Book Review of
Silver Birds Over the Estuary
The Mig-21 in Yugoslav & Serbian A.F. Service, 1962-2019
Authors: Bojan Dimitrijevic & Milan Micevski
Helion & Co. Europe@War Series no. 6
ISBN: 978-1-913118-69-3
By Ray Mehlberger
MSRP: $29.95
ISBN: 978-1-913118-69-3
By Ray Mehlberger
MSRP: $29.95
Copyright 2020
2HISTORY:
The Mikoyan I Gurevich Mig-21 has been built to greater numbers than any other combat aircraft since 1945. It also saw service with more air forces than any other type manufactured over the last 70 years.
Locally designated the “L” (for Lovac or fighter), for more than half a century, over 260 Mig-21s in 12 different versions and sub-variants formed the backbone of the Yugoslav Air Force and Air Defence Force (JRV I PVO) and later the Serbian Air Force (RV i PVO).
Entering service at the peak of the Cold War, the Mig-21 quickly replaced the U.S.-supplied North American F-86E and F-86D Sabres in the Yugoslav inventory. Various models of the Mig-21 served throughout the Cold War, and civil wars and dissolution of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
Although subsequently considered obsolete, and operated in continuously declining numbers, the Mig-21 bis continued soldiering on with the RV i PCV, and even maintained quick reaction alert duty until late 2015, when officially retired. The final handful of two-seat conversion trainers are still in service at the time of this book.
THE BOOK:
Helion & Co. is based in the UK.
This book is soft-cover of 72 pages in 8 ¼” x 11 ½” page format.
The cover art shows a color photo of 4 Mig-21s with the Yugoslav A.F. sitting on an airfield, with pilots climbing into 3 of the cockpits.
On top of the photo is a Yugoslav A.F. Mig-21 color side profile. It is in a wave pattern camouflage of grey and green, with a white no. 719 on the side of its nose.
The back cover shows 2 more color side profiles of the Mig-21 with the Yugoslav A.F. that are overall bare metal with black nose cones. One has the black no 865 on the sides of its nose and the other has no. 501 on its nose sides. These 2 do not include any text telling about them.
The book is based upon the author’s extensive research in Serbian and Croatian archives, museums, and interviews with veterans that flew this type. The volume contains 142 black and white photos of Mig-21 variants and their pilots. There are 15 color photos and 6 color profiles (5 of Yugoslav A.F. Mig-21s and 1 of a Serbian A.F. one).
There are 2 maps, 8 data lists, a bibliography, notes, acknowledgements, about the authors and a chapter listing at the end of the book.
This book will be of great interest to modelers planning to build a model of the Mig-21 and also to aviation historians.
I want to sincerely thank Casemate Publishers for this review sample. All Helion & Co. books can be viewed on Casemate’s website at:
The Mikoyan I Gurevich Mig-21 has been built to greater numbers than any other combat aircraft since 1945. It also saw service with more air forces than any other type manufactured over the last 70 years.
Locally designated the “L” (for Lovac or fighter), for more than half a century, over 260 Mig-21s in 12 different versions and sub-variants formed the backbone of the Yugoslav Air Force and Air Defence Force (JRV I PVO) and later the Serbian Air Force (RV i PVO).
Entering service at the peak of the Cold War, the Mig-21 quickly replaced the U.S.-supplied North American F-86E and F-86D Sabres in the Yugoslav inventory. Various models of the Mig-21 served throughout the Cold War, and civil wars and dissolution of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
Although subsequently considered obsolete, and operated in continuously declining numbers, the Mig-21 bis continued soldiering on with the RV i PCV, and even maintained quick reaction alert duty until late 2015, when officially retired. The final handful of two-seat conversion trainers are still in service at the time of this book.
THE BOOK:
Helion & Co. is based in the UK.
This book is soft-cover of 72 pages in 8 ¼” x 11 ½” page format.
The cover art shows a color photo of 4 Mig-21s with the Yugoslav A.F. sitting on an airfield, with pilots climbing into 3 of the cockpits.
On top of the photo is a Yugoslav A.F. Mig-21 color side profile. It is in a wave pattern camouflage of grey and green, with a white no. 719 on the side of its nose.
The back cover shows 2 more color side profiles of the Mig-21 with the Yugoslav A.F. that are overall bare metal with black nose cones. One has the black no 865 on the sides of its nose and the other has no. 501 on its nose sides. These 2 do not include any text telling about them.
The book is based upon the author’s extensive research in Serbian and Croatian archives, museums, and interviews with veterans that flew this type. The volume contains 142 black and white photos of Mig-21 variants and their pilots. There are 15 color photos and 6 color profiles (5 of Yugoslav A.F. Mig-21s and 1 of a Serbian A.F. one).
There are 2 maps, 8 data lists, a bibliography, notes, acknowledgements, about the authors and a chapter listing at the end of the book.
This book will be of great interest to modelers planning to build a model of the Mig-21 and also to aviation historians.
I want to sincerely thank Casemate Publishers for this review sample. All Helion & Co. books can be viewed on Casemate’s website at:
Highly Recommended.