Hurricane Aces 1939–40 (Aircraft of the Aces)

What I love about this book is that the author tells how many Hurricane aces were killed or wounded and gives the names of most if not all those wounded/dead aces. Its about time that people start hearding about Allied dead and wounded military personnel. It is downright boring when you are always reading about the German losses particularly among German aces and never about the Allied dead especially fighter aces.

Tony Holmes' "Hurricane, a Fighter Legend" started my interest in second worldwar aviation again, and this book is a nice companion to the former, focussing on the merits of the plane and its pilots in those very crucial days and giving an exellent account of it. For Hurricane colour photographs you have to have the 'fighter legend' book, but the colour sideviews in 'Hurricane Aces' are very good, and more than make up for the lack of colour photographs. Very good in my opinion is the last part of the book, where all planes depicted in the sideviews get their own small piece of history, including their eventual fate in most cases.

This excellent account covers the pilots who were some of the first RAF aces during WW2, whilst also giving a superb history of the early part of this legendary fighter's operational combat career. I've always had a soft spot for the Hawker Hurricane and the extraordinary young men who flew and fought in it. The Spitfire has received an unfair share of the credit for the victory that was the Battle of Britain, despite the fact that two-thirds of the RAF fighter squadrons were composed of Hurricanes. 'Spitfire snobbery' was displayed by downed German aircrew, who refused to accept that they could have been bested by anything less than a Spifire. The careers of pilots such as Kain, Brothers and Frantisek illustrate how this magnificent machine was the equal to anything the Luftwaffe flew. This is an informative and fascinating account of the part played by brave young men, and the legend that was their steed, during the darkest days of WW2.

This Osprey Series is really amazing, no wonder it's making a big sucess. "Hurricane Aces" go deeply in details about the aces involved in those hectic days of 39/40, as always making a link with the enemy's units involved. We can find the scores, the ones who died, the ones who became great wing leader in the future. Excellent work by Tony Holmes.