New Book Covers Naval Mosquito in Exquisite Photo Detail

de Havilland Mosquito - an Illustrated History
Crecy Publishing (dist. in USA by MBI, and available on Amazon)
Review by Ned Barnett
Review copy courtesy Crecy and MBI

The new Mosquito book (de Havilland Mosquito - an Illustrated History) by Crecy arrived today, and though I'm on deadline with a client, I just spent two enraptured hours browsing through it - reading some of the chapter introductions and not less than a hundred or so captions. The book is mostly previously unseen photos and remarkably detailed (I mean REMARKABLY detailed) captions. Never seen anything quite like it.

I cannot believe that any modeler wanting to build a Mosquito could do so without this book - it has details beyond galore, markings I'm not used to seeing on RAF aircraft (American-style nicknames, mission-marks, etc.), battle damage, weird offshoot uses ... everything - including a special section on the anti-sub version with a 57mm (aka 6-pounder) cannon.

As for historians, no one can really understand the operation of this magnificent flying machine without wading deep into the operational specifics of individual aircraft, and this book does it in spades. A final "thank you" to the author - those war-time de Havilland ads are eye-poppers - one of them showed the aircraft at an angle that made me immediately realize how much later DH aircraft (the NF Sea Venom is what I'm thinking of) were based on the design work of the Mosquito - but all show a real taste for the wartime nature of Britain, one I found enchanting (as I did all those photos of the UK's own "Rosie the Riveters" building the Mosquitos).

Cap that off with the clear superiority of Crecy book manufacturing standards (remember, I've worked with a half-dozen publishers and had nine of my own books published - and I wish any of my publishers or publisher-clients did half so good a job at producing a fine-quality product), and this is a remarkable, fantastic book.

Bottom line - if you have any interest in the Mosquito - Sea Mosquito or anti-shipping Mosquito being most focused for this list - you NEED this book. Distributed by MBI in the States, Crecy in the UK and who knows in Oz and elsewhere - but on Amazon and certainly well worth picking up.

I'll publish a more detailed review later - but this is too good to wait.

The First Team: Pacific Naval Air Combat from Pearl Harbor to Midway - and - The First Team and the Guadalcanal Campaign

The First Team – Pacific Naval Air Combat from Pearl Harbor to Midway
and
The First Team and the Guadalcanal Campaign

John B. Lundstrom

U.S. Naval Institute Press

(Review Copy provided by review author)

I have been studying naval aviation combat since the early 1960s, and I have never come across a book half so comprehensive, from a historical basis – nor half so useful, from a modeling perspective – as this two-volume set recently reprinted by the Naval Institute Press. The title – “The First Team” – refers to US Naval Aviator fighter pilots who were in service at the start of World War II; a convenient way of focusing on naval fighter combat from December 7, 1941 to the end of the Guadalcanal campaign in early February, 1943. This was a time when the F4F Wildcat bore the brunt of the aerial warfare – a few F2A Buffalo fighters served in the Navy during this time-frame, but the only Buffaloes that saw combat were serving with the Marines (who are outside the scope of this two-volume study).

This book covers literally every incident of aerial combat that included US Navy fighter aircraft from December 7 through the end of Guadalcanal. I mean EVERY incident, every American shoot-down (and every American shot down) and every American carrier attack on a Japanese island target fought during the first 14 months of the war in the Pacific: the Wake relief force, the Gilbert, Marshall and Marcus Island raids, the assault on Rabaul, and the attacks on Tulagi, Lae and Salamaua – and of course, Guadalcanal. The books also cover every carrier vs. carrier battle that was fought in the Pacific before 1944: Coral Sea, Midway, Eastern Solomons and Santa Cruz. In short, The First Team two-volume book is incredibly comprehensive. Maps and charts illustrate each battle, each significant combat incident, each movement of carriers and air groups – the detail is remarkable. Author John Lundstrom makes these battles come alive in ways that no other history I’ve read have been able to accomplish. But for all their value as pure history, these books go way beyond that.

For instance, The First Team covers combat tactics – the prime reason why the vastly-inferior F4F-4 Wildcat was able to best the incredible Japanese Zero in almost every encounter (including decisive victories at Midway and Guadalcanal). Pre-war, the US Naval air service – alone among the world’s air forces – trained its pilots to successfully use deflection shooting, permitting pilots to attack from beam positions, instead of just from directly astern. To perform a deflection-shooting attack successfully, the pilot couldn’t aim at the target; instead, he had to aim for where the plane would be when the bullets arrived.

Deflection shooting is a kind of lead-the-target targeting performed by duck hunters and skeet shooters; a process vastly complicated in aerial combat because both the attacker and the target are moving at several hundred miles per hour, generally in different planes. However, when successfully executed, deflection attacks are almost unbeatable. This kind of deflection shooting permitted American Naval fighter pilots to attack the enemy with limited risk of counter-battery fighter from defending aircraft. Deflection attacks were decisive in attacks on bomber aircraft, but this approach also gave U.S. Naval aviators a significant advantage over the more maneuverable and – at most altitudes – faster Japanese fighters.

Other tactical elements explored in great detail were the comparative tactical formations – American transition from four-aircraft divisions to two-aircraft divisions while the Japanese held onto the far more awkward and inflexible three-plane formations – as well as the evolution of the “Thatch Weave,” a mutually-supportive defensive formation the Japanese were never able to effectively counter.

The First Team also looks – in depth – at the training of Japanese and US Naval aviators. In 1941, Japanese naval aviators were, man-for-may, the best-trained pilots in the world, yet thanks to different tactical approaches, they were consistently outfought, first by well-trained US Naval Aviators and later even by grass-green Ensigns not long out of advanced training programs. Training and organization were critical – Japanese were taught to move in units of three aircraft, and to take advantage of their aircraft’s incredible maneuverability.

American Naval Aviators were trained in deflection gunnery, in pilot-wingman cooperation and in emphasizing mutually-supporting defensive tactics culminating in the unbeatable Thatch Weave – which remarkably was under development before the outbreak of the war, though “conventional wisdom” has held that Commander John “Jimmy” Thatch developed the mutual-support tactics in response to initial combat with the Japanese.

Another factor that The First Team explored which worked against the Japanese was the very different organizational structure of the two countries’ carrier air groups. In the US Navy, carrier air groups were fungible organizations – new squadrons and new pilots could be shuffled through the air groups, and these groups could be shuffled from carrier to carrier as needed. By contrast, Japanese carrier air groups trained as a unit, and were permanently assigned to a specific aircraft carrier.

When a Japanese group suffered significant combat casualties, not only were the individual squadrons no longer combat-capable, but the carrier itself was out of the battle. As a result, after the bloody draw at Coral Sea, surviving Naval aviators from the sunken Lexington were able to go back into combat onboard the Yorktown at Midway – less than a month later – effectively replacing losses the Yorktowners suffered at Coral Sea with combat-tested pilots. Even though the Yorktown had been badly damaged, it was patched together and able to field a combat-ready air group that proved decisive at Midway less than a month later.

However, as explained in The First Team’s assessment of Japan’s carrier air group organization, the Zuikaku – which, unlike the surviving Yorktown, was undamaged but which also suffered heavy pilot losses – was unable to serve at Midway because the Zuikaku’s carrier air group had been decimated, and a carrier without an air group is little more than a target. Although sufficient combat-experienced pilots from the heavily-damaged Shokaku had survived and were at least technically available, because of a long-standing organizational policy, the Japanese were unable to restore the Zuikaku’s group.

Instead, both air groups had to be restored to full combat capability only after receiving infusions of trainees, which required a long work-up period. The Yorktown’s presence at Midway was decisive; the absence of Zuikaku was at least potentially just as decisive. Had two Japanese carriers – Zuikaku and Hiryu – survived the first devastating US Naval attack, their return strike may have done more than just knock out the Yorktown.

The books even get into fascinating controversies, such as the odd decision to put six .50 caliber machine guns into the Navy’s new folding-wing F4Fs, even though they’d add a further weight penalty that would – along with the weight of the wing-fold mechanism –cripple the Wildcat’s climb, range and overall combat capabilities. The early-war fixed-wing F4F-3 carried four .50 caliber machine guns – which US Navy fighter leaders felt was sufficient to knock down unarmored Japanese bombers and fighters. However, the fixed wing took up deck and hanger space and sharply limited the number of fighters a carrier could handle. With fighter squadrons growing from 18 to 27 to 36 aircraft, the need for folding wings was essential, even though the weight penalty imposed by the folding mechanism would inevitably degrade performance.

The initial decision to go with six .50 caliber guns in a folding-wing Wildcat was made by the British Fleet Air Arm, which did not routinely face fighter-to-fighter combat – minimizing the need for high-end performance – yet rightly felt it needed the heavier firepower inherent in six .50 calibers to swiftly knock down armored and well-armed German and Italian bombers. Oddly, instead of listening to their own fighter leaders, the US Navy’s “Brass Hats” listened to the Brits, and decided – in the name of production efficiency – to standardize on the British design.

The result was the F4F-4 – a sluggish, slow-climbing short-range fighter which had six .50 caliber machine guns but fewer total rounds of ammo (and, therefore, a much shorter firing time) than the older F4F-3. This plane had a harder time climbing to a decisive altitude. It had difficulty conducting CAPs of more than a couple of hours or escorting bombers farther than 175 miles; and when it did find targets, this new Wildcat all-too-quickly ran out of ammunition. When front-line Naval Aviators complained about being asked to fight what was arguably the best carrier planes in the world with an increasingly second-string fighter plane, the Navy Brass in Washington told these front-line troops to fly their Wildcats with a 2/3rds fuel load and two unloaded guns – absurd advice to pilots who knew they needed every bullet and every gallon of gas every time they went head-to-head in combat with the best-trained naval aviators in the world, the Japanese.

These limiting factors for the new F4F clearly had an impact in the loss of the Yorktown at Midway, as well as the loss of so many torpedo planes at that same battle – and these F4F deficiencies may have also contributed to the loss of the Hornet at the Battle of Santa Cruz four months later. Nobody from the greenest Naval Aviation Ensign all the way up to Admiral Chester Nimitz had a good thing to say about the F4F-4 – but it was only after the end of the Guadalcanal campaign that the General Motors-built FM-1 reverted to a four-gun armament – too late to face down the Japanese.

Yet remarkably, the US Navy seldom fought the Japanese head-to-head without coming out on the winning end. Ultimately, the Wildcat scored a three-to-one winning margin over the Japanese – not because the Wildcat was a better fighter aircraft, though it did have some advantages, but because American Naval Aviators had better tactics, from the two-plane division to the Thatch Weave.

As noted, while it had dramatically shorter range, at least a marginally lower speed at most altitudes – and it was far less maneuverable than the Zero – the Wildcat that fought the Japanese from December 7, 1941 to February, 1943 did have some significant advantages over its adversary. The Grumman was solidly built – earning for its manufacturer the affectionate nickname “Grumman Iron Works.” The Grumman fighter was also well-armored (at least where it counted), and – early in the war – it began to receive functional self-sealing fuel tanks that would absorb a 7.7 millimeter (.30 caliber) Japanese machine-gun bullet.

While it was slow to climb, the Wildcat could dive like a bat out of hell – given enough altitude, American Naval Aviators could always break off combat with Japanese Zeros – and given an initial altitude advantage (hard to come by, but not impossible to achieve), the Wildcat could initiate combat – attack Zeros and other Japanese aircraft – with no recourse by the Japanese. They couldn’t escape a diving Wildcat; they could turn and fight, but couldn’t run away.

Further, in a head-to-head attack, the Wildcat’s rugged structure and .50 caliber armament (either four-gun or six-gun) easily outmatched their Japanese adversaries. The Japanese Zero’s 20 mm cannons were low-velocity weapons useful only at short range; the longer-ranged Japanese 7.7 mm (.30 caliber) machine guns had too little hitting power to ensure a quick victory over the Wildcat. On the other hand, the standard American .50 caliber Browning heavy machine guns were fast-firing, long-ranged and hard-hitting enough to knock down any Japanese fighter – or bomber – they could hit.

All of these factors were covered in fascinating detail in The First Team, making them a feast of information, insight and factual data for the historian – and the history buff.

Beyond that, the two “First Team” volumes also offer a great deal to modelers. Each book is heavily illustrated with contemporary photos which show evolving markings on US Navy fighters. Not a few of these photos will also offer modelers display and deck-handling diorama ideas.

In addition, Appendix 3 of The First Team and Appendix 4 of The First Team and the Guadalcanal Campaign each features side-view profiles of F4F fighters in use during the time periods covered by the books. Together, these let modelers authoritatively paint-and-mark virtually any F4F that fought off one of the USN fleet carriers during the first year of the war – including carrier-based planes that temporarily served on Guadalcanal. With the recent spate of new F4F Wildcat releases in 1/32nd scale (including the soon-to-be-here Trumpeter Wildcat), this kind of reference will prove invaluable to modelers.

Bottom line: These two books are remarkable. For those interested in carrier-based fighter combat during the dark early days of World War II in the Pacific, these are “must-reads.” The books have been released in Trade Paperback format by the US Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland – it’s also available from Amazon.

AOTS - USS Intrepid Inside Out!

USS Intrepid – Anatomy of The Ship (AOTS)
By John Roberts
Review by Ned Barnett
Review Copy courtesy USNI Press


The Essex Class of aircraft carriers is arguably the most significant class of ships to be produced for the U.S. Navy – it was from the decks of these magnificent “next-generation” upgrades of the Yorktown Class (Yorktown, Enterprise, Hornet) that thousands of US Navy fliers destroyed beyond all recall the Empire of Japan. Though they didn’t make their appearance in combat until 1943 – the Yorktown Class (with able assistance from the Saratoga-Class) had to hold the line till they arrived – they appeared in such numbers and with such per-deck power as to virtually ensure the aerial defeat of Japan. When “crunch time” came, the Essex Class could take an amazing 100 combat planes to the enemy’s front door – a force beyond reckoning just a decade before.

Perhaps even more amazing, the Essex Class was so flexible that – with mid-life rebuilds that included powerful steam catapults, angled decks and mirror-light landing systems – they remained combat-capable (and in combat) for another 30 years, serving actively right up to the very end of the Vietnam war and putting into combat aircraft whose performance was as far beyond World War II Hellcats as the Hellcats had been beyond Wilbur and Orville’s fabled Wright Flyer of 1903.

Many combat ships survive for 30 years in active service, but few survive to see such a dramatic change in their nature and weaponry. The equivalent of the Essex Class carrying A-6 Intruders and F-8 Crusaders into combat over North Vietnam would have been for Gato-class subs to be modified to carry Polaris missiles and to be fully mission-capable to stand 90-day deterrent patrols off the Kola peninsula. In short, the Essex Class was a war-winner in 1943-45 and was still capable of being a vital part of a war-winning team of active-duty combat vessels in the very different world of 1973-75 – that is remarkable, and well worth honoring. America has done that by making several Essex-Class ships into museum ships, and the USNI Press has done that by issuing the Anatomy Of The Ship series book on the USS Intrepid, one of the earliest (and most significant) of the Essex Class carriers.

I recently received from the USNI Press a review copy of noted naval historian John Roberts’ Anatomy Of The Ship series on the USS Intrepid, the Essex-class carrier now serving as a museum in NYC Harbor – and having spent a fascinating afternoon climbing from bilges to bridge on the Intrepid last summer, this book took on a special significance for me. The book, originally published about 25 years ago, holds up remarkably well. It has tight but useful text, great photos, and – of course – the kinds of drawing-after-drawing-after-drawing of the ship, its details and fittings, etc., that readers have come to expect from the AOTS series.

This AOTS book includes a complete description of this early (CV-11) Essex-class fleet carrier, an up-scale/modernized version of the earlier Yorktown class carriers (which also included Hornet and Enterprise). The photo section focuses on Intrepid, but includes shots of other Essex carriers. Several photos show the Intrepid’s deck overloaded with aircraft being transported to the Pacific Theater, which would make a great basis for a display model (if you don’t mind scratch-building P-61 Black Widows, PV-2 Harpoons and other land-based aircraft seldom seen on aircraft carriers). Camouflage is important for these mid/late war carriers, and the Intrepid’s dazzle scheme is well-presented (along with camouflage of the F6F Hellcat.

Of course, the heart and soul of the AOTS books are the drawings – these in 1/350th scale, ideal for use with the new 1/350th Essex class kits now out on the market. These drawings are nothing short of superb.

The cover says “complete with 1/350th Scale fold-out plan” and I looked several times trying to find this fold-out in the reprint ... then it hit me. The inner side of the dust jacket IS the “fold-out plan” – a brilliant printing solution, and something that makes this plan even easier to use than if it had been bound into the book.

I’ve been fortunate to have visited several of the Essex-class museum ships (Intrepid, Yorktown, Hornet) as well as having a VIP tour of the USS Midway museum ship in San Diego (I was on a scouting trip for the History Channel and they really rolled out the red carpet. However, I’ve especially spent a lot of time on the USS Hornet (CV-12), now a museum ship in San Francisco Bay (at Alameda), during a time when I worked out of an Oakland-area business and was also researching a novel there. At that time, a ship-modeling club met at the Hornet monthly – as if I needed an excuse. Though modernized, as is the Intrepid museum ship (now being restored to “health” after sitting too long on the muddy bottom of the Manhattan shore), the Hornet is still very much an Essex, and my familiarity with the class convinces me even more than might otherwise be the case that this book is a “must” for ship modelers or WW-II Naval historians.

The book is available from Amazon for $27.95 (new) and about three dollars less (used). It’s also available from the USNI Press – and members of the Naval Institute get a substantial discount on books bought through their website (along with the substantial benefits of membership).

Floating Drydock Plans - Don't Leave Port Without Them

Product Review: Floating Drydock – Large-Scale Ship Plan Drawings:

1/96 USS Atlanta CL 51 Class Anti-Aircraft Cruisers (1942 fit) – 3 sheets, $35
1/96 USS Greenling/SS213 Fleet Submarine (December 1943 fit) – 1 sheet, $30
1/96 USS Notable AM267 Ocean-Going Minesweeper (1945 fit) – 2 sheets, $20 (also available in 1/48 for $30)

Reviewed By Ned Barnett
Review copies provided by Floating Drydock

The Floating Drydock (http://www.floatingdrydock.com) has been my source for ship-reference materials, especially plans and USN wartime camouflage schemes, since the mid-‘70s (they got started in ’73). Tom Walkowiak remains a prolific writer and plan-drawer, and offers one of the greatest resources available to ship modelers. He carries information books and plans, kits and after-market materials – but mostly, he carries his own creations – books and plans – that are beyond belief.

These sets of plans offer incredible level of detail, as well as remarkable drafting quality. Years ago, I studied drafting when I planned to go to Annapolis (before failing the eye test) – it’s incredibly difficult to do what Tom does, yet he makes it look easy. These are the kinds of plans that make you wish you had acres of unused wall space – you want to hang them up and just appreciate them. But their real value is in modeling. Each fitting is carefully shown – many are also shown in scrap views and blow-ups, and you get side and overhead views to put it all in perspective.

The Atlanta was really more a super-destroyer than what we normally think of as a gun cruiser. She carried a double-load of destroyer’s armament (5” 38s and torpedoes) on a short-coupled Cleveland Class cruiser hull. Meant to fight aircraft, she was out of her league when slugging it out with heavier Japanese cruisers. But the Atlanta was a heroic ship. Vastly outclassed in the Battle of Guadalcanal, she nonetheless gave a good account of herself before succumbing to superior Japanese forces. The night she went down, the Atlanta was painted in a remarkable Measure 12 Modified scheme – and some sources contend that the blotches which broke up her outline were green, designed to blend in with the Guadalcanal shoreline.

The plans do justice to the Atlanta – every detail and fitting is covered in plan-sheets so large I had to use the living room floor to lay them out. Call-outs identify most of the items included (there’s even a glossary of common abbreviations), as well as a few photos of the completed ship. Any modeler wanting to build the Atlanta (or one of her sisters) should grab these plans and mount them over his (or her) workshop table – and get Kinkos to photo-reduce them to your scale for an even more precise reference.

The Greenling was one of the tough little fleet subs that took the war home to Japan, wreaking terrible destruction on her merchant navy – and doing substantial damage to Japan’s fighting fleet (including 8 carriers). The Greenling has one sheet only because fleet submarines are smaller, handier ships with fewer details. However, each detail is caught, and items are labeled for easy reference. Though I can’t imagine wanting more, Tom notes that for those interested, Floating Drydock offers a Gato/Balao Plan Book – and since I’m a sub-modeler (Revell’s new 1/72nd Gato is on my list of “next” models), I suppose I’ll have to succumb to his tempting entreaty. If you model US fleet subs, this plan sheet is worth its weight in gold.

I confess to not knowing much about the USS Notable or her class of minesweepers, though I know they took a hellacious pounding from Kamikazes off Okinawa, but managed to give an excellent account of themselves. These tough little ships carried an extraordinarily heavy weapons-fit – in that they resembled stubby destroyer escorts – but were clearly made for close-in hazardous duty. The two (much smaller than the Atlanta) sheets that cover this ship manage to bring her to life – giving you a sense of the power and purpose of these ships (and the incredible courage of the men brave enough to man them). As with the other, larger plans, these are works of art as well as incredible reference tools. If you’re going to build a minesweeper, you’ll want these plans (even if you’re building another class of minesweeper – the fittings and details are shown with clarity that makes them worth the price of admission).

I strongly recommend these plans, and encourage ship modelers to get the really comprehensive catalogs Tom offers – he has plans covering literally hundreds of fighting ships, each one a valuable resource for those building USN WW-II warship kits.

Ship Camouflage on the Web - A Modeler's Guide

Website Review: Ship Camouflage Website
(http://www.shipcamouflage.com)
Reviewed By Ned Barnett

This is actually both an after-market product website (Snyder & Short) as well as a real reference source (John Sheridan’s “USN Warship Camouflage” website). This is a good mix – the commercial venture (Snyder & Short – the premier guys in accurate ship-color paint-chips and references) sponsor and host John Sheridan’s remarkable resource. Premier among elements here is Alan Raven’s six-part article, “Development of Naval Camouflage” which originally appeared in Plastic Ship Modeler Magazine. Those who know Alan Raven’s work (I have several of his books – they’re outstanding!) realize what an incredible free resource this is.

Other features of this website include the USN Camouflage database – a class-by-class review of the applicable camouflage measures used by the USN during the war. Each major class of surface combatant – CV, CVL, CVE, BB, CB, CA, CL, DD and DE – is covered here, with data on each known measure used by each named ship of the class. For those not familiar with the USN “measures,” the website has an explanation of each measure (with variations) along with photo- and drawing-illustrations of the various camouflage schemes. The descriptive text is taken directly from a WW-II USN official source – SHIPS-2 – (the writing is remarkably clear – for once the Navy got it right).

There are other features – a whole section on signal flags, another on USN Ship Call Letters, a review of the characteristics of camouflage paints used in the war and historical information on the development and use of camouflage by surface combatants.

If you build USN WW-II fighting ships, this site is both a “must” and a treasure. Along with a trio of books on USN camouflage and 190 exceptional dazzle-camouflage design sheets published by prolific author and plan-drafter Tom Walkowiak at the Floating Drydock (http://www.floatingdrydock.com), this site is literally all you need to get a good start into accurately marking your ship models.