Air Battle for Burma (Book) Review

Released: 21st November 2016
RRP: £25.00
Publisher: Pen and Sword Aviation
Author: Bryn Evans
Type: Hardback
ISBN: 9781473858923
Pages: 251

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Spitfires soar over a landscape of desperation and isolation - as with Bryn's previous book on the Desert Air Force, this work is a revelation, even for those who are familiar with Military History. There are facts and insights that will surprise many readers. Burma really was the "Forgotten Theatre" of WW2, at the extreme (and poorly-supplied) reaches of both the British and Japanese Empires. The men fighting there had an arduous and often completely thankless task. Bryn allows the voices of the participants to convey the bulk of this story, providing much colour and intensive personal detail. Bryn's careful selection of testimony and his judicious narration of the larger historical framework create a work which summons up the fear, the muddle, the desperation, the struggle, the bravery, the disappointment, and eventually the triumph which played themselves out in this unforgiving landscape. While the focus of the book is on the fighter units on the British side, many other voices are heard from the other services: Navy, Army, friend & enemy, civilians and prisoners; and from other far-ranging theatres of combat which all influenced the Burma saga.

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