"The de Havilland Canada DHC-1 Chipmunk – the Poor Man’s Spitfire"
This is an interesting book to review, since it is not one book, but four; it could be described as a Chipmunk library within one cover. This tome is very much a product of the Internet age, when four authors in four countries on three continents can produce a book without ever meeting. That is both a strength and a weakness, which I will explain.

The authors are Canadian (naturally!), British, Portuguese and Australian. Each has contributed a section of the book. It can safely be said that the Canadian and British sections are ‘stand alone’ books; the Portuguese and Aussie contributions are shorter and could be considered lengthy magazine articles, but then they had less aeroplanes to consider!

The sheer mass of information is astounding and the authors maintain a website for errata and addenda – a commendable adaptation between print and electronic media. So where is the weakness? The authors, particularly in the British section, refer to various websites for additional material. This is interesting, but this book with be the Chippie Bible for far into the future. Who will be maintaining these websites, will URLs in forty years even resemble what we have today? I routinely haul books off the shelf that I collected back in the 1960s (Harleyford anyone?) and much of the information is timeless. It would be a shame if this book is ever considered ‘dated’.

Let’s get down to details. The authors have relied on a lot of primary sources and first-hand accounts to produce a readable and detailed narrative. The extent of the references does lead to some overlap so we are briefed many times on the stall/spin debate and the leading edge stall strips. This does, though, get us to realize how many variations of the Chipmunk there were. Did you know about the lifting holes in the rear fuselage being in different locations on British and Canadian Chipmunks? How about different elevator and rudder sizes? Different instrument panels? And the list for super-detailers goes on. While model builders are not the focus of the book, there is enough for even the avid Bf-109 or Spitfire rivet-counter to nitpick somebody else’s model – be it Airfix or Aeroclub.

That brings me to one of my pet aspects of an aircraft book. I am a plans freak and there are only small three-views of the Tiger Moth, Moth Minor and prototype Chipmunk for comparison purposes. This book cries out for scratch-building or detailing so I would like to see bigger plans to work from and maybe some profiles. There are two excellent cutaways and a lot of detail drawings though, so I can’t complain too loudly. There is a multiplicity of paint schemes illustrated and the markings progression in Canada and the UK described in detail, including extracts from the RCAF EO-5 series (courtesy of Pat Martin). In fact, the authors managed to pack in 625 photos (125 in colour) and only duplicated one (pages 105 and 327). And only one got printed backwards – but I have personal experience in that happening in my own effort so I sympathize. There are minor oversights in proofreading but with 440 pages that is not unusual and they do not confuse or detract from the text. There are production, small air force, unit usage and registration lists to cheer up the most avid plane spotter or serial number chaser.

This is THE Chipmunk book and is in the same 8 ½ x 11 inch format as the CANAV publications (and HARVARD!) and fits nicely on a Canadian themed bookshelf. ‘Chipmunk’ is highly recommended for modellers pursuing postwar major and minor air forces and civilian subjects - and for those interested in Canadian aviation it is a must.

Review copy courtesy of Hugh Shields
Reviewed by Dave Fletcher IPMS Canada 390