Description

The Spanish Civil War was the key conflict of the era between the First and Second World Wars, used by the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany to practice for the coming struggle. It provided the first experience of combat flying between opponents using advanced European aircraft since the First World War ended in 1918, and was studied carefully for its lessons. Aircraft of the Spanish Civil War 1936-39 fills a gap on the bookshelves of everyone interested in the history of military or civil aviation. For the first time, all the astonishingly varied types of aircraft that took part in the war are described in a single volume. There are explanatory sections on Spanish aviation before the war, the Civil War itself, the opposing air forces, with their large international contingents, and the camouflage and identity systems they adopted, the civil airlines, and the networks of agencies responsible for smuggling hundreds of aircraft into Spain in defiance of Non-Intervention, as well as lists of the many types and large numbers of aircraft employed by the two sides.