The publisher has a strong reputation for excellent books covering the Polish Air Force and Polish pilots. This book offers a unique view of 303 Squadron and the part played by Polish pilots – Highly Recommended.
NAME: Polskie Skrzydla, Polish Wings 23, 303 Squadron North American Mustang FILE: R2700 AUTHOR: Steve Brooking, Wojtek Matusiac, Piotr Sikora PUBLISHER: Stratus BINDING: soft back PAGES: 64 PRICE: £15.00 GENRE: Non Fiction SUBJECT: Free Polish Forces, RAF, 303 Squadron, North American Mustang IV, WWII, WW2, Second World War, World War Two, World War 2. World War II, P-51D, P-51K ISBN: 978-8-365281-80-7 IMAGE: B2700.jpg BUYNOW: http://tinyurl.com/yboorojz LINKS: DESCRIPTION: The publisher has a strong reputation for excellent books covering the Polish Air Force and Polish pilots. This book offers a unique view of 303 Squadron and the part played by Polish pilots – Highly Recommended. The British Purchasing Commission in the US placed a specification with US aircraft manufacturers for a single seat high performance fighter. North American responded with a design that became the P-51 in US service and the Mustang in British service. The prototypes were promising and became superb when married to the Rolls Royce Merlin engine. The aircraft was fast and nimble but it corrected one deficiency of European monoplane designs to that time. In rushing in new advanced fighters, the British, French and Germans all concentrated on point defence interceptors where priority was given to high rate of climb and low endurance. This placed the Germans at disadvantage during the Battle of Britain, allowing their Me 109 only a few minutes of combat due the distance to and from French airfields with the similar limitations of Spitfires and Hurricanes being less obvious because they were flying over home ground. After the Battle of Britain, the situation was reversed as the RAF took the fight to the Germans in their French airfields. The Merlin-powered, bubble canopied P-51D and K were outstanding and, for the first time, USAF bombers could fly to and from targets deep in Germany with fighter escort. The RAF had an aircraft to take the fight into enemy airspace as USAF and RAF machines fought and won air superiority, essential to defeating Germany and liberating Occupied Europe. This book features over 120 photographs, mostly previously unpublished, with many newly created colour profiles. This coverage is of a rarely documented aspect of the air war in Europe and will prove essential reading for aviation enthusiast and scale aero- modellers alike. Included in the book is coverage of the Mustang I which was used by 303 Squadron as squadron hacks. This pre-bubble canopied Alison-engined aircraft was shipped to the RAF in very small numbers and was used, possibly uniquely by 303 Sqd pilots to convert from their Spitfires to the Merlin-engined P-51D.