Red Star 10: Lavochkin's Piston-Engined Fighters

This volume deals with the formation and early years of OKB-301, the design bureau created by Lavochkin, Gorbunov and Goodkov, shortly before the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War.

It describes in detail all the piston-engined fighters developed by OKB-301 starting with the LaGG-3, an aircraft that first saw service in the Winter War against Finland.

The story is continued with the legendary La-5 and La-7 which rendered sterling service during the war.

These aircraft were a match for the Bf109 and the Fw190 and several pilots were awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union, for their exploits.

The concluding chapters deal with the last of the line, the La-9 and the La-11, which saw combat in China and Korea in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

The book is illustrated with numerous rare and previously unpublished photographs drawn from Russian military archives.

The colourful nose art which many aircraft sported is recorded, as are Lavochkin fighters in the liveries of Soviet allies and captured aircraft in the colours of Soviet enemies.