Customer Reviews

Dust Clouds in the Middle East: The Air War for East Africa, Iraq, Syria, Iran and Madagascar, 1940-42

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There have been precious few volumes written about the air wars in countries we'd today prefer to give a miss. These include Italian East Africa (Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia), Iraq, Syria, Iran and Madagascar. I was amazed at the level of aerial activity in some of these places. With the home front accounting for modern fighters and bombers, these colonial backwater units were forced to fight with a collection of antique aeroplanes. And fight they did. The Italians fought using biplane fighters and clumsy-looking bombers and transports. The British and South African air forces in Ethiopia for instance, matched them with an equally embarrassing level of technology. These heroic aviators used Hawker Hartebees', Gloster Gauntlets and Gladiators and even World War I-era Vickers Vincents to name a few. Hawker Hurricane's were like hens teeth and when it looked like the Italians were shooting down too many, the allies temporarily withdrew their monoplane fighters. I can't r! eally call this book entertaining. It records the daily activity of the units that flew on both sides in a type of dairy format. It describes the fighting in date order, which isn't research-friendly, although Shores' own research efforts must have been humungous. What may be of value are the names of the many towns and airstrips used by each side and which aircraft and crews were shot down and where. For someone wanting clues to finding rare ex-World War Two aeroplanes, this must be the place to start, but you'd need contacts in high places to get visas for such an expedition.

SHores ( and also his partner Brian Cull ) always write their fighting aviation books in the same style: boring day-by-day descriptions of squadron's activities, with no human inside or a pleasent style of writing. THis one here is no exception. The research is tremendous but the writing is ....