Military Model Scene

Title: F2H Banshee Units
Author: Richard R Burgess
Publisher: Osprey
ISBN: 978-1-4728-4621-1

Number 141 in the Combat Aircraft series from Osprey, a 96-page soft-cover book.
With WW2 over, this is the story of the McDonnell F2H Banshee, a first generation jet fighter that played a part in the Korean war, serving on US carriers. It was also the last straight wing jet to serve in the US Navy. This book tells us about the service history of the type, and its' variants, which actually had a relatively long service career when compared to plenty of other first generation jets, such as the F9 Panther which was another jet of the same era. Used as a fighter, a night-fighter, it also had a photo reconnaissance version which benefitted from the high altitude it could reach, and which coupled with a long range also gave it the capability to serve as a bomber, carrying nuclear weapons. The various chapters cover the fighter role at war in Korea, the photo-Banshee, night-fighters and nukes, and then the much altered Big Banshee, the F2H-3, which featured an 8ft fuselage extension that also moved the cockpit forward plus various other changes. Having covered the US Navy and Marines use of the Banshee, with short histories of each unit that were equipped with the aircraft, the final chapter covering the Banshee in Canadian Operation and retirement.
As well as the basic details of the service history, there are lots of personal accounts which add a lot to the story as a whole. For the aviation enthusiast and modeller there are also notes on colours and markings which are also helped with 10 pages of first class colour profiles that have their individual detail explained in the appendices at the back of the book, along with tables showing the various deployments of all the different units during their time in service. The Banshee is not a jet I knew much about, so I found this really interesting reading.
Thanks to Osprey for the review copy.

Robin