Again it’s our absolute pleasure to introduce a new author to the series. A professional aircraft engineer and the son of a wartime Lancaster pilot, Peter Allam is a Lancaster expert in every sense of the word, and his in-depth knowledge was really needed with this one to pull out details on these lesser known examples. Volume Fourteen covers 16-23 September, a period when the weather took a turn for the worse and limited operations on both sides. Despite this, there are several important and rarely covered events such as the massacre of KG77’s Ju88s on it’s first operation with the new type on 18 September. Neil’s suggestion was to break the photos down into sections, mainly based around units, squadrons and nationalities. We have deliberately excluded the SEAC photos from this book as we plan to produce a separate title to cover all RAF SEAC fighters. Having covered the wartime Mk.I and III in the previous two books, this third book completes the Lancaster’s wartime career* by looking at the other Mks that flew with RAF Bomber Command. These other Mks are the radial engined Mk.II, the Canadian built Mk.X, the experimental Mk.VI, the Dambusters’ Type 464 and the Grand Slam carrying B.I (Special). Produced in smaller numbers for various reasons, these Mks rarely get a lot of coverage in mainstream books so we’ve tried to do them justice in this volume. The Stirling has come in for a lot of Flak over the years, both literally and metaphorically. Hampered by a poor service ceiling and a Dastardly and Muttley style undercarriage, it has always lived in the shadow of the more illustrious Lancaster and Halifax. However, most crews that flew the Stirling were very fond of the aircraft and although its capabilities as a bomber were never as strong as its contemporaries, it blossomed into an extremely useful glider tug and Special Duties aircraft towards the end of the war. This aspect is covered in our second book on the aircraft.

After the very positive reaction to our first Lancaster book in this series, we’re delighted to continue our RAF Bomber Command theme with this, the first of two books on the Short Stirling. For us, there was only ever one author ‘in the frame’ for this one and we’re delighted to say that Jonathan Falconer accepted the challenge and has produced a stunning tribute to this leviathan of the skies.

Today, Terry’s enterprise, SkyGrid Studio,specializes in aviation-history-focused research, illustration, design, and editorial work for clients ranging from aviation-speciality publishers and scale-model manufacturers to museums and aircraft restorers. He has consulted on a number of projects with the Airfix design team over the past decade – the most personally rewarding of which was the firm’s new-tool 1/72 scale Beaufighter series. As always, we’ve optimised every photo to help the reader look deep into the shadows to see these features and have labelled them where necessary. Then in late 1998, he took over editorship of ‘Scale Aircraft Modelling’ from the (then) owner, Alan W Hall, during which time he also introduced and edited a new range of enthusiast titles for Guideline Publications – the ‘Camouflage & Markings’ and ‘Combat Colours’ ranges of books. Wing Leader Ltd was set up by Red Kite founders Simon W Parry and Mark Postlethwaite to act as an online retail business for their Red Kite publishing titles. RZM Imports, Inc. is proud to offer their publications here in North America. Specially commissioned combat scenes by Piotr Forkasiewicz, one of the world’s leading digital aviation artists.

Simon is now one of Britain’s leading aviation historians, but his roots are in Surrey where he began his research into the battles and aircraft crashes in the county 30 years ago, a time it was possible to interview many witnesses to the events. His interest in the air war lead him to become a professional researcher at the National Archives, undertaking a variety of assignments for those not able to conduct their own investigations. Since the publication of his first book in 1987 he has focused his attentions on the editing and production of over 40 aviation books for publishers. He is also one of Europe’s most experienced aviation archaeologists, contributing to and appearing in several TV documentaries for the BBC, Channel 4 and others.

In simple terms, the NCA is a comprehensive record of over 6000 Luftwaffe Night Fighter Claims and over 2100 Flak claims which have been painstakingly matched to RAF Bomber Command losses resulting in over 95% of them now being identified. This means that for the first time ever, the fate of the vast majority of RAF Bomber Command losses can be clearly understood with exact locations, times and identities of the pilots or Flak units responsible for bringing them down. The Spitfire V was originally designed as an interim variant. Based on the Mk I/II airframe, but powered by a Merlin 45, the Mk V entered service in early 1941, and was marginally better than the Me 109F at high altitude and more heavily armed (Mk Vb). The Mk Vc appeared in October 1941, fitted with the universal ‘c’ wing (developed for the Mk III), which could carry either eight machine guns, four 20mm cannon, or two cannon and four machine guns – the two cannon/four machine gun combination being the most common. After devoting the first four volumes in this series to Battle of Britain subjects, we turned our attention to another icon of British aviation, the Avro Lancaster. The problem with the Lanc was always going to be how to break it down into manageable sizes. We considered chronologically but it didn’t quite tell the story as we wanted, so in the end we went for a layout by production batches and therefore serial numbers. This has thrown up some interesting details along the way and we can guarantee that even the biggest Lancaster fans will learn some new facts from this book. Part One therefore covers serial numbers L7527 to JB748 which chronologically is roughly 1941 to the end of 1943. Part two features later serials and Part three covers the MkII and other special Lancaster types like the B1 Special and the Type 464 (Provisioning) ‘Dambuster version. ”

Red Kite are delighted to introduce a major new landmark series of books on the Battle of Britain. The Battle of Britain Combat Archive Series forms the most comprehensive account ever of The Few’s gallant efforts. Focusing solely on RAF Fighter Command’s clashes with the Luftwaffe, the series covers every combat that took place on every day of the Battle of Britain. Using contemporary accounts such as combat reports, rarely seen squadron intelligence summaries and the newly released casualty reports, the author and his team of experts have broken down each day into its individual combats and assembled the claims, losses and first-hand accounts into a highly accessible format. These combats are illustrated with specially designed maps showing the amount of aircraft involved, the area that the engagement took place and the location of where the casualties came to earth. Each combat and casualty report is illustrated with a photo of the pilot wherever possible. With this latest volume, we welcome Neil Robinson to our team of authors. Neil will be well known to most of you, having spent most of his career working in aviation publishing, and we look forward to working with him on more titles in the future. In 1940 Johnson had an operation to reset his collarbone, and began flying regularly. He took part in the offensive sweeps over German-occupied Europe from 1941 to 1944, almost without rest. Johnson was involved in heavy aerial fighting during this period. His combat tour included participation in the Dieppe Raid, Combined Bomber Offensive, Battle of Normandy, Operation Market Garden,the Battle of the Bulge and the Western Allied invasion of Germany. Johnson progressed to the rank of group captain by the end of the war. In this book, renowned Beaufighter expert Terry Higgins and modelling legend Neil Robinson share their deep knowledge of the subject and identify the various modifications, paint schemes and upgrades that were applied to the Beau during this period. It was a very complicated task which took them over a year to complete.

Holding its advantage over the Me 109F during the summer, the operational debut of the FW 190A in September 1941, found the Mk V somewhat outclassed, but despite this, it remained the main RAF fighter until the summer of 1942, when the Mk IX was introduced, but low level LF Mk Vb and Vcs remained in use into 1944. Although the Stirling didn’t reach its full potential as a bomber, it did perform remarkably well as a glider tug and paratroop transport and was readily available to take part in all airborne assaults on the Continent from D-Day onwards. It also played an important role in sustaining resistance groups. These modified converted bombers were known as the Stirling Mk IV and over 600 of them were built. The Mk V filled another urgent requirement for transport aircraft at the end of the war and in this guise it did modestly well. Growing up in the late 1950s/early 1960s, Neil Robinson had an interest in aeroplanes from an early age, which expressed itself by him spending most of his paper round money buying aviation magazines such as ‘Flying Review’ and ‘Aircraft Illustrated’ and Airfix and Frog kits. Hanging onto every word of W R ‘Bill’ Matthews’ ‘Model Talk’ in ‘Flying Review’ and Alan W Hall’s conversions in ‘Airfix Magazine’, he continued to have an interest in aeroplanes and model making throughout his teens and joined IPMS (UK) in 1969. Ontario-based designer, illustrator, andwriter Terry Higgins is a native of Norris Arm, Newfoundland, who has had a lifelong fascination with all things aviation-history related. After the usual high school era Royal Canadian Air Cadets stint and subsequent interests in both gliding and powered flight, Terry realized that he was drawn more towards the technical and operational history aspects of aviation. This led, in a roundabout way,to careers in photo-processing technology and print/digital reprographics. Throughout, Terry kept up his childhood hobbies of model building and (mostly aviation related) illustration.

Johnson grew up and was educated in the East Midlands, where he qualified as an engineer. He served as an Assistant Engineer at Ilkeston and latterly to the Chigwell Urban District Council at Loughton. A sportsman, Johnson broke his collarbone while playing rugby, an injury that later complicated his ambitions of becoming a fighter pilot. Johnson had been interested in aviation since his youth and applied to join the RAF. He was initially rejected, first on social, and then on medical grounds; he was eventually accepted in August 1939. The injury problems, however, returned during his early training and flying career, resulting in him missing the Battle of France and the Battle of Britain between May and October 1940.As with all the books in this series, we’ve enhanced the photos to pull out the shadow detail and have added arrows and letters to identify points of interest. So, with this in mind, we set out to create a definitive guide to what the various serial batches would have looked like and what mods they would have had. This book, along with the previous WPA5, form an essential guide to the wartime Main Force Avro Lancaster, using high-res wartime photos to illustrate key features of each serial batch to guide modellers and historians in the future. With previously unpublished colour images of Village Inn and Monica III, this book is a must for any Lancaster enthusiast.