Customer Reviews

Silently into the Midst of Things
177 Squadron Royal Air Force in Burma, 1943-1945: History and Personal Narratives

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Burma theatre is perhaps unjustly overlooked by many reading about WWII most probably because of the mass of material available on the Pacific and European theatres. Fortunately, among those masses, there are gems like this book that make valuable contributions to recording the history of the forgotten theatre.

After the war the author worked as a geologist so the opening to the book is a very informative description of the topography of Burma. Coupled with the type of flying 177 Squadron did over Burma, very low and fast, and the reader gets the impression that the author is an authority on the Burmese landscape!

The book follows the history of 177 from inception to disbandment. Equipped with Bristol Beaufighters, the author and his colleagues flew ground attack sorties day and night at very low level. The author draws on his memories, the squadron operations book and the memoirs/writings of his squadron mates to paint a vivid picture of life in 177. The drawing together of these records is the most valuable service the author has done. While my only (minor) complaint about the book is the poor quality of some of the reproduced photos (understandable that the originals might be poor given the humidity etc in Burma), the writing does more than enough to paint a picture of what these men faced on operations.

Told with some humour and an eye for detail, perhaps the last word should be left to the last words from the book:

"What enemy projectiles could not accomplish, Time's arrows have done. This is why we want to tell our story while we can."

We owe these men a great debt[...]