It's a battle of the series this month, as three Combat Aircraft and three Aircraft of the Aces titles go head-to-head in our Book Vote.
ACE: F6F Hellcat Aces over the Philippines
The US Navy’s carrier fighters, principally the F6F Hellcat, claimed more Japanese aircraft destroyed during the Philippines campaign than during any other period of the war. Out of the US Navy’s top ten highest total daily claims, three occurred over the Philippines and one over Formosa in support of operations in the Philippines. Flying the superlative F6F Hellcat, which equipped nearly all of the Fast Carrier Task Force’s carrier fighter squadrons during the campaign, US Navy fighter squadrons claimed 1189 Japanese aircraft shot down over Formosa and the Philippines and an additional 1590 aircraft destroyed on the ground.
ACE: Kittyhawk Aces of the Pacific
The Curtis P-40, known as the Kittyhawk in British and Commonwealth service, was produced in greater numbers than any other US fighter type and under the Lend-Lease agreements were supplied in significant numbers to the Royal Australian and Royal New Zealand Air Forces that were in desperate need of modern fighters following the stunning Japanese success following the Pearl Harbour attack. The Commonwealth flown Kittyhawks, alongside their USAAF P-40 stable mates, played a the key part in halting that advance in the desperate early 18 months of war.
ACE: Macchi C.202/205 Aces
The C.202s and C.205s were the Regia Aeronautica’s most modern and important fighters during World War 2, and pilots that flew these formidable aircraft could take on their Allied fighter counterparts with something approaching performance parity. Many Italian fighter aces claimed some or all of these aerial victories in the Macchi fighters, seeing combat through the end of the Italian war alongside other Axis powers, initially with the Regia Aeronautica through to September 1943 and then with the Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana until May 1945.
COM: He 111 Units In North Africa and the Mediterranean
Contrary to popular belief, the He 111 was not just a bomber, but also performed a multitude of roles including anti-shipping and torpedo missions, transport, covert operations and agent-dropping and weather reconnaissance – all of which it undertook, as well as being flown as a conventional bomber, in Germany's North African and Mediterranean theatres until eventually being supplanted by the Ju 88. This is the third, and last, of three volumes on the He 111 in the Osprey COM series.
COM: P-47N Thunderbolt Units of the Pacific War
The P-47N was the final variant of the most produced American fighter of World War 2. Only four frontline fighter groups were equipped with the fighter in the Pacific theatre from May to August 1945, but in that time they saw extensive action over the Japanese Home Islands. The N-model’s additional fuel made it the ideal strike aircraft, flying from bases on Ie Shima and Iwo Jima, to strike Japanese airfields while B-29 raids targeted Japan’s industrial base.
COM: A-7 Corsair II Units in Combat 1975-91
A veteran of the Vietnam War, the A-7 Corsair II was the US Navy’s principal light strike attack aircraft from the late 1960s until its replacement by the F/A-18 20 years later. At its peak, in the mid-1980s, some 30 US Navy squadrons flew various versions of the A–7 – often in garish unit markings. The aircraft saw brief but bloody combat in conflicts during the mid-1970s (Cambodia), 1980s (Lebanon, Grenada, Libya and Iran) and 1991 (Iraq). This volume is a follow-on to COM 46, and is crammed full of firsthand accounts and action photographs.
Have your say on this month's picks and see the results of last month's incredibly close Combat vote on our blog.
Osprey Publishing Ltd
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