About the Author

Tom Cooper is an Austrian aerial warfare analyst and historian. Following a career in worldwide transportation business – during which he established a network of contacts in the Middle East and Africa – he moved into narrow-focus analysis and writing on small, little-known air forces and conflicts, about which he has collected extensive archives. This has resulted in specialisation in such Middle Eastern air forces as of those of Egypt, Iran, Iraq, and Syria, plus various African and Asian air forces. Except for authoring and co-authoring more than 30 books - including about a dozen of titles for Helion’s @War series - and over 1000 articles, Cooper is a regular correspondent for multiple defence-related publications. David Nicolle was born in London in 1944. He worked for the BBC Television News and the BBC Arabic Service while also writing for educational magazines on various historical subjects - including aviation - before receiving a PhD from Edinburgh University. While continuing to write and illustrate articles for educational magazines, Dr Nicolle also started writing books on various aspects of aviation and military history - largely focusing upon the Arab and Islamic world. In 1983, he became a lecturer in History at Yarmouk University in Jordan, where he continued to teach until 1987. After returning to England, Dr Nicolle continued to write and now has more than 100 books and dozens of TV documentaries to his name.

Reviews

"an incredible tome in Volume 4 of this series. I must state that this is not a mere photographic essay, but an in-depth pursuit that will take you some time to assimilate. I had seen this book at IPMS Nationals, but had passed it by. Now I need to go buy Volumes One and Two. The rare photographs are aligned with the timeline and illustrate the text greatly. My thanks to Casemate and IPMS/USA for the chance to review this excellent book."-- "IPMS/USA"

"Particularly noteworthy, Tom Cooper's superb color profiles and hundreds of photos offer modelers plenty of project inspiration. And contributor Martin Smisek's revelations - from "Operation 104" through post-1967 reconstruction efforts - illumine the considerable, continuous cooperation between Czechoslovakia and Syria.Over 200 B&W and color photos, tables, sidebars, maps and absorbing anecdotes further flavor the narrative...- wow - what a riveting read! This set keeps getting better and better. I've said it before: Harpia's superb series deserves place in every enthusiast's library. Get all four terrific tomes. I'm licking my eyebrows for Volume 5! Rabidly recommended!-- "Cybermodeler"

"The authors have done a superlative job of researching this volume. They have talked to those who fought in the war, have poured over available documents in all the nations involved, and were able to piece together a very interesting picture of what occurred nearly fifty years ago. Any and all conclusions drawn are based on the facts they were able to obtain and where the information is not clear, it is presented as such. It covers not only the main Arab nations, but also the events in Libya, Morrocco and Lebanon. I particularly found the section on Egypt's involvement in Yemen to be of interest as so little has ever been written about this, and the involvement of Saudi Arabia in the events of the time is also interesting. Few realize that the Soviet Union sent an entire squadron to Egypt to help in their air defense as well as provided other resources such as long range reconnaissance, air/sea services and some modern bomber types, though few of these were every involved directly in combat. The book also busts the myth of the Nesher being the result of Israeli intelligence obtaining plans for the plane and building it themselves. At the time, the Israeli aircraft industry was quite incapable of building a plane from scratch as they did not have the equipment nor the expertise. Despite the French government putting an 'embargo' on shipments to Israel, the Mirage 5Js that Israel paid for were clandestinely shipped to Israel by Dassault and assembled with the help of French and US personnel. There is more to it than that, but I'll leave that for you to read yourself when you get the book. The book is not a quick read, but it is one that I highly recommend to those interested in the topic and with open minds. There are a lot of great photos, charts and maps included as well as some color profiles that will be very useful to modelers and enthusiasts alike."-- "Modeling Madness"