Axis Suicide Squads by Justo Miranda
REVIEW
by Dan Sharp
When I first discovered Dan Johnson’s Luft 46 website and with it a whole host of weird and fascinating German Second World War projects, one of the chief attractions for me was the artwork that went along with the site. It was all about the drawings – these strange designs brought to life in vivid detail.
Browsing through the site, I noticed a section entitled Reichdreams Dossiers by J. Miranda and P. Mercado. This took (and still takes) the form of a huge catalogue of volumes, each detailing numerous unbuilt types from the major Third Reich manufacturers – many of which were not even on the website itself. I was intrigued. But then I saw that many of these ‘dossiers’ seemed to be out of print and all the prices were in US dollars.
In the days before Paypal and internet shopping proper, even though I longed to explore these volumes, I felt it was too much of a risk so my order was never placed. Then, years later at an air show, I discovered a volume called Secret Wonder Weapons of the Third Reich – German Missiles 1934-1945 by J. Miranda and P. Mercado. I bought it eagerly but getting it home found that it did indeed contain only what it said on the cover. No sign of those Gotha bats, rocket planes or supersonic projects. No companion volumes including these seemed to be available either.
Imagine my delight, then, to find that Justo Miranda’s work was finally being printed up in luxurious hardback form by Fonthill Media. First piston-engined fighters, then flying wings and now we have rammers and other ‘suicide’ aircraft.
I bought each of them when they came out and I have not been disappointed. They are filled to the brim with those same wonderful line drawings that first drew my attention back at the turn of the millennium. My own research into German projects material has often taken me down different paths to those followed by Justo, which makes it awkward for me to pass judgement on the text. But having seen the original drawings of projects such as the one labelled ‘Gotha P.55’ it makes me smile to see how sympathetically Justo has treated them and how carefully he has elaborated upon what is really little more than a sketch.
Setting the German projects aside, Axis Suicide Squads differs from its predecessors in featuring Japanese projects too. This section has a further multitude of Justo’s lovely drawings and the text details the many recorded instances of Japanese aircraft being used for ‘Tokko’ attacks.
I found this very interesting and it has encouraged me to go and find out more about Japanese projects, beyond the two Edwin M. Dyer books.
For me, Axis Suicide Squads has been precisely the trip down memory lane that I wanted and more. As I said before, it really is secret projects done ‘old skool’.
