Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #423754 in Books
• Published on: 2000-01-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 160 pages

Synopsis
With detailed explanatory captions throughout, this is an outstanding effort, gloriously recording the Royal Air Force operations of World War Two in rare colour images never before assembled in such numbers, and of such quality. The photographs presented, many taken by US servicemen who had casier access to colour film, attempt as thorough a coverage of RAF machines and personnel as possible.

Customer Reviews

Colour
Roger Freeman is well known for his obsession with the 8th Air Force and the planes of WW2. This is another stunning book that collects probably all the official colour photos from the RAF in WW2 together, with informative commentary for each picture.
You may have seen some of these pictures before, but surely not even half. Although the colour is often faded, the pictures are of a high standard, from the atmospheric scene at a bomber base early on to the struggle for Italy using unual liveries on Mosquitoes and Spitfires.
It is all random, since only the colour pictures are here, so if film was available in Africa, then tropical filtered Spitfires is what you get, in sand colour camo. As for the planes, there are the favourite Lancasters, Hurricanes and Mustangs, but the majority are lesser types, Warwicks, Stirlings, Halifaxes and even a Hawker Henley. Training and transport flights are always easier to photograph than a combat mission, so Churchills private Liberator and a silver Stirling feature too.
Not only planes, but the human face of war is shown, with pilots getting a hair-cut in the open air in front of his Spitfire. Some quaint shots show beach umbrellas to shade the summer sun on an airfield, not in standard camouflage (blue and white stripes). The usual line-up photos of a bomber crew or 2 are featured, and the comments leading each photo seem to have been pain-stakingly researched, as are the chapter introductions. Guy Gibson features, but not the even greater hero Leonhard Cheshire VC. Perhaps it is only those that klaid down their lives for their friends hwo make it to the book?
Tiny details, such as planes in the backgroud are also mentioned, so there is not a shadow of a doubt about what and where the photo was taken. Detailed notes about liveries and production paint jobs explain the reminder of the pictures. Some experimental types such as the Airocobra squadron and Vampires which never really got to join in the battle against the Nazi's are included, but little from the war against Japan.