Customer Reviews

P-39 Airacobra Aces of World War 2 (Osprey Aircraft of the Aces No 36)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Very good book: contains iformative text, rare photos and perfect profiles. Part about Soviet pilots and regiments is excellent. George Mellinger studied most Russian publications about P-39 in VVS. Book has only one serious disadvantage - extreme thinness.

Though not stricktly an Airacobra book about the plane itself, lots of Airacobra photographs and sideviews can be found in this book. It is indeed a welcome addition to "Attack of the Airacobra, Soviet aces, American P-39s & the War Against Germany", because the latter book may not suffer from extreme thinness, but has an meager photographic section. 'P-39 Airacobra Aces' bridges that gap, because most Airacobra aces were Russian, hence a lot of Russian planes in the sideview section, and quite a lot of photographic material about Russian aces as well. A welcome addition for both modeller and historian and a good book about an underrated plane and its faithfull pilots. If I'm not mistaken this book is also translated into the Russian and part of the 'War in the Air' series of Tornado Publishers (no. 45 of that series), a fitting tribute to the quality of this book.

The P-39 was one of the more obscure USAAF fighters of World War II. It was used in secondary theaters and as a trainer by the USAAF, rejected by the RAF and greatly loved by the Soviet air force, who received thousands via Lend Lease.

This compact volume has a tremendous amount of detail. It profiles the aces who flew the P-39, gives information about their wartime activities, aircraft and units, and includes several pages of beautiful color plates of the P-39 aircraft flown by aces. It will be a worthy addition to the library of aviation and military history buffs and builders of scale model aircraft.

Very good book: contains iformative text, rare photos and perfect profiles. Part about Soviet pilots and regiments is excellent. George Mellinger studied most Russian publications about P-39 in VVS. Book has only one disadvantage - extreme thinness.

It's a very well done and comprehensive book; it accounts in detail the true story of this aeroplane and her pilots. There are the exploits of these men as well the P. 39 combat career, often wrongly slandered. In the second half of the book there is the P.39 combat career in USSR' hands. This last part is very interesting bacause the shadow of secret layered over it so far by soviet regime. All this material is well supported by first hand b&n photos as well fully colourful profiles. At the end of the book there are the plan diagrams also, very interesting especially for modellers.
I' warmly recommend this very fine book to all the people who love the Airacobra!

This has a spical meaning for me, it was the fighter that my father in law became a ace with it. Their are so many things about this plane that were the first ever. For a person who likes aircraft, you will enjoy it.

As a regular reader of 'Wings/Airpower', I found this book completely & absolutely NOT WORTHWHILE. There may be about 3-4 paragraphs about the actual airplane, but the ENTIRE rest of the book deals with "in late Oct. '44, the 3rd Russian squadron of the 5th Ukrainian Airforce changed it's squadron designation to the 18th Russian squadron".

Here are some obvious questions that are NOT answered in the book . . .
1. How did it compare in low-level fighting agaist Zero's? FW-190's? Me-109's?
2. What good qualities did this maligned airplane have that the Russians could trounce FW-190's & Me-109's at low level.

Why aren't there any interviews with pilots? ? ? ?
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If you want a book about paint schemes, it's OK. If you want a book about the Airplane itself, this isn't it.

Very good book: contains iformative text, rare photos and perfect profiles. Part about Soviet pilots and regiments is excellent. George Mellinger studied most Russian publications about P-39 in VVS. Book has only one serious disadvantage - extreme thinness.

This book deals with the men who flew the P-39 Airacobra and achieved the rating of ace. In telling its tale, it follows the typical flow for the Osprey Aircraft of the Aces, namely, telling about the performance of the aircraft with they (the aces) felt about the aircraft. While simplistic, the book does a great job of presenting a readers digets history of these men and preserves their history. While there is no performance data on the P-39 itself, the book does a very good job of describing the Airacobra's performance capabilities against it's foes.

This is a solid four star book. While simple, it makes for good general reading about the Airacobra's aces and enables the reader to identify areas they might be interested in doing additional research (for me, the South Pacific). While the book does talk about the different areas the Airacobra was used in and the units and men that flew them, this book is not a unit history or of the Airacobra. Btw, if you don't understand the title I'm using, Nanette is a book about a pilot who flew P-39's in the SWP.

From the jungle fighting over New Guinea to the cruel
Eastern Front, this aircraft fought hard against the best
Axis aircraft. My favorite WW2 book.