Customer Reviews

Japanese Army Air Force Units and Their Aces: 1931-1945

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This handsome, detailed book lifts the curtain on the Japanese army units that fought in China, Southeast Asia, and the home islands during World War II. It's based on a Japanese-language text by a noted historian and an aviation buff, and rendered into workable English by the British historian Christopher Shores. The result is a much more accessible book than the earlier one by the same Japanese authors about the larger Japanese navy air force. There are many photos, side-views of JAAF fighters, accounts of the major campaigns, biographies of the aces (happily arranged in alphabetical order so you can quickly look them up), and an appendix listing every major air combat and every JAAF pilot lost in 15 years of war. A solid book that belongs in the library of every serious student of the Pacific War. -- Dan Ford

The careful translation of the original text into a more nicely-flowing English; the influence of the master historian, Chris Shores; the decision to publish by the renowned Grub Street Press: this should be a much better book than the volume detailing the naval fighter units of Japan by the same authors.

But it's not.

If you spend the better part of forty dollars hoping for a book that is more like Mr. Shores' "Bloody Shambles", Mr. Ford's "Flying Tigers", or even Mr. Bergerud's "Fire in the Sky", then you'll be sorry.