The World's Great Bombers: 2005 hardback

Author: Christopher Chant

Publisher: Silverdale Books

Pagination: 176

Format: Hardback + DJ

Condition: Fine.

Published in 2005 by Silverdale Books of Wigston, Leicester, England, this is just one of the many works of British military historian Christoper Chant who has also written a book chronicling the development of the ultimate armoured fighting vehicle called World Encyclopedia Of The Tank (1994 - Haynes Publishing) which I also recently reviewed. As with that volume, this 176-page, profusely illustrated effort makes no effort to go into details of all bomber development around the world, but rather provides rudimentary information on some of the more generally known production models, with heavier emphasis, at least in the early days, on British production. They essentially skim over the largest bomber to see action in WW I, Russia's Sikorsky Ilya Muromets, the world's first 4-engined bomber, and since the U.S. produced nothing in the way of combat aircraft of any type in that war, they are conspicuous by their absence.

Chapter 1 deals with WW I (pages 6 to 42), Chapter 2 the Inter-War Period (pages 42 to 84), Chapter 3 the bombers of WW II (pages 84 to 140), and Chapter 4 the developments after WW II (pages 140 to 175). It comes with a full alphabetical index. Interesting, if superficial, but with nice colour plates and specifications for:
British WW I: Avro Type 504, Short Type 184, Airco (de Havilland) D.H.4, Airco (de Havillanbd) D.H. 9A, Handley Page 0/400;
French WW I: Voisin Type 1B.2;
Italian WW I: Caproni Ca 3, Ansaldo SVA-10/1F;
German WW I: Gotha G IV, Zeppelin-Staaken R VI.

British Inter-War: Airco (de Havlland D.H. 109, Vickers Vimy Mk IV, Vickers Virginia Mk XC, Aero A.100, Fairey Fox Mk 1, Boulton Paul Overstrand Mk 1, Handley Page Hyderabad Mk 1, Hawker Hart Bomber, Handley Page Heyford Mk 1A;
French: Amiens Mk III, Farman F.222.2BN.5, Bloch MB.200B.4, Amiot 143B.5;
Italian: Fiat BR.20 Cicogna;
American: Martin B.10B.

British WW II: Armstrong Whitworth Whitley Mk V, Vickers Wellington Mk 1C, Handley Page Halifax B.Mk III, Short Stirling B.Mk III, de Havilland Mosquito B.Mk IV Srs 2;
German WW II: Heinkel He 111H-16, Dornier Do 17Z-2, Junkers Ju 88A-4, Heinkel He 177A-1/R1 Greif;
French WW II: Lioré-et-Olivier LeO 451B.4;
Soviet WW II: Tupolev SB-2, Ilyushin II-4, Petlyakov Pe-2FT;
American WW II: Boeing B-17F and B-17G Flying Fortresses, Consolidated B-24J Liberator, Martin B-25G Marauder, Boeing B-29 Supefortress;
Japanese WW II: Mitsubishi G3M2, Mitsbushi Ki-21-11b, Mitsubishi G4M1 Model 11, Nakajima Ki-49-IIb, Mitsubishi K-67-I Hiryu.
Italian WW II: Savoia-Marchetti SM.79-1 Sparviero, CANT Z.1007bis Alcione

British after WW II: English Electric Canberra B.Mk 2, Avro Vulcan B.Mk 2A
American after WW II: North Amwerican B-45C, Convair B-36J, Boeing B-52D Stratofortress, Rockwell B-1B Lancer;
Soviet after WW II: Ilyushin Il28 Beagle, Tupolev Tu-16 Badger-A, Tupolev Tu-95MS-16 Bear-H, Myasishchyev M-4 Bison A, Tupolev Tu-22M Backfire-A; (Amazon review)