- Joined
- 23 August 2013
- Messages
- 95
- Reaction score
- 2
Crecy needs to be complimented for the quick and timely release of the third hard back book in the series covering yet another exotic geo - Asia
This latest esoteric title covers all the Asian countries Afghanistan , Bangladesh, to Turkey and Vietnam incl Papua New Guinea and surprisingly Japan (during WW II) and South Korea - India and China have the biggest coverage and take up almost half the book. The Sri Lankan story is quite interesting including the introduction of the Mig 27 as is the Indonesian one esp the tales around the Tu-16 Badger and Mongolian Hinds.
Each country has a chapter with text and photos in a chronological order - with many period b/w and new colour photos - and around 150 + colour side profiles and some sqn badges - many of which will interest modellers.
The text deals with the historical and operational use of the Russian types(aircraft + Helicopters) in each country.At the end of each chapter , there is a listing of serial numbers of the ex-Russian aircraft and a status for each serial - some squadron numbers and location deployments are not listed.There are almost 40 pp of China Serial numbers and 30 Pp for India.
There is some new info on North Korea like the use of Tu-143 UAV - but photo caption typos persist eg on pp 271 the famous F-6 defection to South Korea by Capt Lee is shown as 1966 , whereas it was in 1996.
The details of the many skirmishes and air wars the Russian aircraft have participated seems quite sketchy and could have had more details esp on Russian doctrine tactics adopted.
On the plus side , there are some interesting colour profiles and lavish b/w and colour pictures - although its strange that some of the Indian air force photos taken by the Australian Peter Steineman Pp 169 are used in complete ignorance but i found the aircraft type coverage of India and China to be comprehensive with no major omissions.
My big gripe is that again apart from web sites - no bibliography is provided for additional reading.
To summarise , this is a lavish and colourful compilation and introduction to Soviet/Russian a/c in Asia and serves well as a concise historical record of aircraft types and well worth collecting.
The blurb on the back cover states that there will be a fourth volume on Latin and Central American countries which will complete a fascinating history and survey from Yefim Gordon's stable.
This latest esoteric title covers all the Asian countries Afghanistan , Bangladesh, to Turkey and Vietnam incl Papua New Guinea and surprisingly Japan (during WW II) and South Korea - India and China have the biggest coverage and take up almost half the book. The Sri Lankan story is quite interesting including the introduction of the Mig 27 as is the Indonesian one esp the tales around the Tu-16 Badger and Mongolian Hinds.
Each country has a chapter with text and photos in a chronological order - with many period b/w and new colour photos - and around 150 + colour side profiles and some sqn badges - many of which will interest modellers.
The text deals with the historical and operational use of the Russian types(aircraft + Helicopters) in each country.At the end of each chapter , there is a listing of serial numbers of the ex-Russian aircraft and a status for each serial - some squadron numbers and location deployments are not listed.There are almost 40 pp of China Serial numbers and 30 Pp for India.
There is some new info on North Korea like the use of Tu-143 UAV - but photo caption typos persist eg on pp 271 the famous F-6 defection to South Korea by Capt Lee is shown as 1966 , whereas it was in 1996.
The details of the many skirmishes and air wars the Russian aircraft have participated seems quite sketchy and could have had more details esp on Russian doctrine tactics adopted.
On the plus side , there are some interesting colour profiles and lavish b/w and colour pictures - although its strange that some of the Indian air force photos taken by the Australian Peter Steineman Pp 169 are used in complete ignorance but i found the aircraft type coverage of India and China to be comprehensive with no major omissions.
My big gripe is that again apart from web sites - no bibliography is provided for additional reading.
To summarise , this is a lavish and colourful compilation and introduction to Soviet/Russian a/c in Asia and serves well as a concise historical record of aircraft types and well worth collecting.
The blurb on the back cover states that there will be a fourth volume on Latin and Central American countries which will complete a fascinating history and survey from Yefim Gordon's stable.