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PETLYAKOV Pe-2 PESHKA
Published by The Crowood Press, July 2003
ISBN 1 86126 588 3 £29.95.
The full and complete story of the twin-engined Soviet dive bomber that was faster than many German fighters and the outstanding part she played on the Eastern Front between 1941-45. But what is little known is that captured Pe-2's were deployed against Russia, by the Finnish Air Force between 1942 and 1944.
The first complete and definitive history of this superb aircraft, designed in one of Stalin's prison camps, and which became the mainstay of the Soviet Union's air force during the war years, both against Germany, and later, after the fall of Berlin, against the Japanese forces in the Far East. The full story of the design, development and deployment of this dive bomber is told from fresh and original Russian and other sources, and is enhanced with numerous photographs, both colour and black and white, including many previously unseen interior colour views ideal for model makers.
Post-war the Pe-2 continued to serve with nations of the Warsaw Pact, Poland, Czechoslovakia and others, as well as Yugoslavia. Packed with tables, graphs, Appendices and rare illustrations, here is the real and full story of the Peshka. Historian Ray Wagner, formerly of the San Diego Aerospace Museum, wrote. "This is the very best book in English on a Soviet World War II aircraft I've ever read."