Firefly Books | Spitfire: The Canadians volumes I & II

Reviewed by Vasko Barbic & Mark Proulx

Spitfire: The Canadians volume I

Hard Cover
160 Pages
ISBN 1-55046-148-6
Size 9 x 12

Spitfire: The Canadians volume II

Hard Cover
137 Pages
ISBN 1-55046-267-9
Size 9 x 12

By Vasko Barbic

The books are reminders of how much Canadian pilots and ground crews were involved with the Supermarine Spitfire; be it during the Battle of Britain, cross Channel raids over Nazi occupied Europe, D-Day, or the liberation.

They represent an exceptional collection, painstakingly gathered by the author of very interesting stories, anecdotes, and impressions. These are told simply and candidly by the surviving men themselves and are first person accounts narrated in their own words of the actions, the sadness after the loss of a close mate, but also of the great joy of flying this superlative machine, the Spitfire.

Their narrations are well complemented by clear and superb photos selected from the veterans private collections as well as from official sources, most have never been published before. These captivating personal memories are further illustrated with a series of impressive colored artwork brilliantly executed by the artist Rob Lowry.

These books are a unique source of information for the researchers and dedicated modelers of Spitfires and represent many years of hard work by the author, who like many of us loves this beautiful and legendary fighter aircraft.

I cannot recommend them enough!

Robert, many of us eagerly await volume III!

By Mark Proulx

Spitfire The Canadians

Spitfire The Canadians has a superb set of scale plans included covering five pages of the book. In my opinion, these scale plans are the most accurate available. They were drawn by A.R. Clint and cover Spitfire F Vb's, F IX C's, FR XIV E's and LF XVI E's. This is very important for those modelers who modify their Spitfires and/or scribe their kits. The plans cover top, bottom, left, right, front and rear views.

Spitfire II The Canadians

There are no plans in this book, however, there are color photos and very nice artwork by Ron Lowry.

Firefly Books address is:

Firefly Books Ltd.
3680 Victoria Park Ave.
Willowdale, Ont.
Canada M2H 3K1
tel : (416) 499-8412

© Vasko Barbic & Mark Proulx 2003

Related Content

This review was published on Saturday, July 02 2011; Last modified on Wednesday, May 18 2016