With 1999 marking the 50th anniversary of the forming of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, author Peter R. March set himself the unenviable task of trying to encapsulate the 50 year history of what is effectively the largest (combined) air force in the world in a single volume, but he achieves his goal with a straightforward, linear approach and some fine photographs.

The book chronicles the formation of NATO in the late 1940’s, the cold war period, the aircraft, the increased importance placed on air power, the collapse of the Iron Curtain and - more topically - how NATO’s power was used in the former Yugoslavia. In fact, the section dealing with the subsequent wars in Croatia and Bosnia and the NATO response is compellingly time tabled and brings the story right up to the start of the air campaign over Kosovo, when the final proofs of this book were probably being finished.

The book closes with the introduction of former Warsaw Pact countries into the NATO fold and looks at the colourful “Tiger” squadron tradition amongst various nations that has become an airshow favourite.

The book is well illustrated with over 250 colour photographs of almost every type of aircraft flown by the NATO forces over the last 50 years, again a difficult task as photographic coverage alone could easily fill a book twice this size with still room for more.