Friday 2 September 2011

New WWI and WWII Titles From Osprey

Osprey Publishing have released two new aviation books this month.

First off is Aviation Elite Units 41: No 60 Sqn RFC/RAF, "When No 60 Sqn arrived in France in May 1916, partially equipped with the delightfully named Morane Bullet, there were only two dedicated single-seat fighter squadrons on the Western Front. Operating initially as a utility unit, No 60 Sqn’s duties were mixed. It was involved in reconnaissance, fighter patrols and escort missions, as well as the landing of spies behind enemy lines. In the opening weeks of the battles of the Somme in the summer of 1916, the squadron suffered heavy casualties and it was withdrawn from the front. Rested and reequipped with Nieuport scouts, the unit went on the offensive. Witnessing the exploits of pilots like Albert Ball, who scored 20 victories with the unit before his death, it rapidly became one of the most successful fighter units of the war. This book tells the complete story of the unit, from its humble beginnings to the end of the war."

The second book is Duel 39: La-5/7 vs Fw 190, "Soviet fighter aviation suffered terribly at the hands of the Jagdwaffe in the first year of the war in the east and, with the arrival of JG 51 and its Fw 190s on the Stalingrad Front in September 1942, things only got worse. However, help was on its way in the form of the La-5. Tougher, faster, and with a greater rate of climb than its predecessors, most were flow by a new generation of better-trained pilots led by combat veterans. These new fighters soon found themselves pitted into action on the Central Sector against the equally new Fw 190As of JG 51. From then on, these two fighters would battle it out in the skies over the Eastern Front. This book tells the complete story of the battles between these two important fighters."

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