Henschel Hs 123
By Chris Banyai-Riepl
Author: Robert Panek
Publisher: MMP Books
ISBN: 978-83-61421-48-1
Binding: Softcover
Pages: 136
The lead up to the Second World War saw each side take different concepts as a primary goal. While the British and American forces saw benefits in strategic bombing, the Germans and Russians focused on close air support. On the German side, the immediate push came to develop a solid close air support aircraft, and out of that requirement the Hs 123 was born.
After a testing period that employed a handful of prototype variants, production of the Hs 123 took place in the mid-1930s, with the first operational units receiving theirs in 1937. The plane was reaching obsolescence by the time war broke out in 1939, but the Hs 123 remained in front line service for many years, with some remaining until the last year of the war.
This latest title in the Mushroom Model Orange Series provides a detailed examination of this early war attack aircraft. Each variant gets a brief description, combined with scale drawings. Throughout the book are plenty of photographs showing the Hs 123 from various angles, as well as close up details of both period and museum examples. Scrap view drawings from tech manuals are also included, as are some nicely detailed color profile illustrations. The book also covers some of the foreign operators of the Hs 123, and these too are portrayed in color profiles.
The Hs 123 is a plane that is often overshadowed by other Luftwaffe aircraft, but its interesting look, coupled with its longevity in the face of obsolescence, makes it a great subject for this book. My thanks to Mushroom Model Publications for the review copy.