Miranda, Justo Enemy at the Gates. Panic Fighters of the Second World War

When the Nazis started to threaten the world with their efficient machine of propaganda, the main concern of European governments was the overwhelming reaction of panic that the expected bombing of the Luftwaffe might cause within the civil population. During the Munich Agreement in 1938, the democracies were defended by old biplanes and a bunch of modern fighters: 50 Hurricanes, 20 Morane-405 and 5 Fokker D.XXI. France and Great Britain took up the production of USA airplanes and cancelled exports to small countries, which were forced to design and build their own "Panic Fighters" with the intelligence and skill that desperation provides. When nothing seemed able to contain the German advance, France, Great Britain and the USSR developed several programs of emergency fighters, as did Australia, to face the Japanese expansion. At the time the course of events switched, it was the Axis powers that had to create their own "Panic Fighters", some of them suicidal. The present book includes several last resource designs of fighters that are practically unknown and that were developed in times of tribulation by Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Japan, Yugoslavia, Latvia, Netherland, Poland, Romania, Sweden and Switzerland.

Instead, they were forced to design and build their own "panic fighters" with the maximum intelligence and skill that desperation could provide. When nothing could stem the German advance, France, Great Britain and the USSR developed several programmes of "emergency fighters", as did Australia, which had to face the Japanese expansion with equally inadequate fighters. As the fortunes of war began to turn, the Axis powers began to develop and build "panic fighters", some of which were downright suicidal. This book contains some of these desperate aircraft developments from the war years 1939-1945, which are virtually unknown and were developed in times of greatest threat by Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Japan, Yugoslavia, Latvia, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Sweden and Switzerland.