Squadron Signal Collector's Notes

My god what am I doing with my life? I've been a book collector long enough to know what a horrible hobby it is. Books are big, ungainly, and easily susceptible to damage from water, sunlight, fire, and smoke. They're also losing popularity and are becoming more of a niche thing with each passing day. So why, later in life, have I decided to pick up yet another collecting pursuit, and of a book set no less?

Squadron Signal Publications is a long-lived publication arm of Squadron, a company that specialized in printing military books and selling scale models since the 1970's. It started in 1968 in Detroit, MI, but spent most of its years in Carrollton, Texas. Squadron Signal produced a steady stream of books about planes, ships, infantry, and tanks through the early 2000s, when it went through a series of ownership changes before finally landing in the hands of Brandon Lowe in Georgia, who's primarily a scale model enthusiast (you can read the story of how he acquired the Squadron brands here [squadron.com]). The company produced hundreds of books, although the frequency of releases became more sporadic in the late 2010s. What the label's publishing future holds is uncertain. 

I first remember seeing Squadron Signal books at the hobby shops I would sometimes frequent. They were always beautiful to me, usually featuring nice paintings by Lou Drendel or Don Greer on the cover. They were often 8.5 in x 11 in softcovers in landscape format, though some issues were printed in portrait, and in the 2010s they started producing hardcover editions. Each one was packed with text and photos with captions. There were different series published, each with a different specialization:

1000: Aircraft In Action

The original "in action" series focused on a particular vehicle or class of vehicle, tracing the development and variants. These are all printed in landscape orientation and the photos are black and white but the books featured a color insert in the middle to show examples of the aircraft color schemes.

1601 - 1608: Mini in action series

One notable subset within the 1000 series is the "Mini in action" set. These eight books were similar to the rest of the 1000 series books but they were half the size at 8.5 in x 5.5 in and printed in portrait mode. I don't know the strategy behind this line. Despite the cute format, they are not written for children, these are just like other Squadron books and loaded with facts and photos. Most of this line though did not have their own full size book except for the A-10 Warthog. The others feature aircraft that are a bit more obscure so perhaps they used this format to give these vehicles treatment with less content. Or, maybe the publishers were just experimenting.

28-Aug-2024 Update

Today we were blessed during the weekly Wednesday Squadron show on YouTube as Brandon Lowe hosted Lee Leibold as a guest. Leibold worked at Squadron from 1989 to 1994. Leibold also held the rights to Squadron Signal Publishing for a time after Squadron left Texas and before it reunited with the Squadron brand under Lowe's ownership. In the chat I asked Leibold about the Mini in action series, and he suggests the publisher at the time may have been looking for a way to get books to a lower price point and also thought perhaps the subjects of the books had less material to cover as I surmised above. 

2000: Armor In Action

Focused on tanks and ground vehicles

3000: Infantry In Action

An eleven issue set spanning WWII and Vietnam troops

4000: Warships In Action

Boats and submarines, mostly from WWII but also some modern

5000 series

Included several groups:

• 5001 to 5009 (Modern Military Aircraft): this series of nine issues focused on a specific aircraft and included history and personal testimonials from pilots. 
• 5501 to 5801 (Photo survey series): This series provided in-depth photo reviews of a vehicle, showing everything about the interior and exterior. The books were further categorized by subject type:
• Walk Around series: Aircraft and armor were in the "walk around" set
• On Deck: naval subjects
• At the Gate: A few civilian passenger planes are covered here
• Detail In Action: There were a few of these published that blended the features of the "in action" and "walk around" series

6000 series

This set is hard to categorize because it features a diverse array of subjects. I've seen these referred to as "specials" and they can cover various historical subjects like the air war in Vietnam, a survey of a vehicle's colors and markings in a certain era, modeling tips, a review of soldier uniforms and insignia, or a specific nationality's air force (such as the Finnish Air Force in WWII), and there's even one fantasy role-playing supplement. These are some of my favorites because they covered some obscure and little discussed parts of history and like all Squadron Signal books are filled with fascinating facts and graphics.

Notable subsets:

• 6031 Flying Colors: This appears to be a big coffee table-style book that has lots of color profiles of aircraft up to the mid-1970s. Squadron published a softcover edition in 1976. There were some updates after that from publisher Salamander, though the information on this differs between Amazon and Goodreads. Goodreads makes more sense, so I'll go with them for now: The first  Salamander release was in 1981, followed by another edition in 1999. The Salamander editions were available in both hardcover and softcover.
• 6501 - 6506, 6561 - 6565 (Fighting Colors): a set focused on paint schemes of selected aircraft

The Periscopio Publications

Periscopio is a Greek publisher that developed a series of history and modeling books. There's record of activity as late as 2021 but the company's website is currently defunct. I don't know where the relationship developed from but Squadron became a distributor of some of the books. These collectively form an interesting subset of the Squadron line. These softcover books were very nicely produced on thick, high-quality paper and are heavily illustrated, often with photos of museum-caliber artifacts. I liken them to those coffee table books from Dorling Kindersley, although I think these are more in-depth and scholarly. These books put nice bibliographies in the back and I wish other Squadron books would do the same.

Periscopio books made up these numbers in the Squadron line:

• PO6001 - PO6003 (Famous Aircraft of the World): a three volume set of aircraft books by Richard Caruana.  
• 7001 -7008 (Great Battles of the World): Eight books in this set set cover ancient battles and WWII topics. 
• 8001 (Military Essays): The lone entry in this series is a translation of an essay by historian Dimitris Belezos about Byzantine Armies. I don't know why the called it an essay; this is a solid book. Like the other Periscopio books, its text and graphics are beautifully put together. In addition to the bibliography there is also a glossary. 

8000: Detail and Scale

There are some unit history books and a few scale modeling books here, but most of the series was made up of the "Detail & Scale" (D&S) run that featured aircraft and boats with photos and descriptions of the physical properties of the vehicles and its variants. Most appear to have been written by Bert Kinzey. The ones I've seen reminded me of the "in action" series although these are printed in portrait orientation. I like the way they organize and format the material. These appear to have been intended mostly for modelers, but they're still interesting for general enthusiasts and historians.

As I've continued my hunt I found that I had some Bert Kinzey classics in my collection already. These were in a series called Colors & Markings (C&M) that carried the same "Detail & Scale" emblem on the cover that the Squadron editions have, but these were published in the early 1980s by TAB  Books. I've since discovered that D&S debuted as a short-lived four issue series in the 1970s that underwent several changes in publisher, moving from Aero Publishers, who were later merged into TAB, then moving to Kalmbach Publishing, and then finally to Squadron/Signal. Squadron appears to have started publishing D&S books in 1983. 

I also found on Amazon that since 2017 Kinsey and other authors have continued updating some of the D&S and C&M books in both print and digital format, though they now appear to be independently published. 

The prolific David Doyle did something similar when several of his military book publishers were struggling, and was able to retain/acquire rights to his work along with any unsold copies and now sells them on his website. Smart move, and it's nice to see some of the hard-working authors keep rights. Doyle maintains a relationship with Squadron and continues to work with the brand.

10,000 series and up

This numbering starts a next generation run of subjects previously covered. There are new entries in the "in action" and "walk around" lines. These books are printed on nicer paper than the older lines, are squarebound rather than stapled, and feature more color photos than the earlier books. 

• 10,000: New generation of aviation "in action" series. Many of the same vehicles in the 1000 series are covered, with new authors (mostly David Doyle) and new covers (some paintings and some photos).  
• 12,000: New generation of armor "in action" books
• 14,000: New generation of naval "in action" books
• 25,000: New generation of aviation "walk around" books
• 26,000: New generation of naval "on deck" books
• 27,000: New generation of armor "walk around" books
• 28,000: New generation of civil aviation "at the gate" books
• 34,000: The "Squadron at Sea" series. I've not read any of these so I can't say for certain, but this appears to be an entirely new series focused on a specific boat rather than a class of boat. For example, each one is named for an instance of a boat such as "USS Arizona" or "USS Saratoga" rather than "Nimitz class" or "US cruisers".
• 36,000: Combat Chronicles series. There are only a few of these and they're oral histories of combat action.
• 39,000: A small run of "Detail in Action" books

The numbering gets a little wonky beyond this point, but some of the 10,000+ series entries got hardcover editions and they're in this range.

• 50,000: Hardcover editions of the 10,000+ series books? The numbering would be the same for the last three digits. For example, 52050 is the hardcover version of 12050.
• 54,000: Hardcover editions of the 14,000 series books
• 65.000: Hardcover editions of the 25,000 series books
• 66,000: Hardcover editions of the 26,000 series books
• 67,000: Hardcover editions of the 27,000 series books
• 74,000: Hardcover editions of the 34,000 series books
• 76,000: Hardcover editions of the 36,000 series books
• 79,000: Hardcover editions of the 39,000 series books

And then it finally ends here:

• 80,000: "Historical Reference" series. There are only a few in this hardcover line offering highly detailed reviews of vehicles. 

Much left to do / Status

As you can see, it's a pretty extensive offering of items published over sixty years. I'm crazy to bother collecting them but I started buying them when I was a teen and have always found them interesting to read through. 

I am perhaps only partially crazy; I'm not going for a complete set. I'm primarily interested in the aviation entries, though I have picked up the infantry books, and select boats and armor issues. I will also not get the softcover of a book if I have the hardcover edition. There are also some books that had re-releases with different covers and I won't worry about being a completist here unless I can get the one I don't have for a song. It was also common for Squadron to take a book and update it a few years later with some extra pages, but the same cover; in those cases I'll just get the newer edition. 

I'd estimate I'm currently about 65% of the way to my collection goal. I have most of the first generation of In Action" books and half of the first generation Walk Around titles. I've got a ways to go to get all the 6000 series items, which are a bit harder to find. The Detail & Scale books show up periodically but tend to be expensive even though most of the copies appear to have been beaten up pretty badly. I only have a few of the 10,000 series and up.

Also, I get most of these in bundles on eBay where your per book cost is more affordable. The books are not really worth much although some sellers tend to price them high. I've tried selling my doubles on eBay and the fish bite very slowly unless you really drop the price. I'd hope that also working in my favor is the fact that fewer people are into books but aggravatingly enough, there are just enough individual and institutional collectors that when there's a good deal, it gets snapped up or bid up. 

As much as I like the books, the company made some questionable moves especially later in the 2010s. As I already noted, some of the books are almost identical re-releases of an earlier edition except for a new cover and higher price tag. Some of the books feel like smaller versions of coffee table books where ninety percent of the book is photos with little other substance (although the photos themselves are often treasures). There's also a great deal of duplication in the content and in a few cases I noticed they took the same text from an earlier book and just changed wording some. But I have to be fair here too; even in cases where they did that, it seemed to me that a lot of the photos were different than the ones in the earlier book. 

This is likely the last major collecting effort I'll undergo. I really shouldn't be adding more physical burdens to my life. I successfully overcame my comics, sports cards, and computer games addictions, and when those itches relapse they can be satisfied with digital copies that are inexpensive and require no physical space. I've been selling off those physical collections and donating the proceeds to charity. Perhaps I'll eventually do the same with the Squadron Signal stuff, though it will take time to finish collecting and reading them all. In the meantime, I'll post a few notes and reviews here and there and who knows, maybe it'll help other collectors.

Update 2024-07-28

Ok then. Been busy picking up what I can find on eBay and in used bookstores. 

• Aircraft in Action: Down to 16 books left in the 1000 series. Have also discovered that for some unknown reason select issues are difficult to find and the eBay listings have absolutely ridiculous prices. This includes:
• 1016 Junkers Ju 88: This one is very old, from the early 1970s, but you can find 1001 Luftwaffe part 1 quite regularly, not sure why this guy is so uncommon.
• 1028 B-47 Stratojet: Holy crap, I have no idea what is so special about this plane that I don't think even saw much action. It does pop up occasionally in listings, but there are a few that want $100 or more, which is just criminal. I have seen a few appear in bundles for a fair price-per-book rate, so that's how I will nab one. Whoever said "the market is not rational" is right about this one.
• 1086 Lockheed U-2: There were two editions of this book. The earlier edition, U-2 Spyplane, is common. The updated edition with extra pages is titled Lockheed U-2 and is very rare. It's not like the B-47 item above, where some listings exist and bitches are just charging silly prices, this U-2 is elusive and hard to see (that was both a joke and a non-joke) and there just aren't any available.
• 1089 T-28 Trojan: Ok, this one is goofy. I'd not have expected this book to be particularly popular as it's a trainer and not a plane of renowned combat history, but perhaps Squadron only printed this in limited amounts; it's like the B-47 and there are a few individual expensive listings. There are other trainers in the Aircraft in Action line (T-6, F-5/T-38, and T-34) that are common, so it's an oddity among the rare items.
• 1054 OV-10 Bronco: This is a really cool airplane that I like so it's disappointing it's one of the rare ones. But it is. Only a few listings are out there and sellers want $50+.
• Walk Around: Halfway there, about 34 of the 67 books in the 5500 series.
• Specials (6000 series): I'm short about 17 of the 120 books that are aviation-related. That's actually pretty good as these can be tricky to find. They do show up in listings periodically and while some opportunists like to charge in the $30+ range you can usually find these below $20, which is why I was able to get as far as I have. 
• Periscopio books: Complete except for the P-47 book in the Famous Aircraft set. Made easier by the fact there are only twelve in this group. Started the one on Battle of Britain, there's some good reading and nice art in there. I said earlier I likened these to books published by DK, but Osprey would be a better comparison.
• Next Generation series: Acquired 36 of the 90 books I'm interested in. Much left to do here as they are both rare and expensive. Managed to pull in several of the hardcovers. Not rushing on this part though as these are newer in the series and more are likely to appear in the second-hand market as collectors and modelers finish with them.
• New stuff: Squadron is back in action and publishing new books. I'll probably start picking up brand new ones as they get published.  

Update 2024-09-14

Well, shortly after adding the previous update about rare books, a bunch of those very books appeared for sale, both in bundles and in some individual listings. In the last month I've been able to pick up these:

• 1028 B-47 Stratojet
• 1086 Lockheed U-2
• 1089 T-28 Trojan
• 1054 OV-10 Bronco  

Was really happy to get these for a decent price. Moral of the update: keep your eyes peeled and just keep waiting.

Update 2024-10-28

• Completed the Periscopio books set
• Acquired 1016 Junkers Ju-88. I paid a bit of a premium but got a decent condition copy. With that, I have almost all the 1000 series "in action" books except for a few of the newer ones.
• I have only one left of the 6000 series aviation books to get. I will pick up a few of the ground war books out of interest.
• Have almost all the aviation-related warships in action books I wanted.
• Still have several of the thirty to forty next generation books outstanding
• Have been selling the bunches of doubles I've picked up and donating the money to charity.

Resources

Official web site of Squadron. Current brand owner Brandon Lowe is keeping the faith. 

David Doyle wrote a bunch of the Squadron Signal books and his website has a great list with cover images of almost all the books Squadron published. 

The Aeroflight [aeroflight.co.uk] site is operated by aviation enthusiasts and contains coverage of anything related to aviation, including some listings of books and magazines.