nese back from the Indian fron-
tier. Several superb leaders
emerged, but, like the war they
fought, their achievements have
been largely overlooked.
Illequippedearlyon,Allied
fighterpilots(the‘FlyingTigers’
and USAAF fighters are only men-
tioned in passing) could only re-
sistandfallbackinthefaceofthe
Japanese juggernaut. The weath-
er, however, always maintained
supremacy. It stopped the Japa-
nese in their tracks, but allowed
both sides to consolidate their po-
sitions. In the case of the RAF,
fromlate1942,itenabledmajor
re-equipment and construction. It
was not until Spitfires arrived,
from an air supremacy point of
view, with their superior perfor-
mance, that a true advantage
could be regularly exploited over
the Japanese formations.
This growing air superiority
was particularly important when
Allied drives into Burma required
significant resupply by transport
aircraft.Legendarybattles,such
asthe‘AdminBox’,becameAllied
victories because ground forces
couldbesuppliedentirelybyair.
Loaded with first-hand ac-
counts, including reference to
records left by several Australi-
ans, this is a book that varies
from riveting to a little clunky. It
is repetitive in places and could
dowithatighteredit,buttoem-
brace a theatre where the hectic
fighting was separated by months
of inaction, and then concentrate
on examining one aspect in con-
text,requirestheabilitytoholda
reader’sinterestandthisbook
certainly succeeds there. [re-
viewer: Andy Wright]Bryn Ev-
ans, £25.00 plus p&p, Pen &
Sword Books, http://www.pen-and-
sword.co.ukDreadful Lady over
the Mekong Delta
The little known operations of
RAAF Canberras during the Vi-The Mallon Crew
TherearealotofBomberCom-
mand projects being turned into
booksatpresent.Somearethere-
sult of years, decades even, of re-
search while others are put togeth-
er quite quickly with little effort to
understand the subject beyond the
main protagonist. At 216 pages and
loaded with detail, this book easily
falls in the former category.
Theauthor’sfatherwasaflight
engineer with No. 75 Squadron
(NZ)andpartofthecrewledby
Kiwi Bill Mallon. They had a short
time on ops, with less than ten
completed (plus Manna drops),
but don’t let this brevity fool you.
Itwasstilldangerouswork,often
in daylight. The darkness of night
ops hid some of the horror.
Refreshingly,thisbookdoesn’t
muck around with Bomber Com-
mand history, its tactics or equip-
ment. There is assumed knowl-
edge and any clarification or
explanationiskeptbrief.Itfocus-
es on the crew and some col-
leagues.Fortheauthortolearn
abouttheirlivesistolearnmore
abouthisfather.Thisistheclear
driver behind this work.
Atidyandwell-presentedpa-
perback, it is copiously illustrat-
ed.Thereisnoindex,butthisis
not unexpected with a self-pub-
lished book. Another Bomber
Command crew has had its story
told.Itisason’shonestandprag-
matic tribute to his father and his
crew that gets the point across,
butlargelyavoidswaxinglyrical
about sacrifice and doomed
youth.Itdoesn’tneedto,given
thefateofsomeofthemenfea-
tured. [reviewer: Andy Wright]
Vic Jay, $27.40 (includes p&p),
[email protected]Air Battle for Burma
A significant number of Austral-
ians and New Zealanders flew in
defence of India and Burma, and
some returned to push the Japa-Luftwaffe in Col-
our–VolumeTwo
This is the keenly awaited second
volumeofatwo-partphotograph-
ic compilation of the best of Luft-
waffecolourphotography.Itisa
softback of some 160 pages on
thickglossypapercomprising
five extensive chapters. Starting
withchapterX,'FacingtheSovi-
et steamroller', through to chap-
terXIV,'TheEagleFalls',via
chapters on the Mediterranean
front and the invasions in the
West, the first half features the
best from the German Propagan-
da-Kompaniereporters,while
thesecondiscompiledlargely
from French and American
sources. While the PK reporters
onthegroundforthelaunchof
Blitzkriegandsubsequentcam-
paigns had privileged access to
colour film, arguably the Ameri-
canshadaccesstoevenmoreofit
and their photos in comparison
are rather more spontaneous and
generally of excellent quality.
The capitulation on 8 May 1945
provided the opportunity to re-
cordahostoflate-warmachines
surrendering; from the rockets
andjetstothebizarrepiggyback
Mistel,fromseaplanesandtrans-
portstonightfighters,trainers
and reconnaissance machines.
Personal favourites include rare
images of the unarmed Dornier
Do 24T seaplanes ofSeenotstaffel
81 deployed to evacuate civilians
from the Baltic pockets ahead of
the advancing Red Army.
Any photo book stands or falls
on the quality of photo reproduc-
tion and here not only is the
standard very high, but the qual-
ityof90%oftheimagesisvery
good indeed with each picture
informatively and expertly cap-
tioned.Onceagain,avolumeto
keepclosetohandforreference,
quickorotherwise.[reviewer:
Neil Page] Jean-Louis Roba
andChristopheCony,£19.99
plus p&p, Casemate, http://www.
casematepublishing.co.uk
FLIGHTPATH|23Personal Effects
etnam War have finally been giv-
en a thorough analytical going-
over with this welcome addition
to the RAAF’s official history.
This fantastic new book reveals
the complex and politically
charged atmosphere that 2
SquadronRAAFhadtocontend
with.BobHowe,havingflown
260opsfromPhanRang,delivers
a very personal account of men
and machines fighting an unpop-
ular war against an elusive ene-
my in the ragged Mekong Delta.
A high-speed, high-altitude
medium bomber, the Canberra
wassurprisinglywellsuitedto
supporting riverine operations
acrosstheDelta.Ofspecificad-
vantagewasitsimpressiveen-
duranceaswellasitssuperior
performance as an accurate and
stable level bomber flying low
beneath the cloud ceiling typical
to the region. Indeed, these
characteristicsmadetheRAAF
Canberra the preferred option
forsupportinggroundunitsand
USN patrol boats moving up and
down the long and complex ca-
nal systems. This was despite
the early challenges with the
BritishMkIVbombsandtheir
single lug attachments that
wouldwobbleasthebombdoors
opened, the often deficient
W.W. I I v i nt a ge b om b s y s t e m , a nd
theCanberra’slightpayload
compared to almost all its Amer-
ican brethren.
Nevertheless,Howeconcludes
that ops were performed with
distinction despite the lack of
real political will across the na-
tion’s leaders, and senior air staff,
probably leading to the overall
ineffectiveness of the campaign.
The hard lessons learned operat-
ing in a riverine environment
maybeespeciallyrelevanttoday
in our increasingly unstable re-
gion. [reviewer: Takis Diakoumis]
Bob Howe, $18.00 plus p&p,
Air Power Development Cen-
tre, http://www.airpower.airforce.
gov.au