This book was written to redress this imbalance and tell the true story behind the development and operational deployment of the world’s first high-speed strategic reconnaissance aircraft, which began 6,000 miles further east and four years prior to the momentous events in Europe, under the guidance of the Imperial Japanese Army and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Co Ltd. Faced with similar preconceptions, technical arguments, and a very rigid operational doctrine, the Mitsubishi Babs was developed during a brief golden aeronautical period (between the mid 1930s and early 1940s), when the Japanese aircraft industry flourished under constant military aircraft competitions and production orders. Free from prying eyes and shrouded within a self-imposed veil of secrecy, the Japanese developed numerous designs that were equal to and in some cases ahead of contemporary Western manufacturers.
This book is the most comprehensive on the Babs” yet published in English, with numerous photographs of the aircraft in service, several of which have never been published before, walkaround photographs of the preserved aircraft, illustrations from contemporary manuals, and color artwork.

The publisher decided to split the project into two titles, one covering the Allison engined Mustangs, the other covering the Merlin powered examples.
For this first book, we approached Colin Ford who is well known as an expert on all aspects of the Allison engined Mustang in RAF service. Building on Andy’s solid foundation of photo research, the author has introduced his broad technical knowledge of the subject along with many rare and unseen photos from his own collection, with the result being a worthy tribute to the Mustang Mk I, Mk IA and Mk II and the pilots that flew them.
With approx 120 photos and 6 colour profiles.

This volume is the last of five volumes to cover 1944, a year where the tables finally turned against the Nachtjagd, but not before it had inflicted terrible losses upon RAF Bomber Command. This volume shows the decline of the Nachtjagd as a force and the increasing losses inflicted by Allied intruders as the hunters became the hunted.
Throughout illustrated with b/w pictures.

This is a compendium edition of the highly regarded and long out of print Nachtjäger volumes in the acclaimed Classic Colours series on the aircraft, camouflage and markings of the Luftwaffe between 1939-1945. The book focuses on the operations and the aircraft of the Nachtjagd from its origins in the inter-war years, to its formation as an embryonic and innovative force in 1939 and through its desperate and climactic battles against the massed raids of RAF Bomber Command from 1939 onwards. The force evolved from using single-seat Bf 109s to twin-engined Bf 110s and Ju 88s, fitted with technically advanced radar equipment and weapons systems, supported by a sophisticated ground reporting network.
It produced many leading night fighter aces such as Wolfgang Falck, Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer, Helmut Lent and Hans-Joachim Jabs. As the war progressed and the strategic situation began to tilt away from Germany’s favour so, ironically, the pace of development quickened with the Luftwaffe introducing uprated versions of the Ju 88 as well as new types such as the Do 217 and He 219. In the last, desperate months of the war, even the Me 262 was introduced as a night fighter in limited numbers. Nachtjäger is an important resource for modellers and students of Luftwaffe history, providing a detailed narrative augmented by many photographs and specially commissioned colour profiles.
420 photos & colour artworks.