By Kevin Seabrooke

Beginning with the Battle of Britain and going forward, it was clear that military aviation would become a critical component of modern warfare. The accelerated pace of aircraft development would lead to innovations reaching far into the future.

While most books on WWII aviation have focused, rightly so, on the main Axis and Allied nations, this book includes many lesser-known air forces that have been forgotten or ignored. There is plenty of coverage of the planes of the U.S., Britain, the Soviet Union, Germany and Japan. But here also is a visual history of those of Poland, Belgium, Norway, Netherlands, France, Greece, India, China, Yugoslavia, Italy, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovakia and Finland.

World War II Aerial Combat 1937-1945: The Allied and Axis Air Forces A Visual History (Donald Nijboer, Firefly Books, Richmond Hill, Ont., Can., 368 pp., 300+ color and b/w photographs, index, aircraft schematics and cockpit diagrams, 2025 $39.95 HC)

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