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Loading... The Vultee Vengeance in Battleby Peter C. Smith
None No current Talk conversations about this book. 1   jetcal1 | Dec 30, 2019 |  no reviews | add a review
This book describes the extraordinary combat career of the American-built Vultee Vengeance dive-bomber in both the Royal Air Force and Indian Air Force service during the Burma Campaigns of 1942-45. This single-engine, all-metal aircraft was ordered by the Ministry of Supply during the darkest days of World War II when the lethal German combination of Junkers Ju.87 Stuka and Panzer tank forces had conquered most of Europe in a campaign that lasted a mere few weeks and the invasion of Britain was considered imminent.The RAF had invented the dive-bomber concept in 1917 but had consistently rejected it in the inter-war period with the obsession of heavy bombing predominating official thinking almost exclusively. By the time the Vengeance arrived a still-reluctant RAF was seeking a precision bomber to prevent a repeat of the Japanese Naval attacks in the Indian Ocean and six squadrons were set up to counter this threat. With the Japanese on the borders of Burma and India, these aircraft, no longer required for the original role, proved by far and away the most accurate bomber aircraft operated by the British up to that time.The Allied Armies on the ground, including Orde Wingate's Chindits, clamored for their continued use and considered them essential, but in vain, and by 1945 all had been replaced. Their achievements have been ignored, falsified or scorned ever since but here, from eyewitness accounts and official records, is their full and true story. No library descriptions found. |
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Wikipedia in English
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This book was purchased to augment the sparse library of books available on the Vultee Vengeance. The depth of the operational histories by Mr. Smith is breathtaking considering the amount of research that had to be performed, the index alone is breathtaking in its scope of listing the aircrew from the various Commonwealth countries that flew the aircraft. The Indian squadron histories alone receive 94 pages which is phenomenal coverage for a little-known air force flying a little-known plane. While the RAF gets the lion’s share of the volume with 184 pages, there are 12 pages devoted to singular paragraphs of other operators.
The coverage given the Australian squadrons that saw combat and other operators is almost nil, and the author acknowledges it by referencing his book "Dive Bombers at War.". This chapter is almost an afterthought appendix in scope.
Using the Amazon system of "likes and preferences", this book is a solid three stars in accordance with my reading preferences. To be honest, I stopped reading it page by page and will now only pick it up occasionally to skim through the chapters.
This book will be of zero interest to modelers or anyone one interested in the technical or maintenance aspects of the Vengeance.
However, this book is a five-star seminal record of operational combat histories of Commonwealth squadrons operating in the CBI. This book is strongly recommended for anyone interested in air warfare in the CBI, and, or the unit histories of the Commonwealth squadrons that served in the CBI. (