At the start of the Spanish Civil War, most young fighter pilot officers joined the rebels, while the high ranking officers, grupo or escuadrilla commanders, and the NCOs, sergeants and corporals remained loyal to the government. Mostly flying the obsolete Nieuport Ni.52s these loyalists were soon outpaced by the more modern Fiat CR.32s and Heinkel He 51s. However, at this early stage of the war, there were several Republican airmen who became aces and famous in the process, despite the small numbers of enemy aircraft shot down. Widely speaking, the Republican military aviation did not keep an exhaustive record of individual shooting claims. However, sufficient documentation exists to make a reasonable assumption as to which pilots fall into the ace category. This volume details the exploits of those pilots, complementing previous works in the Osprey Aircraft of the Aces series on Nationalist CR.32 Aces and Polikarpov I-15, I-16 and I-152 Aces.

Author Biography

Rafael A Permuy Lopez, a Reserve Artillery Major, is a member of the Spanish Instituto de Historia y Cultura Aeronautica and a journalist with a long career in newspapers and military history magazines. A researcher of both Spanish Republican and Nationalist aviation for nearly 40 years, some of his books include Ases de la Aviacion republicana (2008), As de Picas (2009) and Air War over Spain (2010). Julio Lopez Caeiro is an acknowledged professional illustrator. He has worked for different Spanish, British and US publishers, creating a wide array of artwork from the Spanish Civil War to the present, including aircraft, warships, tanks and AFVs.