Attack of the Airacobras: Soviet Aces, American P-39s, and the War Against Germany

Attack of the Airacobras: Soviet Aces, American P-39s, and the War Against Germany. By Dmitriy Loza. Translated and edited by James F. Gebhardt. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2002. Maps. Photographs. Figures. Appendixes. Notes. Index. Pp. xiii, 369. $34.95.

The history of a Soviet P-39 Airacobra unit, the 216th Fighter Division, later redesignated the 9th Guards Fighter Division, is related here from its formation in August 1942 near the Caspian Sea until the end of the war against Germany when operating near Berlin. The Bell P-39 Airacobra had a chequered history, as the RAF rejected it and the U.S.A.A.F. operated it with mixed success. In Soviet hands it had greater success, but older books often refer solely to its...