Customer Reviews

Mitsubishi/Nakajima G3M1/2/3 96 Rikko L3Y1/2 in Japanese Naval Air Service

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

 

 

Design for the "Nell" (Allied code name) began in 1933. Several years of testing led to deployment in 1937. The best feature of this plane was the long range, which certainly helped in the location and sinking of Task Force Z, the British Ships (Prince of Wales and Repulse). By 1943, the Nells were no longer being used as bombers and were put into service as transports. Just under 1,000 of these medium bomber/transports were built.

38 pages of narrative, 14 pages of what unit served where (not important in my mind, would rather see additional analysis of what made this a good or bad plane), 2 pages of data. So why three stars? No line drawings showing the planes features, no color plates showing the camoflague schemes. At this price, there should be. It detracts from the value for a modeler.

Not much has been written in English on Japanese planes in the west. This will have to do until someone realizes there is an eager market looking for better material on aircraft that served in Japanese service.

In addition to providing a wealth of information about the Nell, this is one of the few books that offers a summary of the air war between Japan and China before December 1941.