the Japanese Imperial Fleet. This book is a very good history of dive bombers and dive bombing, from the discovery of the tactic during World War 1, through to the end of World War 2. Along the way, the reader is treated to a fair number of black-and-white pictures and illustrations.

I must admit, when I first saw this book, I was intrigued by the subject. Well, I found the book to be a very informative look at dive bombers and dive bombing, covering many eras and countries. The author did a good job of keeping me interested, while he told his story of this interesting chapter in military aviation. I really liked the book, and am very glad that I read it.

A reasonable history of the Dive Bomber, with slight over-focus on the failure of the RAF. (The conclusions of a couple whole chapters can be summed up: The top RAF brass stubbornly ignoring the Dive Bomber, while other countries had years before proved it worked very well.) There's a nice mix of plane descriptions, pilots, research, and personalities. Smith's references are all English language sources, so the insight into Italian, German and especially the Japanese airforces is tenuous. The most disappointing omission is the post-WWII period, only a few pages in total are devoted to several wars. The crucial period where Dive Bombers began to be replaced by guided missiles is barely mentioned.