Book Review - The MiG Diaries
A book by Lt. Col Eduardo Gonzalez Sarria and Lionel Reid with illustrations by Sean Thackwray
Memories of a senior Cuban MiG pilot combined with brand-new perspectives from South African, Cuban, Angolan and Soviet combat pilots provide the most thrilling and complete account of air combat during the Angolan conflict.
Eduardo Gonzalez Sarria flew MiG-21s and MiG-23s during the three tours of duty in Angola, where he completed 78 combat missions and served as a MiG-23 squadron commander. After 26 years in the Cubin Air Force, he retired as Lieutenant- Cornel with a Maestro pilot rating. He lives in Havana and has written two books, in Spanish, about his experiences.
Lionel Reid developed a fascination with military aviation at a young age. Having joined the SAAF in 1983, he participated in the Angolan conflict from 1986 to 1989, flying Bosbok light reconnaissance aircraft and Puma helicopters. This was followed by a career in airline flying. He lives in Johannesburg.
Sean Thackwray draws and paints aircraft. He flew in the SAAF, including Impalas and Cheetahs and then he joined South African Airways where he was a captain. Presently he flies North American Harvards for the Flying Lions formation aerobatic team based at Rand airport. This is the third book he has illustrated. Editor’s remarks: When I was asked to review this book, I was excited since having read several books about the SAAF involvement in the Angolan conflict previously, I could not wait to get my hands on the autoreactive work. However, once I started reading this exciting work, I found it rather difficult to put down, since each chapter has been presented not only as historically factual, but also most entertaining.
There were many surprises for me as the names of so many of South Africa’s fighter pilot names that I have known and some I still know well came into the story.
The chapter dealing with Arther Piercy’s Mirage F1 missile attack was particularly emotional for me as the true facts about this dogfight encounter were stated. To this day Arthur remains a close friend and of course I have heard his side of the encounter that in reality only lasted around one and a half minutes. Another fact that I was not aware of was that the SAAF Mirage F1s were considered to be inferior to the Russian MiG 23s in many respects at the time and therefore the fighter pilots flying them had to come up with serious improvisations in order to utilise the equipment they had.