ARAB MIGS VOL. 1: MiG-15s and MiG-17s, 1955-1967, Mikoyan Gurevich MiG-15 and MiG-17 in Service with Air Forces of Alge

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Casemate Publishers, Nov 19, 2009 - History - 256 pages
Starting in 1955, and for the following 20 years, MiG-15 and MiG-17 formed the backbone of several Arab air forces. They played a prominent role in four major wars and dozens of minor incidents.

Covering the first decade of this period, this study - Arab MiGs, Volume 1, the first in a series of publications - provides a unique and previously unavailable insight into the service history of both types with five Arab air forces. Even more so, it tells the story of people that flew MiG-15s and MiG-17s in Algeria, Egypt, Iraq and Syria. Several of whom became dominant political figures in most recent history of these countries.

The reason why Arab countries began purchasing MiGs and thus became embroiled in the Cold War is approached and discussed from an entirely new and original - Arab - point of view.

Details about combat operations during three major wars between Arabs and Israel, as well as the war in Yemen of the 1960s, are reconstructed on basis of primary evidence, foremost in form of original documents and participants' recollections.

About the author (2009)

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 is a leading expert on the history of medieval warfare, in particular the Crusades and Middle Eastern warfare, and he is a prolific writer of books on these subjects as well as articles and magazine articles. Among his many previous works are The Hundred Years War; The Mongol Warlords;Saladin and the Saracens; The Crusades; The Medieval Warfare Sourcebook; Hattin 1187 and Fighting for the Faith.

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