French Flying-Boats of World War Ⅱ

摘要

The few books on French aircraft which appear in the UK are, understandably, in French, so it is a delight to welcome this one in English on an unusual and interesting subject. The French had always been builders of hydravions, their general term for aircraft capable of operating from water and the book opens with a brief outline of French naval aviation in 1939. Compared with the Luftwaffe's fleet of 208 seaplanes, the French had 510 of which only 282 were frontline types. Of course, France had a much larger coastline to protect than Germany. Tables give the technical programmes of the various types, numbers ordered, missions etc and disposition of the various Commands plus French and German losses compared - 13 and 38 respectively. The main body of the book covers each type with a brief history, contract details and specifications with many interesting photographs and no less than 81 coloured side-view drawings, full-page depth and printed vertically - these are the work of Teodor Liviu Morosanu while the co-author is Jose Fernandez.