Introduction

Helion & Company have released a series of titles looking at South America and the conflicts that have plagued that continent since the advent and introduction of air power. The series is titled 'Latin America @ War'. The goal of this series is stated as "Unravelling the mysteries and complexities of 20th Century Latin American conflict".

Review

This offering from Helion & Company is No.8 in the series and is a soft backed offering. This title has been authored by Antonio Luis Sapienza who was born in Paraguay in 1960 and educated in Parguay and the USA. The title reviewed here is Antonio's 2nd book for Helion & Company and he is listed as writing other titles in this series. The book is roughly A4 in size and consists of 40 pages. The soft cover is a heavy card offering that should do a reasonable job of protecting the pages within for some time with reasonable use. The paper used inside is a very good quality gloss paper that should be hard wearing and shows off the included photographs very well.

The book can be considered a two part offering and is listed as such. Part one of the book looks at 'Aerial Operations in the Revolution of 1922' with the following sections:
Brief historical background
The creation of the government air arm
The formation of the revolutionary air arm
First bombing and reconnaissance missions
The first dogfights in South America
The last air raids
The official foundation of the military aviation school
Conclusions
The Paraquayan military aviation aircraft in 1922

The second part of this book concentrates on the aerial operations in the revolution of 1947. This section is broken down as follows:
Post Chaco War aircraft acquisition in Italy
Paraguayan military aviation mission to Italy
Lend lease programme aircraft for Paraguay
Paraguayan military aviation missions in Brazil
Paraguayan pilots flying war missions during the South Atlantic Camapaign in WW2
The political situation in Paraguay in the 1940's
The situation of the armed forces at the beginning of the conflict
The Paraguayan air arm split in two at the beginning of the revolution of 1947. Operation Runaway
Bombing and reconnaissence missions
Operation Detachment
The Sikorsky VS.44A raid
Dogfights
The final days of the revolution
Conclusions
The Paraguayan military aviation aircraft in 1947

The book is very well written and presented, I did not find any obvious issues with the text. The presentation style of the text is a very factual approach, which can sometimes make it seem blocky to the reader in a soulless way, but I did find the information gave me knowledge of two conflicts I knew nothing of. I do like that the text is not written in a right or wrong style or goodies and baddies if you prefer as this allowed me to gather information and form my own opinions; in some respects it also made me want to find more information which I feel is a good thing.

The photographs in this title are all black and white and I found myself surprised at just how many pictures there are covering the two periods. The photographs are for the most part of a very good quality overall, the quality is affected where photographs of specific individuals, usually the major players where available photographs are few and far between. There are also some prints included to aid in understanding of the information presented.

There are six pages with side view prints covering aircraft that took part in both revolutions, in total 18 aircraft are covered here. This section may seem a small part of the title, but it does add an important splash of colour and provides visual information for anyone wish to replicate an aircraft from either revolution and side.

Conclusion

I will be honest and say that this title did not initially grab my attention, but as no one took up the offer to review it I took a look and I found an informative book on conflicts I knew nothing about. I was educated as to what the revolutions were about and who the major players were. I was educated as to the men and machines that were brought to the conflicts and how the revolutions were defeated. This is a very good read that opens your eyes to an area of conflict many of us know nothing about.