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Attack of the Airacobras: Soviet Aces, American P-39s, and the Air War against Germany. By Dmitriy Loza. Translated and edited by James F. Gebhardt. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2009. ISBN 978-0-7006-1654-1. Photographs. Appendixes. Notes. Index. Pp. xiii, 369. $24.95.
Attack of the Airacobras is an important book for air power and World War II history as it covers two topics long neglected by English speaking writers and readers. The first is the aircraft, the Bell P-39.The Airacobra first flew in April 1938 and was an innovative design for its day that featured elements that would later become standard. But it was outperformed by other aircraft of the era and had some nasty flying characteristics that led to an unenviable reputation. In U.S. service it did not win much praise or glory and was clearly overshadowed by the other American fighters of the war. Nevertheless, almost 10,000 were built, hah0 of which were sent to the Soviets under the Lend-Lease program.
The second area of neglect is the air war on the eastern front viewed from the Soviet perspective, overlooked because of the greater interest in Anglo-American operations, the difficulty of the Russian language, and...