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Description of  Air War Over France 1939-40

0711005109 pdf Relatively few books have been written about the air war over France and the Low Countries during 1939 and 1940. Therefore, Robert Jackson's "Air War Over France, 1939-40" deserves a close look. The book is well written, providing lots of detail on the combat operations mounted by the Allies in particular during the 1939 and 1940 period. The chapters of the book are: (1) The Road to Disaster, (2) The Phoney War, (3) The Germans Strike: Holland and Belgium, (4) The Massacre of the AASF, (5) French Day Bombing and Reconnaissance Operations, (6) Allied Fighter Operations, (7) French Naval Air Operations, (8) The Allied Night Bombing Offensive, (9) Luftwaffe Operations, May 1940: Dunkirk, and (10) Franco-Italian Air Operations. The book concludes with several useful appendices, including Armee de l'Air and Aeronavale orders of battle, a statistical summary of air operations, aircraft of the battle, and a list of French fighter aces. Sixty-plus photographs are also provided. The only major drawbacks to the book are that it does not provide much detail from the Luftwaffe's point of view, and no sources are cited, leaving one wonder where Jackson got all his information from. Overall, however, "Air War Over France" offers a useful addition to the available literature on WW2 military aviation.