FLIGHT PATRIA HEART - SECOND EDITION review

[nimbus109]

FLIGHT PATRIA HEART - SECOND EDITION
Volume 1: “They could only die” Volume 2: “Lived stories of pilots and aircraft”

Author: Paolo Pesaresi

Looking for a review of these books. Any new material, profile quality, etc. Anyone want to proffer an opinion? Thanks.

[Editor]

We used Volume 2 for 48011 "Cuore, Patria, Volo, 2o Gruppo Caccia ANR 1943-1945, Storie Vissute di Piloti e Aerei", its pretty good. Some fine details in the book lined up with what we found for the G.55 (e.g., vert stabilizer of the G.55 prototype and all the different production tails - much more detail than D'Amico's book) and even some unknown photos with reverse fasces (fasci contrapposti) I never seen before, you usually don't see this in a book on a general topic - so the research is pretty good (definitely allot of effort went into it). Some "rough" drawings (for color and camo schemes) could have been better (not the authors fault) although the line drawings are excellent and accurate with excellent detail and they even consider the different length gun/canon shrouds of the G.55 (again a fine detail), and also the varying locations of the oxygen refill for example. The book is in Italian - unfortunately for us we don't get many of these books that make into English. Same thing with "Araldica della Regia Aeronautica" by Monclavo and Massimello, again only in Italian but has an extra-ordinary amount of detail with many different examples of unit badges and original photos.

[s00ntir]

Another book to buy.. I'll spend fortune... no yacht, no Ferrari on my retirement....

[Editor]

Both of us being academics, we tend to reference everything under the sun which serves as a reminder of how hard it is to contribute original ideas to the current body of knowledge on any given topic. I do hope that when I reference certain books people don't feel obligated to buy the reference, its just a habit when making a point. The two books I discuss above are in Italian so drawing useful information from the books, aside from original photos and drawings could be a slog - that's what Stormo is for.

[s00ntir]

Yes Master... Frankly - I've always invested in books - you know my other interests. Specialistic books costs a lot and it's ok. Actually they should. But as one said - it's impossible to read (buy) all books, drink all wine and love all women... but you can always try! ps. - and thanks to goo....le translator it's not a problem to read a book in language you don't know. It just take some time - but it's possible. And I've just bought a book to take with me for my holidays in Italy next week. But my felings are mixed so to say... Taking a short glimpse - it's not just for a modeller - more for a someone interested in history. Another point - none of the authors seems to be airplane expert - more academics. Well - we will see.

[Editor]

Let us know what you think about the book, I don't recognize the author's names. I read two of Marco Mattioli's books from Osprey, 53o Stormo and S.79 Torpedo bombers, both are excellent reads and contain history, tables, day to day operations, pilot accounts etc - very much history oriented with profiles that can be used as the basis for a model. Mattioli also recently finished a new book Macchi C.202/C.205V units in combat, also from Osprey - I haven't read this one but I plan to. If you're interested in history/modeler oriented books, ADI and Aviolibri books (Maurizio D'Terlizzi) are pretty good especially the ADI ones with drawings from Brioschi who is now passed away.

[s00ntir]

Ciao a Tutti!

Few days ago I returned from my holiday trip to Northern Italy - except bringing new Italeri Macchi C.202 in 1/32 I also brought A LOT of books. Miraculously my wife still talks to me... and I've also bought "Cuore Patria Volo - Second Edition" in two volumes.

First of all this book (books actually) is just massive. Big, heavy and beatutifully printed. 822 pages total, 1150 photos, 170 documents included etc. etc. The text is in Italian but each chapter has English summary. Truly - I'm still excited with this book - so much data, so many pictures - it's my plan for the following weeks to study it carefully. Using some "modern" technology in my tablet it's really not a big problem to have it translated page by page

Volume 1 is more about history of air war in Italy, packed with pictures of planes, places and men - from both sides of the conflict. Next we have history of ANR from it's very beginig till the end of hostilities - and finally detailed (and also packed with photos) history of 2 Gruppo Caccia.

Volume 2 - well - as title says: stories of pilots and airplanes. Let's say it's a compilation of monographs of pilots of 2 Gruppo Caccia. It also inludes drawings and profiles of ANR fighter planes plus descripiont of camos and markings used.

The quality of pics is very good, drawings are also nice. One thing I don't like - there are some computer - like generated color graphics which look like taken from some computer game. But there are just very few of them and with no special meaning to all the book.

In my opinion - higly recomended.

[s00ntir]

Quality of pics is great

[s00ntir]

There is English sumary at the end of each chapter

[s00ntir]

Color profiles look fine - although I didn't check their accuracy

[s00ntir]

There is some reference regarding camo and markings of ANR

[s00ntir]

And the only thing about the book which I don't especially like......

[s00ntir]

But detailed information on ANR 2 Gruppo pilots is great

[s00ntir]

And there is a lot of scanned original documents and hand drawings