Customer Reviews

Gloster Gladiator Aces (Osprey Aircraft of the Aces No 44)

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

 

 

Compared to it's successors, the Hurricane and the Spitfire, the Gloster Gladiator hasn't been much published. This book shows that this plane deserves far more than it got attention-wise. Quite a few of the great names flew Gladiators, the RAF's last fighting biplane and one of the best ever produced. This is a distinction that only the Italian Fiat Cr42 could hope to match as you learn in this book, one of the few about this plane since the classic "The Gloster Gladiator" from Francis K. Mason in 1964, which set the standard about publishing this plane for the last 38 years.

Compared to it's successors, the Hurricane and the Spitfire, the Gloster Gladiator hasn't been much published. This book shows that this plane deserves far more than it got attention-wise. Quite a few of the great names flew Gladiators, the RAF's last fighting biplane and one of the best ever produced. This is a distinction that only the Italian Fiat Cr42 could hope to match as you learn in this book, one of the few about this plane since the classic "The Gloster Gladiator" from Francis K. Mason in 1964, which set the standard about publishing this plane for the last 38 years. This year not only saw the book by Andrew Thomas, but a book by Alex Crawford as well...

When thinking about British fighters of WWII, the Spitfire and Hurricane naturally come to mind first. But the British used other fighters, one of which was the Gloster Gladiator. A fabric-covered biplane, the Gladiator was an anachronism by 1939. Yet it served well during the early part of the war, not only in the RAF, but also with the Royal Navy and Australian, South African, Finnish, Swedish, Greek, Belgian, Norwegian and Chinese air forces.

Author Andrew Thomas clearly did a tremendous amount of research for the book, including interviews with surviving pilots. The color profiles and and photographs are excellent. My only minor quibble with the book is that it would have been improved with a short description of the aircraft itself and its versions.

Very interesting book well written and full of pictures. It would have been nice to complement it with a detailed view of the plane from the inside and outside probably one page with a series of pictures of the main italian and german planes that went against the gladiator. Bravo for the historical research and details.

An obsolete plane by the beginning of WWII, the Gladiator was, however, still used by Britian. Outclassed by ther German Bf-109s, the British pilots still fought in the bi-plane for most of the war.
The British did, however, score heavily aganst the Italians CR.42 bi-plane.
Fighting from China, Britian, Africa, Finland and Iraq, the Gladiator fought valiantly against the Japanese, Italians, Germans, Iraqis and Russians.
The Chinese used the Gladiator against the Japanese A5M 'Claude', scoring decenty with the fighter.
The Finnish also used the Gloster fighter, fighting against Russian fighters.

I found this book a very good source about the British bi-plane fighter that fought for the British, South Africans and Finnish.
This book has aces such as Bill Vale, Marmaduke T. St.John 'Pat' Pattle, Oiva Tuominen, Paavo Berg and more. This book boasts 82 pages of well written facts on the Gloster fighter. This book has color plates of British, Finnish, Chinese, and Belgian Gladiators.
This is another good book by Andrew Thomas. Two thumbs up from me. Another recommended book from Osprey's long line of 'Aircraft of the aces' book.

I have read a number of Osprey's Aircraft of the Aces series. The quality is a mixed bag. Some titles are excellent; Polikarpov I-15,16,153 aces is one of the best. Others are as I stated in a previous review to be tedious, somewhat boring recollections of day to day operations of the fighter aces, while not providing a strategic background or for that matter, any maps.

One thing which is missing from a number of Osprey titles is any data on the Aircraft the aces flew. The series is called AIRCRAFT of the aces, after all.

Although the subject matter has not had much publication, Gladiator aces is lacking. No data whatsoever is provided on the performance aspects and differences of the various Gladiator marks or more importantly, their opposition, mostly the CR.42s of the Regia Aeronautica.

Reading this title, one gets the impression that the Regia Aeronautica was shot down in droves. Indeed, the CR.42 was superior to the Gladiator in all respects.

On the positive side, the color plates are excellent quality. Great for the modeller, like myself. Also, the first hand accounts of ex-Gladiator aces is wonderful. More should have been included.

Overall, unless you are buying the title for the color plates for modelling reference material, I would pass this one by. Indeed, not as good as other Osprey titles.