EXTRAORDINARY STORIES OF THE AIR WAR 1939-1945

EXTRAORDINARY HISTORIES OF THE AIR WAR 1939-1945 The heroic resistance of the Polish Air Force is discovered in September 1939. Eino Luukkanen, a Finnish fighter ace, perfectly underlines the courage of this small country against the Soviet giant. The forgotten French aces of May-June 1940 remind us that the tricolour air force did not demerit, by causing heavy losses to a larger Luftwaffe, depriving it of the power necessary to defeat the British Royal Air Force later on. The same was true of the French naval air force, which launched suicide attacks to halt the advance of the Panzerdivisions. The epic of the Free French Air Force makes us relive exploits often unknown to the general public, as well as the Italo-Greek air war. Carlo Emanuele Buscaglia and the other Italian torpedo pilots embody the heroic struggle in the Mediterranean. Robert Tuck and Douglas Bader become living legends of the British fighter, as do Adolf Galland and Erich Hartmann in the Luftwaffe. The many German aces with more than 100 victories never cease to amaze. Kobayashi, Nishizawa and Ugaki illustrate the suicidal heroism of Japanese hunting. American ace Richard Bong and Soviet ace Ivan Kojedoub accumulate aerial victories.