Bloch M.B. 210 (vol.3 of the Illustrated History of Romanian Aeronautics)

Fin · September 20, 2022

Bloch M.B. 210 (vol.3 of the Illustrated History of Romanian Aeronautics)
by Horia Stoica, Dan Antoniu and Vasile Radu

I`d like to bring to the attention of folks here a book on a rather niche subject: the career of the French Bloch M.B.210 bomber in the Romanian Air Force. It is part of the series "Illustrated History of Romanian Aeronautics", just like the titles dedicated to the Hurricane and Bf 109E which I have reviewed here before. Just as for the others, I have payed for my own copy of this book.

The text is bilingual (Romanian and English) with every page being split between the two languages. Largely, this is an album that brings together many photos of the M.B.210 that I haven`t seen before, accompanied by commentary and chunks of text describing how the bomber came to be, how it was acquired by Romania and its service thereafter. Romania ordered 24 machines, but it only received and operated 10 which were flown in starting on the 3rd of May 1938. In Romania they equipped the 82nd Squadron which served on the Eastern front in 1941, executing bombing missions and even managing to down several enemy aircraft. In 1942 they were retired from the front and used for training and in 1944, the 3 remaining machines were designated for heavy transport. They were retired from service in 1946.

Giving the small number of the machines that served with the Romanian Airforce (numbered from 1 to 10), the book is mainly structured, both in text and photos, to deal with each individual aircraft in order, which is handy for anyone wanting to model a particular machine. The sections of several aircraft also contain reports by crewmembers describing bombing missions and the downing of enemy fighters. The final chapter (a page worth of text) is a recollection made by a 18th Squadron (IAR-37) observer describing, from the ground of the airfield the two squadrons shared, the first day of the war of the Bloch M.B. 210.

There are 62 black and white photos of aircraft and crew and 37 colour photos of various documents and newspaper articles of the time describing anything from missions to accidents. Unfortunately for non-Romanian readers, the actual text of these documents is not translated into English. Instead, each photo is accompanied by a brief description of its content. As far as the photos of the aircraft are concerned there are interesting things to note here, such as the use of the MG 15 machinegun instead of the 7.5mm MAC machinegun that was standard on the French machines and the two colours upperside camouflage (exactly which colours is a matter of debate between Romanian modellers). There are no colour photos of the aircraft, nor any profiles like there are in the Messerschmitt Bf 109E volume.

All in all, this is a very useful book for aviation history enthusiasts and modellers alike.

Here are a few more shots to get a better idea of what is included: