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Squadron/Signal Publications |
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French Bombers of World War II in Action by Alain Pelletier |
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Reviewed By David M. Knights, #17656 |
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MSRP: $9.95 Aircraft Number 189 French bombers. O.K., everybody, insert your own joke here. Now that you have that out of your system, on to the review. By now all modelers are familiar with the typical “in Action” format. This book has 49 pages laid out in 8 ½″ by 11″ landscape format, with 2 pages of color side drawings of 10 different aircraft. This title covers 8 World War II French bombers; namely the Amiot 143, Bloch 210, Farman 222, Bloch 131, LeO 451, Breguet 693, Bloch 175 and Amiot 354. Each section in the book covers a different aircraft. In each section the text gives a brief overview of the type’s development followed by a brief history of the aircraft’s use in service. Along with the text there are a number of black and white photographs of each type of aircraft. The reader comes away from this book with the distinct impression that the French aviation industry was a mess prior to World War II. This appears to have been aggravated by the nationalization of the French aircraft industry in the late 1930s. Additionally, due to problems in the French aero engine industry, the French manufactured many of their bomber aircraft with several different types of engines. As a result of all the problems, production of bombers prior to World War II lagged far behind demand. I am of two minds about this book. On the one hand, it provides the reader with a general overview of the types of French bomber aircraft available to the French Air Force prior to World War II. On the other hand, because of the number of aircraft covered and the limited number of pages provided by the “in Action” format, there is only cursory information and a few pictures of each aircraft type. As such the book is of only limited use to a modeler. Ultimately, with an inexpensive price of $8.97 from Squadron Mail Order, I can say that this book is worth the money to provide a person with some basic information about French World War II bombers, even if, to the modeler, the book is of limited use due to the lack of in-depth detail on each aircraft. |
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