Specialty Press

Latin American Air Wars and Aircraft 1912-1969

by  Dan Hagedorn

Reviewed By  Fred Horky, IPMS# 6390

MSRP: $59.95 ISBN: 1-902109-44-9 Hardbound, 9x12", 176 pgs. Available from Specialty Press (www.specialtypress.com) and all major book sources Things Latin American are sometimes an enigma to most of us, and being little understood, are often shrugged off. We tend to think that everything and everybody south of the Rio Grande have a homogenized sameness, and that the countries are more or less alike! Years ago I had somewhat similar views, at least until assigned to Military Advisory duties in Venezuela in the middle 1970's. The experience taught me that all Latin countries are NOT all alike, and beyond that are constantly changing...as underlined by political events in that same Venezuela in recent years! We also often tend to put down or minimize the conflicts among these countries as comical or even burlesque, using terms like "Banana Republic War" and the "Soccer War" to describe them. However to the participants they were very serious business, with complex causes. This book is many things: for one, it is an "experiment in publishing". It could be described as a very attractive illustrated military history of some 176 pages. But when a huge on-line textual supplement is combined with the books printed material, photographs, and drawings; it literally becomes a virtual encyclopedia on its subject. Author Hagedorn's research for this book can only be described as monumental. He has organized the book into thirty-five separate chapters, each on a separate air war and related series of air actions, including wars with neighboring countries, internal civil wars and coups. The chapters are in a basic chronological order. A textual outline of the action is provided in each, with hundreds of very interesting photos, mostly B&W, of the many and wildly varying aircraft types obtained from all over the world, and even including a very few indigenous aircraft. The book begins with detailed accounts of some of the world's first aerial combats, occurring during the prolonged Mexican revolution period of the very early 20th century. They proceed with all the combats, large and small, of the rest of Latin America. About midway through Chapter 17, the many and widely varied actions and positions taken by all of the countries during WWII are described. These range from the nearly-hostile neutrality of countries with political ties to fascist Germany and Italy (at least until they saw that the Axis was going to lose!); to the enthusiastic, if limited, participation on the allied side by Mexico and Brazil. Again, the Latin American countries were and are not all alike! Also included in this chapter are the considerable numbers of aircraft and actions of the United States Armed Forces in defending the vital Panama Canal from attack, as well as very real combats against the German submarine menace in the Atlantic and Caribbean. Each succeeding chapter continues to be supplemented by a vast on-line textual history, which besides including the "Air Order of Battle" material listing units and aircraft, with background historic, economic, and political material explaining the roots of these conflicts, plus many interesting anecdotes of individual actions, losses, and more. The publishers in fact claim over 175,000 words of virtual textual supplement, but who is counting? This on-line supplement is available only to those with the book. The book ends with the 1969 war between El Salvador and Honduras …the so-called "Soccer War" … which, while World Cup soccer matches between the two countries did serve as the match igniting the war, were NOT the cause! Excellent color illustrations and a great selection of photos illustrate the text of the book's printed pages and the on-line supplement, to describe every action by every pilot in that 100 hour war. My only disappointment was that the book ends with that war. It would be wonderful to have Hagedorn's excellent research extend, for example, to the Falklands war between Argentina and Great Britain in 1982, and the several other revolutions and civil wars involving airpower that have occurred since, most notably Venezuela. Perhaps we'll eventually see a second volume! This book is highly recommended to anyone with an interest in Latin American military aviation. Modelers with a serious interest in Latin American historical events will find many unusual modeling subjects, with mostly B&W photos but a few vintage color pictures. One opportunity would be using the excellent photos and color profile to build the sole USAAF C-79 … a Junkers Ju 52 "Tante Ju" impressed from an airline! My thanks to IPMS/USA and Specialty Press for the review example.

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