Book Review of
Air Power & the Arab World 1909- March 1941
Vol. 6: The World Crisis 1939-1941
Author: Dr. David Nicolle &
Air Vice Marshal Gabr Ali Gabr
Helion & Co. Ltd.
Middle East@War series No. 48
Middle East@War series No. 48
ISBN: 978-1-915070-76-0
By Ray Mehlberger
Copyright: 2022
MSRP: $29.95
By Ray Mehlberger
Copyright: 2022
MSRP: $29.95
HISTORY:
VOL. 6 of The Air Power & the Arab World mini-series continues the story of the men and machines of the first half-century of military aviation in the Arab world. These years saw the Arab countries and their military forces caught up in the events of WWII.
For those Arab nations which had some degree of independence, the resulting political , cultural and economic strains had a profound impact upon their military forces. In Egypt, the army generally remained quiet, continuing with its often unglamorous and little appreciated duties.
Within the Royal Egyptian Air Force (RAEF), however, there were a significant number of men who wanted to take action in expectation that of what they, and many other around the world, expected to be the defeat of the British Empire.
The result was division, widespread mistrust, humiliation and for a while the grounding of the entire REAF. In Iraq the strains of the early war years sowed the seeds of a yet to come direct confrontation with the British.
Vol. 6 of Airpower and The Arab World then looks at the first efforts to revive both the REAF and the Royal Iraqi Air Force (RIrAF), along with the events in the air and on the ground elsewhere in the Arab world from 1939 until March 1941.
The volume is illustrated throughout with photographs of the REAF, RIrAF and RAF and a selection of specially commissioned colour artworks.
THE BOOK:
Helion & Co. Ltd. is based in the UK.
This book is of soft-cover, that holds 68 pages in 8 ¼” x 11 ¾” page format. It holds 112 black and white photos, a line-drawing map of the middle-east, Zionist militia atop a armoured car in Palestine, leaders, officers, pilots and ground crewmen, an aerial photo of the Heliopolis Aerodrome, with a line drawing that includes the names of the buildings, an Egyptian Army Cavalry parade, the air terminal at Basra, documents etc.
The cover art shows a black and white photo of a REAF Breda BA.65 ground attack aircraft parked in Iraq, probably before or at the beginning of WWII. Its pilot is leaning against it.
Below it is a colour side view illustration of a REAF Gladiator (repeated again inside the book)
There are 21 colour side-profile illustrations:
A French Air Force Potez 542 of the 3rd Escadrille of the 41st Escadre.
A RAF Avro 652A Anson prototype.
A RIAF’S one of the Flying School’s Breda BA.65 bis’s.
Two side-views of DE Havilland DH.86 Expresses of the Egyptian national carrier MISR Airlines.
A REAF Audax.
A RAF Miles Magister M.14A.
Two side-views of REAF’s Westland Lysanders.
A REAF Avro 641 Commodore.
Two side-views of French Air Force Glen Martin 167F bombers.
A REAF Gladiator.
An Italian Air Force SM.79 Sparviero.
A RIrAF SM.79.
A REAF Westland Lysander.
A RAF DeHavilland DH.89 Dragon Rapide.
A RAF Fairey Gordon I.
This is a neat book on the aircraft types used by Iraq in early years and up to today. It will be of interest to modellers and aviation historians alike.
I sincerely wish to thank Casemate Publishers for this review copy. Casemate is the N. American distributor of Helion & Co. Ltd. books. All their titles can be viewed on Casemate’s website at:
VOL. 6 of The Air Power & the Arab World mini-series continues the story of the men and machines of the first half-century of military aviation in the Arab world. These years saw the Arab countries and their military forces caught up in the events of WWII.
For those Arab nations which had some degree of independence, the resulting political , cultural and economic strains had a profound impact upon their military forces. In Egypt, the army generally remained quiet, continuing with its often unglamorous and little appreciated duties.
Within the Royal Egyptian Air Force (RAEF), however, there were a significant number of men who wanted to take action in expectation that of what they, and many other around the world, expected to be the defeat of the British Empire.
The result was division, widespread mistrust, humiliation and for a while the grounding of the entire REAF. In Iraq the strains of the early war years sowed the seeds of a yet to come direct confrontation with the British.
Vol. 6 of Airpower and The Arab World then looks at the first efforts to revive both the REAF and the Royal Iraqi Air Force (RIrAF), along with the events in the air and on the ground elsewhere in the Arab world from 1939 until March 1941.
The volume is illustrated throughout with photographs of the REAF, RIrAF and RAF and a selection of specially commissioned colour artworks.
THE BOOK:
Helion & Co. Ltd. is based in the UK.
This book is of soft-cover, that holds 68 pages in 8 ¼” x 11 ¾” page format. It holds 112 black and white photos, a line-drawing map of the middle-east, Zionist militia atop a armoured car in Palestine, leaders, officers, pilots and ground crewmen, an aerial photo of the Heliopolis Aerodrome, with a line drawing that includes the names of the buildings, an Egyptian Army Cavalry parade, the air terminal at Basra, documents etc.
The cover art shows a black and white photo of a REAF Breda BA.65 ground attack aircraft parked in Iraq, probably before or at the beginning of WWII. Its pilot is leaning against it.
Below it is a colour side view illustration of a REAF Gladiator (repeated again inside the book)
There are 21 colour side-profile illustrations:
A French Air Force Potez 542 of the 3rd Escadrille of the 41st Escadre.
A RAF Avro 652A Anson prototype.
A RIAF’S one of the Flying School’s Breda BA.65 bis’s.
Two side-views of DE Havilland DH.86 Expresses of the Egyptian national carrier MISR Airlines.
A REAF Audax.
A RAF Miles Magister M.14A.
Two side-views of REAF’s Westland Lysanders.
A REAF Avro 641 Commodore.
Two side-views of French Air Force Glen Martin 167F bombers.
A REAF Gladiator.
An Italian Air Force SM.79 Sparviero.
A RIrAF SM.79.
A REAF Westland Lysander.
A RAF DeHavilland DH.89 Dragon Rapide.
A RAF Fairey Gordon I.
This is a neat book on the aircraft types used by Iraq in early years and up to today. It will be of interest to modellers and aviation historians alike.
I sincerely wish to thank Casemate Publishers for this review copy. Casemate is the N. American distributor of Helion & Co. Ltd. books. All their titles can be viewed on Casemate’s website at:
Highly recommended.