The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Combat Aircraft of World War II

264 Pages·1978·54.63 MB·English

by  Bill Gunston

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The Illustrated Encyclopedia of
COMBAT
AIRCRAFT
OF
WAR
WORLD
II

The Illustrated Encyclopedia or
Gunston
Bill
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9
A Salamander Book Editors Acknowledgments
This edition published 1978 by This book is not the first to be published on the subject,
Bookthrift Inc., nor will it be the last. But military aviation enthusiasts will
257 Central Park West, quickly recognize that this volume is unlikely ever to be
New York, surpassed for sheer number of facts about and illustrations
NUneiwtedYoSrtkat1e0s02o4f.America of combat aircraft of World War II. In order to compile a book of
this nature one depends very heavily on the assistance of
Second impression 1978 numerous institutions and individuals all over the world. So
many people have helped to produce this volume that, while
I
ISBN 89673 000 X thank all of them, there is not the space to mention them all
here. In particular, though, am indebted to Bill Gunston who,
Library of Congress Catalogue No. 77-95252 apart from displaying his sheI er professionalism and depth of
© knowledge in writing in excess of 1 50,000 words of data and
Salamander Books Ltd. 1978 description, also gave many useful "leads" towards tracking
2S7alOalmdanGdleorucHeosutseer,Street, down elusive contemporary photographs of World War II
London WC1 N 3AF, aircraft; and to Pilot Press for permitting us to reproduce their
United Kingdom. magnificent color profile drawings, three-view drawings and
cutaways; and to the many manufacturers who, though they
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, could not hope to sell one more of their current production
stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any aircraft by supplying photographs of their wartime aeroplanes
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or to a book publisher, nevertheless scoured their archives on our
otherwise, without the prior permission of Salamander Books Ltd. behalf; and to all the museums, institutions and individual
aircraft enthusiasts who have similarly strived to supply
Ablel acdodrrreessspeodndteonScaelcaomnacnedrenrinBgoothkescLotnd.tent of this volume should material for this most colorful volume. I thank them all.
We decided to group the aircraft by country of origin, and
Credits present them in alphabetical order of manufacturers' names.
Where such a strict order has, for space and technical reasons,
Editor: Ray Bonds threatened to deprive a particular aircraft of its deserved
coverage, we "adjusted" the alphabet slightly. In particular, to
Designer: Steve Henderson overcome production problems, we positioned the magnificent
Terry Hadler fold-out paintings of the Messerschmitt Bf 109 and
©
Color drawings: Pilot Press Ltd.; Bf 1 1 between the Henschel Hs 126 and Hs 129, and the
Terry Hadler and County Studios (© Salamander Books Ltd.). Grumman F6F Hellcat and the North American P-51 Mustang
between the Martin Marauder and the Martin Baltimore.
©
Line drawings and cutaways: Pilot Press Ltd.
Filmset by SX Composing Ltd., Rayleigh, Essex, England. Ray Bonds
Color reproduction by Web Offset Reproductions, 32 Paul
Street, London EC2; Metric Reproductions Ltd., Chelmsford,
Essex and Paramount Litho Company, Basildon, Essex, England.
Two-tone color reproduction by Adtype Ltd 9 Clerkenwell
Road, London EC1, England.
Printed in Belgium by Henri Proost et Cie, Turnr ut.
Contents
6
Introduction
8
Australia
8
Czechoslovakia
France 10
Germany
18
Great Britain 76
Holland 126
j
129
Italy
|
Japan
141
|
Poland 172
Union
Soviet 174
United States
of America 197
Index 254
i
Introduction
conflict called World War was no need for advanced technology, and the
II
as simple as that. The campaign taught the Germans little (and even that
es were drawn in in was not heeded). Yet later the scene was to change
:
ghting continuously in dramatically. By 1942 the Luftwaffe hardly dared fly
J been involved in sporadic over Britain at all, and when the invasion forces
a Cninese and the Soviet were massing in 1944 the Luftwaffe could not even
930. Forgotten areas such as Abyssinia bring back pictures. By this time the Allies were
ow Somalia had been invaded by Italy conquering the Luftwaffe even over the heart of
id Tripolitania and Cyrenaica had suf- Germany, but the battle was being fought with new
—
Prosperous Sweden, on the other weapons. Radar pierced cloud and darkness and
=3r became embroiled at all, and it is with- often foolishly served as a beacon on which hostile
out aspect to that aeronautically important fighters could home. New navigation aids guided
nation that its aircraft have been omitted from this aircraft to their targets, and back to friendly run-
volume. ways. Powerful warheads no longer fell unguided
For various reasons the aircraft that fought man's but could be steered by radio signals or electric
biggest and most diverse war have remained sub- signals transmitted through wires right up to the
jects of lasting interest to each new generation. It moment of impact. Cannon, rockets and recoilless
was indeed a war that had everything. In many guns had transformed air combat, while Germany
places "eyeball" confrontations took place between had made giant strides with amazing "V-weapons"
fighter pilots who could see each other in the cock- which actually did nothing to delay her eventual
pit, and it all hinged on personal skill. In other places defeat.
a rather different breed of men stalked the night In World War II more aircraft of more types were
sky, guided by fickle patterns of brightness on small built than at any other time in history. Today, with
cathode-ray tubes, until they could pump cannon our inflation on one hand and slashed defence
shells into something that was just a little blacker budgets (except in the Soviet Union) on the other,
thanthesky background. Technical development was we find it hard even to comprehend how single
fantastic, and the pre-war air exercises and even factories could roll out complex four-engined
participation in the Spanish Civil War were soon
irrelevant to new operational circumstances.
At the start the war was one-sided. What most
observers regard as the start of World War took
II
place 11 minutes ahead of schedule at 04.34 on 1
September 1939 when "Stukas" dive-bombed the
Dirschau bridge over the Vistula. This set the scene.
For 27 terrible days Poland was subjected to a rain
of bombs put down with little opposition by every-
thing from Hs 123 biplanes to trimotor Ju 52s. There