Shortly after the Bf-110 was in production and unit service, work began on its successor, the Me-210. This was a much sleeker looking aircraft that still retained the twin tails of the 110 and it had a small internal bomb bay in the nose. It also used remote control rear guns placed on the side of the fuselage. This gave a much greater range of fire to the gun in the rear cockpit of the 110. However, the aircraft was a real handful to fly. In fact, it was dangerous, going into a spin without too much provocation.

Many fixes were tried including replacing the twin tails with a single large one, but even that did not help matters all that much. The aircraft also suffered from a weak landing gear and many were damaged in accidents. Thanks to this and other problems the program was severely delayed. Eventually the fuselage was lengthened and that did help to overcome its flying maladies. However, the damage had been done and by this time it was flawed.

Other improvements were made to the aircraft and the result was the very similar Me-410. However, by this stage, even its use as a fighter bomber could just as well been taken care of by a single engine fighter, which would at least be able to protect itself once the load was dropped. Not to mention the cost of building one, say , FW-190 was substantially less than one Me-410. However, production went on at a relatively low rate and many units ended up flying the 410. As cool looking as the aircraft was, it just did not have all that much of a role to play. It was utilized as a day fighter against bombers, a night intruder, a schnell-bomber and photo recon plane, but really, it was not all that successful in any of these roles.

Thanks to their being two extant airframes, Mushroom Models Publications has been able to produce this book on the aircraft. It follows their usual format of providing a history of the aircraft as well as going through each of the variations and differences from type to type. There is also a section on technical descriptions and a look at basic specs of all the different versions, starting with the Me-210 prototype. The book has a superb section of detail information that combines period photos, tech manual drawings and photographs of the two extant airframes in the US and UK. This is followed by a goodly number of pages of superbly drawn and large color profiles and three views of various aircraft.

Overall, it is a most complete look at one of the Luftwaffe's more interesting aircraft. A book that continues the excellent of MMP products and one that I can highly recommend to you.

August 2013