Savoia Marchetti SM.79: The Yugoslav Story

By David L. Veres

Review

The Savoia Marchetti SM.79 Sparviero arguably remains Fascist Italy’s most significant bombing aircraft.

Exploits of the truculent trimotor provided potent propaganda during fighting in Spain and WWII. And the notoriety helped fuel modest exports.

Now Boris Ciglic recounts the spellbinding saga of one such success in Savoia Marchetti SM.79: The Yugoslav Story from Jeroplan Books.

Ciglic masterfully chronicles the whole terrific tale over 108 lavishly illustrated, admirably annotated pages.

The torturous acquisition and service entry of SM.79Is. The chaos and confusion of the April 1941 war. And the amazing afterlife of Royal Yugoslav Sparvieri in both Allied and Axis use.

Epiphanies abound. Did you know that a single Amiot 354 served among the 21 modern bombers in Croatia’s nascent air force?

Lots and lots of extraordinary eye candy here, too. Over 120 rare photos season the study. And 30 color profiles provide plenty of project possibilities.

How about that plate of a Soviet example?

Crew memoirs, combat accounts, and official records support the study. Extended captions, technical details, and markings commentary further augment the account. And six appendices, abbreviations list, and selected sources neatly complete contents.

Sure, pedants will wince at the occasionally awkward diction, tenses, and translations. The possessive of “it” is “its” – not “it’s”. And the AMI roundels of color profile S.79T “SVS-14” should sport red outer rings with green center dots – not the reverse.

But those quibbles positively pale before the sheer number of Ciglic’s remarkable revelations. Get this marvelous monograph.

Rabidly recommended!

My sincere thanks to Jeroplan Books for this review sample!