John T. Smith

Once in a while a book comes along that stands out as a new standard on the subject. This is one such book.
Using original documents and contemporary memoirs the author has rewritten the story of British involvement in South Russia during the civil war. In addition to the RAF the author also does a pretty good job of summarising Royal Navy and Tank Corps involvement. The book is well laid out, the principle chapters cover each month in turn, and it is easy to follow events on multiple fronts. The selection of photographs in impressive, only a handful having previously been seen in specialist publications. The photos are well reproduced on quality paper. There are a number of useful maps.
The only reasons I've not given it 5 stars are that the references do not provide the National Archives item numbers for future researchers, and similar information is missing for the photographs, all apparently from Canadian sources. Also, there is no biography of the author - a great pity.
The book was deservedly Aeroplane Monthly's 'Book of the Month' for December 2010.… (más)