ISBN 1-904010-95-4
448 pages

Introduction; Acknowledgements; maps; photos; Bibliography; Index

Appendices: RAF, USAAF, and Japanese orders of battle

   We've had the pleasure of reading most (and reviewing many) of the books written by Christopher Shores since the late 1960s, from his classic Fighters over the Desert through his new 2nd Tactical Air Force volumes. Along the way we especially enjoyed and respected his Bloody Shambles series, which was one of the first works to make a concerted effort to integrate Allied and Japanese records and accounts of the opening stages of the air campaign in Southeast Asia.
   The first two volumes of Bloody Shambles covered "The Drift to War to the Fall of Singapore" and "The Defence of Sumatra to the Fall of Burma." Those two titles, both published in 1992, seemed to comprise the entire series. In fact, however, the new Air War for Burma, arriving thirteen years later, is billed as "The Third and Concluding Volume of the Bloody Shambles Series."
   The new volume covers the air war from June 1942 through the end of the war, which as a whole probably can't really be considered a shambles, but the first chapter certainly begins with Allied fortunes at their nadir. Having retreated from Burma in the face of what seemed to be an unstoppable Japanese-style blitzkrieg, the remnants of Allied ground and air forces were just attempting to establish themselves in India. Shores sets the scene by describing the deployment and condition of the Japanese and Allied air forces in the theater. Without further ado, he plunges into the daily chronology of operations, victories, and losses in his familiar style.
   Here's an excerpt from the middle of the book:

Friday, 7 April 1944

   At Agartala the 216 Squadron detachment was now ready to commence operations, but to gain relevant local experience two crews were attached to 117 Squadron and five drawn from 62, 117 and 194 Squadrons joined 216. 30 Squadron reported that during the day 11 C-47s of the US 35th Troop Carrier Squadron (part of the 64th Group) landed at Fazilpur from Sicily.
   28 Squadron undertook 18 TacR sorties during the day. The second pair of pilots to go out strafed a column of troops, but Flt Sgt K.A.E. Draycott, on his first sortie in a Hurricane IIe, radioed the other pilot, Flt Sgt G.C. Guy, advising that his radiator temperature was rising rapidly. It was not ascertained whether his aircraft had been hit by ground fire, or if he had misjudged his pullout and struck some obstruction. In the event he baled out, but was killed.
   One of 152 Squadron's Spitfires was lost in storm clouds over the Chin Hills, Flt Sgt R.C.J. Berry failing to return; the crash site was subsequently discovered. That night two 64th Sentai Ki 43s were sent off to attack Kalat, flown by Capt Miyabe and Sgt Maj K. Tsubone. Miyabe approached Aberdeen strip alone, seeing a transport aircraft in the landing pattern. This was a Dakota of 194 Squadron flown by Sqn Ldr J.F.M. Bell, DFC, an Argentinian member of the RCAF who was just about to land when attacked. Miyabe's fire shot out both engines and the aircraft crash-landed, fortunately without harm to the crew. Twenty minutes later Miyabe flew over the area again with his wing lights on. At this, the airfield landing lights were switched on, and he then released the bombs his fighter was carrying.

Saturday, 8 April 1944

   Four of 211 Squadron's Beaufighters were off to attack Chiengmai rail sidings in Thailand. Sqn Ldr J.S.R. Muller-Rowland, who had been advised of the award of a DFC on the previous day, found a Thai Air Force Curtiss Hawk III biplane fighter circling round a column of black smoke, and at once shot it down, the pilot baling out.
   Twelve P-38s from the 459th Squadron carried bombs to attack trains in the Ye-U-Monywa area, while from Chittagong one of 176 Squadron's night fighter Beaufighters undertook an intruder sortie to Rangoon. One engine failed during the return flight, causing Sgt K.R. Auger to crash into the sea off the Naf Peninsula. The crew managed to get into their dinghy and were rescued some hours later.
   82 Squadron now moved to Jumchar to resume operations over the Arakan. In 16 operational days this unit would accomplish 400 sorties, 344 of these having been made on the IV Corps front before moving. The unit had on many occasions dived at 80-85 degree angles. However in the Imphal area there was now a temporary shortage of 250 lb bombs due to the increased Vengeance operations there.

Sunday, 9 April 1944

   Bomb-carrying P-38s of the 459th Squadron were off again, bombing a rail junction at Yuaratung. They then strafed the 180 feet paddle steamer Kaduma west of Sagaing. This was the last Burmese paddle steamer remaining, and was left ablaze. A railyard was then attacked, but at this point Lt Fred R. Distelzweig's Lightning pulled up with the centre section of the horizontal stabilizer torn away. It was seen to shoot up to 800 feet, slow roll and crash in flames, blowing up.
   Weather was still taking its toll, Dakota 'C' of 194 Squadron crashing on take-off due to a sudden and violent crosswind; the crew were unhurt. That night 11 Wellingtons of 215 Squadron flew to Rangoon to bomb the Victoria Lake supply dump. Two single-engined fighters—probably from the 204th Sentai—attacked 'G', the rear gunner and bomb aimer both being wounded, the nose and tail power turrets were put out of action and the port engine was hit. The damaged bomber crash-landed at Chittagong on return, near the 459th Squadron's dispersals.

Monday, 10 April 1944

   On this date the 216 Squadron Dakotas commenced operations. 30 Squadron moved to Comilla.

Tuesday, 11 April 1944

   A trio of Spitfires from 136 Squadron set off early to escort six Dakotas over the Aberdeen strip, their pilots seeing three Ki 43s east of the Chindwin river. Whilst investigating these, Sqn Ldr Watson was attacked by others and his aircraft received a single bullet through the wing, while Fig Off G.J. Moorhouse claimed damage to one. It is believed that these were four 50th Sentai aircraft led by Lt Fukui, the pilots of which reported meeting Spitfires; they all returned safely.
   At Aberdeen Dakota FL540 of 194 Squadron flown by Fig Off R.G. Mellsop crashed into a hillside north-west of the strip as it was going in to land, and burst into flames. All the crew and 16 army personnel on board were killed, 12 more soldiers being injured, four of them seriously.
   Although involved in very intense activity at the time in support of the troops around Imphal, 34 Squadron was withdrawn from the valley and sent north to Dergaon to undertake operations over Kohima.
   Four Beaufighters of 177 Squadron took off singly to strafe targets of opportunity on roads east of Taunggyi. One of these was intercepted by a Ki 43 north of Toungoo and suffered damage during a ten-minute chase before making good its escape.

Wednesday, 12 April 1944

   About 30 Ki 43s of the 64th Sentai undertook a sweep over Imphal, reporting engaging three Spitfires over Homalin, one of which Maj Hirose claimed to have shot down. Ten Spitfires of 81 Squadron were indeed scrambled at 1400 hours, their pilots reporting meeting 30 plus fighters, two of which were claimed damaged by Capt Maclean (JG348) and Fig Off Cronin (JG314) at around 1430; they all returned without loss or damage, as did the 64th Sentai formation. However, two Hurricanes of 123 Squadron had taken off earlier to undertake an offensive reconnaissance over the Ukhrul-Homalin area, and from this operation Fig Off A. Stewart failed to return in KZ652, while Flt Sgt W.P. Bennett in JF695 'P' suffered engine trouble and force-landed, receiving minor facial injuries. It is possible that Stewart may have been Hirose's victim. Nine more Ki 43s from the 50th Sentai flew an armed reconnaissance up towards Dimapur, but were forced to return by bad weather in the target area.
   During the day two B-25s of the 490th Bomb Squadron bombed the Pyu bridge and strafed shipping, but Lt Cork crashed in friendly territory on return for an unidentified reason.

Thursday, 13 April 1944

   On this date 607 Squadron flew to Wangjing to relieve 136 Squadron, which was to withdraw to Chittagong. This latter move would take place on 17th, when 152 Squadron left Chittagong and moved to Rumkhapalong. Meanwhile on this date Fig Off R.J. Crossfield, RCAF, of 136 Squadron experienced engine trouble whilst on a sortie over the battle area, Spitfire 'P' crashing and this pilot being killed.
   In the late afternoon 17 Ki 43s of the 50th and 30 of the 64th Sentais escorted nine 8th Sentai Ki 48s to support ground forces which were attacking a small hill at Mawlu; during this attack the 64th Sentai fighters released 110 lb bombs on the target area also.

Friday, 14 April 1944

   In the Andaman Islands area Sgt Maj Kiyoo Ishikawa of the 26th Sentai was on patrol over a convoy, his aircraft carrying a bomb in case of an attack on his charges by Allied vessels. He spotted the tracks of three torpedoes heading for the ships and at once dropped his bomb on the submarine responsible, then diving down to strafe the torpedoes in an effort to explode them before reaching their target - the transport Matsukawa-Maru, packed with 1,300 troops. When this proved ineffective, he crashed his Ki 43 onto two of the 'tin fish', saving the ship but losing his own life in so doing.

   For about 360 pages Shores continues in the same style, charting all the action in the air in Southeast Asia through the end of the war. The fact that the book continues in the same style isn't surprising, but that it amounts to so few pages does seem notable. The first two books in the series contained a total of almost 900 pages in their coverage of about six months of combat, making an average of nearly 150 pages per month. This title, on the other hand, drops precipitously to about ten pages per month. That's partly because of the relatively small numbers of aircraft in theater, partly because of the relatively low intensity of the air war, and partly because of extended periods of inactivity imposed by monsoon conditions.
   It's also partly due to a noticeable change in the author's style. In his earlier books, and especially in the two previous Bloody Shambles volumes, Shores and his co-authors habitually included significant chunks of direct quotations from pilots about their experiences. In those first two titles practically every page contained the words of veterans, sometimes amounting to many long paragraphs. That's not the case here. While Air War for Burma is not entirely devoid of those kinds of quotes, it's easy to flip through page after page without finding anything written by the pilots who were there.
   How does that affect the book? The heart of the material, as always, remains the daily chronology of events, and that's unchanged. Readers can still rely on Shores to describe all the action from both sides and usually reconcile the opposing perspectives of victories and losses. However, without the words of the veteran pilots, the day-to-day events don't have quite the same liveliness and immediacy, so there's no doubt that some readers are going to miss the voices of the airmen. For our taste, Air War for Burma still qualifies as a very strong work, and perhaps one of the best of the year, but it was nevertheless an unexpected disappointment to discover this volume doesn't quite measure up to the other two in the series.
   If you're a fan of the books of Christopher Shores (who isn't?), if you enjoyed the first two volumes in the Bloody Shambles series, or if you're interested in the air battles in Southeast Asia, this title is highly recommended. Adding the tactical, sortie-by-sortie perspective of Air War for Burma to the broader, strategic vantage of The Forgotten Air Force by Henry Probert creates a pair of books that goes a great distance toward encompassing the full breadth and depth of the air campaign in Southeast Asia. You should definitely take a look at Air War for Burma unless your interest in the subject extends only to firsthand reports from pilots.
   Available from online booksellers, local bookshops, or directly from Grub Street or its US distributor, Casemate.
   Thanks to Grub Street for providing this review copy.