Customer Reviews

Spitfire Mark I/II Aces 1939-1941 (Osprey Aircraft of the Aces No 12)

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

 

 

Most of the Ospery titles have been very good. But this one was lacking something. It needed to cover more of the pilots who flew the planes rather than the plane. There were some BOB aces that weren't mention who did quite well.

The Ospery series is one of the best available, and well worth looking up. This book though doesn't cover the aces well enough.

These books from Osprey are the best for reference in what I do which is aviation art and historical art. On the mark!

Thanks.

Giving up the obsolescent Gladiators, Furies ect. in '40-41, the pilots began training in the newer and more advanced airplane, the Spitfire. The first Spitfires to enter service early in the war had their shortcomings, such as range, armor and hard hitting armament (even though the 8 .303 cal. stayed with the fighter for most of the war). The pilots of the new plane ued their planes hard against the Germans during BoB (Battle of Britain).

I was disappointed that 'Spitfire mark I/II aces' was based more on the plane and the upgrades it went through than the aces that flew them. There is 75% information on the Mk.I/II and the improvements that it underwent and 25% information on the aces. I would recommend this book for someone who wants to read more about the plane than the aces.
But the book does have a few aces such as George 'Grumpy' Unwin, Desmond Sheen and more.

The Hurricane Aces 39/40 book was superior to the Spitfire Mark I/II Aces. The Hurricane Aces book has more pages and there was more emphasis on the aces particulary about how many aces were kiled and/or wounded. There was too much technical data on the Spitfire and one chapter was totally to two of the Spitfire aces. Should have been more information about how many Spitfire Aces there were and how many were killed or wounded during 1939/41 period.

Alfred Price is the doyen of Spitfire authors, having published at least a dozen books on the aircraft, so it was probably hard for him to come up with new angles to cover. In this book he succeeds admirably, covering the combat use of the first two versions of the Spitfire, and giving brief bios of several important aces who flew the aircraft. Price covers both the build-up to the Battle of Britain, and the Spitfire's important part in that epic struggle. Best of all is the visual material. Among the many photos of pilots and aircraft are several I haven't seen before. There are forty well executed color side profiles of aces' Spitfires; although the Dark Green and Dark Earth color schemes of most of the aircraft can get a bit boring, they are an invaluable aid, particularly to modelers. A fine job.

I found that Mr. Price spent more time on tactics and the aircraft itself than the pilots that flew it to 5 victories. I must admit I'm a bit bias having read Mr. Weal's BF109D/E aces book beforehand and was therefore hoping Mr. Price's book would follow the same writing style. I was disappointed. There had to be more than the 10 pilots Mr. Price focused on that achieved 5 victories in this marque of Spitfire.