Customer Reviews

Mitsubishi A6M-1/2/2-N Zero-Sen of the Japanese Naval Air Service: (Schiffer Military/Aviation History)

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

 

 

The Zero is one of WW2 most famous aircraft, and rightly so. Built for carrier operations, long range and manueverabilty were prized over everything else. Heavily armed with 2x20mm and 2x 7.7mm cannon, fast and agile, it ruled the skies in the Pacific until the Hellcat and Corsair came along. 10,500 planes were built, making it the most widely produced Japanese plane, but it could not match the production or quality of later of US fighters. The Wildcat, once it learned not to try to dogfight the Zero, could use "slash and dash" tactics agaainst the Zero but needed to be very careful against this plane.

Unlike the other books by Richard Bueschel, there are some choices for readers interested in the Zero. "Koga's Zero" is one, "Axis Aircraft of WW2" and "Zero In Action" are others. 25 pages of text, decent B&W photos, 5 pages of unit history, 2 pages of data. There are no color plates, photos or line drawings at all, which is why I rated this 3 stars. For this price, you should get more.

A luke warm recommendation since there is so little else available. The In Action version is better on every level and usually less expensive.

I said in a previous review "As with all books in the Osprey/Aircam series -in the US published as Airco/Aircam- it is well worth searching for. One would hope that the publisher would consider a re-issue every 20 years or so, but until now that has not been the case. That is even more to be regretted as one consideres that the volume about the Zero was a volume 1, implying that they had more material and that a volume 2 was also considered"
Well, good news, this is the second, revised and updated, edition of the former book. The same holds true for the other titles in this series, which has already extended further than the original. A must buy for anyone seriously interested in Japanese military aviation.