A-26 Invader – Osprey – Let Let Let

[dropcap]F[/dropcap]amous Osprey publishing series Combat aircraft book number 82 is dedicated to A-26 Invader units of the World war II. Designed to combine the bombing capability of the B-26 Marauder with the versatility of the ground-attack A-20 Havoc, the A-26 Invader would become the USAAF’s attack bomber par excellence. Capable of flying low-level strafing or conventional bombing missions by simply changing the nose configuration of the aircraft, the Invader first saw action in 1943 in the Pacific Theatre attacking Japanese-held islands. Arriving in Europe several months later, the A-26 served with distinction for the remainder of World War 2. In fact, the design proved so successful that it would go on to fly combat missions for a further two decades.

Written by military aviation expert, Jim Roeder, and illustrated with brand-new color profiles and rare photography, this is the first book to focus exclusively on the A-26’s missions in World War 2. This paperback book is published during November this year and it comes on 96 pages of good quality paper. Book is packed full with black and white archive photos, and an excellent addition is five archive color photos. Book is well illustrated and it contains 30 color plates with nose section extracts. A short description is supplied for each profile shown in the book. Publication is divided in following chapters:

Chapter one – Preparing the Invader
Chapter two – Combat evaluation
Chapter three – Into Action
Chapter four – Invaders to the fore
Chapter five – More units convert
Chapter six – Pacific invaders
Appendices

In chapter one author describes development of the A-26 invader, from the first designed version to the last used version in World war two. All major modifications are covered, and a lot of interesting data I’ve found here.

Chapter two covers combat evaluation of this bird on both ETO and PTO, after successful evaluation, Invaders were put to action which is covered in chapter three which is filled with actual stories about combat sorties, so this chapter was a real treat. Since Invaders were very successful many units have started their converting from A-20 to A-26, and you can read about that in chapters four and five. The last sixth chapter is reserved for Invaders on the Pacific theatre, and that is the last chapter of this interesting book.

[Show as slideshow]

I must say that I was not that into invaders but, after obtaining this book, the first thing I’ve done was to go to the local hobby store and buy one A-26 invader kit (just for a start). This is a great book, that will present you a nice story about A-26, and I can highly recommend it to all interested in aviation history and in war birds in general.

Darko Mladenovic

Sample book provided by Joseph McCullough, Marketing Coordinator Osprey Publishing and book can be purchased here!