Product Description

Never before has a single volume been devoted exclusively to the intrepid and disparate band of pilots who could claim to be Gladiator aces. Flying the ultimate British biplane fighter, pilots in China, Finland, East Africa, North Africa, Western Europe, the Mediterranean, Norway and the Middle East all scored the prerequisite five kills to become aces. The first individuals to do so were fighting marauding Japanese fighters and bombers attacking targets in China in 1938. The likes of Sheen, Tuck and Carey will also be featured in this volume, as they were among the many early war acers who cut their teeth in Fighter Command on the Gladiator.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #949887 in Books
• Published on: 2002-02-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 96 pages

Review
"This is an excellent book which will be of value to modellers and historians alike. Perhaps inevitably, the Gloster Gladiator has been largely overshadowed by the likes of the Hurricane and Spitfire, but Andrew Thomas does a fine job in setting the record straight with a book which is a fitting tribute to a tough little fighter and the brave men who flew it." -Rowan Baylis, AeroScale

From the Publisher
Osprey's Aircraft of the Aces series combines full colour artwork, the best archival contemporary photography, and first hand accounts from aces to bring history's greatest airborne conflicts to life.

About the Author
Andrew Thomas is one of Britain's most pre-eminent RAF researchers, having published numerous squadron histories. He is presently a serving officer in the RAF.

Customer Reviews

Gloster Gladiator Aces
Compared to it's successors, the Hurricane and the Spitfire, the Gloster Gladiator hasn't been much published. This book shows that this plane deserves far more than it got attention-wise. Quite a few of the great names flew Gladiators, the RAF's last fighting biplane and one of the best ever produced. This is a distinction that only the Italian Fiat Cr42 could hope to match as you learn in this book, one of the few about this plane since the classic "The Gloster Gladiator" from Francis K. Mason in 1964, which set the standard about publishing this plane for the last 38 years.

An excellent book about an obscure subject
When thinking about British fighters of WWII, the Spitfire and Hurricane naturally come to mind first. But the British used other fighters, one of which was the Gloster Gladiator. A fabric-covered biplane, the Gladiator was an anachronism by 1939. Yet it served well during the early part of the war, not only in the RAF, but also with the Royal Navy and Australian, South African, Finnish, Swedish, Greek, Belgian, Norwegian and Chinese air forces.

Author Andrew Thomas clearly did a tremendous amount of research for the book, including interviews with surviving pilots. The color profiles and and photographs are excellent. My only minor quibble with the book is that it would have been improved with a short description of the aircraft itself and its versions.

The few, the proud, the Gladiator aces.
An obsolete plane by the beginning of WWII, the Gladiator was, however, still used by Britian. Outclassed by ther German Bf-109s, the British pilots still fought in the bi-plane for most of the war.
The British did, however, score heavily aganst the Italians CR.42 bi-plane.
Fighting from China, Britian, Africa, Finland and Iraq, the Gladiator fought valiantly against the Japanese, Italians, Germans, Iraqis and Russians.
The Chinese used the Gladiator against the Japanese A5M 'Claude', scoring decenty with the fighter.
The Finnish also used the Gloster fighter, fighting against Russian fighters.

I found this book a very good source about the British bi-plane fighter that fought for the British, South Africans and Finnish.
This book has aces such as Bill Vale, Marmaduke T. St.John 'Pat' Pattle, Oiva Tuominen, Paavo Berg and more. This book boasts 82 pages of well written facts on the Gloster fighter. This book has color plates of British, Finnish, Chinese, and Belgian Gladiators.
This is another good book by Andrew Thomas. Two thumbs up from me. Another recommended book from Osprey's long line of 'Aircraft of the aces' book.