Customer Reviews

Hurricanes over Burma

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Following Australian "Bush" Cotton through his early fascinations with flight to soloing in Australia and then being part of the first Empire Air Training Scheme group of cadets to graduate in Canada, the first combat action for the author is over England. The perils of flying at night in a single engined fighter are well described. Cotton is a confident man, confident in his abilities and in his demeanour but never to the detriment of others. He is promoted to flight leader largely through his skills. Transferring to 17 Sqn from the famous 43, Cotton ends up in Burma, again flying Hurricanes (often in company with the P-40s of the Flying Tigers) against the rapidly advancing Japanese. Cotton eventually goes on to command 17 Sqn and its conversion to Spitfires, spending almost three years in theatre.

The author does not mince his words and writes with a casual air. He writes of the mad scrambles to intercept incoming raids during the retreat from Burma detailing the continual losses and struggle to keep aircraft airworthy. Readers of this type of book would be familiar with the superiority of the Japanese aircraft at this time of the war. The bravery of the men who continued to face them is unsurpassed.

Although there are many books written by members of the "greatest generation" there are relatively few written by or about Australian airmen. In that respect, this is a rare book and well worth reading for a rare glimpse into a part of the WWII air war not often covered.