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INTO THE ASSAULT: Famous Dive-Bomber Aces of the Second World War.
H/B 1985 (ISBN 0 7195 4247 2) H/B (2) USA Edition 1985 (ISBN 0 295 96317 4) H/B (3) Japanese Edition 1986 (ISBN 4 7698 0332 X) P/B Chinese Edition 1997 (ISBN 957 677 342 3) P/B Russian Edition, AST, Moscow, 2003.
The biographries of some of World War II's leading exponents of the dive bombing art from all the combatant nations - Egusa of Japan; Mesny of France; Cenni of Italy; Partridge of Britain; Polbin of the Soviet Union; Enneccerus of the Germany and Glidden of the USA. Through their eyes the famous actions are chronicled with a good selection of photographs of the men, their aircraft, and their targets.
This unique and outstanding presentation of the viewpoints of pilots from very different nationalities and air forces, all of whom used the dive bomber to excellent effect and really made a difference to the war efforts of their nations, was, again, an innovation when it first appeared. Very seldom had the opinions and points of view of former enemy pilots been allowed space in an English-language publication, and certainly never had dive bombing from the sharp end been so comprehensively revealed. Their aircraft might have varied considerably as well, the Blackburn Skua, Douglas SBD Dauntless, Aichi D3A1/2 Val and Junkers Ju.87 Stuka were all slow aircraft, whereas the Soviet Pe-2 Peshka and the North American A-36 Apache were both as fast, or faster, than many Allied and Axis fighter planes, but they all employed that special precsion and accuracy of attack that marked the dive bomber and made their pilots aces of their profession.
American, Japanese, Chinese and Russian editions duly followed.
Military Magazine stated that Into the Assault was, "...a delightful book...Smith is known for transforming his painstaking research into brilliant and pleasant reading." The Journal-America added that it was, "..a well-researched, well documented and notably even-handed tribute to a particular form of warfare." The verdict of The Globe & Laurel was that it was, "..a very interesting and authoritative book" and added, "Anyone who has read other books by Peter C Smith will know that they have been very well researched, and this book is no exception." Aviation News thought it, " A well written book, " Lloyds List of London added it was, "...a striking, dramatic and thought-provoking study", while the Guild of Air Pilots rated it, " A thorough record." The verdict of The Pilot was that , "A lot of research has obviously gone into the text which is well written. Into the Assault makes excellent reading, and deals with a topic that has not been over-described in other books." The Nautical Magazine summed up, "The author has managed to get away from the nationalistic bias displayed by so many writers in recounting war history, and has concentrated on presenting the true facts and not heresay."