Well Researched Old School History

Mr. Shores writes in a style reminiscent of military history books authored in the '70's. This means the book is well researched down into the individual flights within the squadrons with the theaters getting their own chapters with the events in chronological order. That's not to say that the scope is limited, far from it. Losses of various civilian aircraft receive adequate coverage as well does a myriad of French, Filipino, Dutch, and Thai units. The index at 10 pages is quite in-depth and in order to fit everything is an extremely small font. The only possible complaint about the index would be aircraft types are not listed in the index. So,if you're interested in the Dutch CW-21, you're going to be leafing through the book. I do believe the book does suffer for want of footnotes and a bibliography It was a difficult decision whether to deduct a star for these faults. In the end, they are not major enough warrant a deduction. Any contemporary reader of this author will undoubtedly have the ability to do a little research without being spoon-fed.

Having said that, the book provides a British (With Japanese input.) perspective of the first few disastrous months of the Pacific war and is recommended without reservation. ( )