Review by Martin Koenigsberg
When the RAF finally got the Mosquito over to the India/Burma theatre, it was a significant upgrade over the Beaufighter it replaced and supplanted as a two engine Intruder in WWII. The Intruder mission is basically to travel all along the enemy’s line of communications and wreck shop. The Mosquito, faster than most fighters, was a long range reconnaissance/Bomber/Fighter, depending on whether the nose was fitted with a perspex area for the bombardier, or a whole bunch of Machine Guns and/or cannon. Jeremy Walsh , an author with a lot of varied experience, and a family connection to the “Wooden Wonder” tells us the story of the RAF Squadrons at the front line in India and Burma- training with the new aircraft, going on the missions, and then hitting the road, and airfields along the way as the British Indian Army drives the Japanese out of Southeast Asia. It is a riveting story- and well told. The “Wooden Wonder” was actually largely made of wood- and the conditions in India and Burma are hardly like those of Northwest Europe where the Mosquito had made its bones. Walsh tells the story concurrently of the RAF, and in particular the Squadrons themselves trying to solve the persistent in-flight breakups that seemed to track back to glues and other connections coming apart in the climate. By keeping a steady tally of aircraft, personnel, accidents and deaths at the end of each Chapter – we feel the enervating attrition as the war goes on. This is not just for the military history buffs- it’s a good book for the general reader to really understand the toll operations took on men and machines. The book has a lot of adult themes, young men with death a constant acquaintance, so this book is best read by the Junior Reader over 14/15 Years. For the Gamer/Modeler/Military Enthusiast this book is a treasure chest. The RAF/RAAF/RNZAF, RIAF and the USAAC in the CBI theatre are all the lesser known Campaigns of these forces, and so a deep dive on one type in the region is useful. For the Gamer, there is all the information on the type and the missions, so adapting some chapters to a Blood Red Sky/WWII Aerial Combat Rules scenarios is possible. For the Modeler, there are a lot of cool b/w pics from the campaign for build/diorama ideas, although one would need a colour resource to go along with this book. The Military Enthusiast gets a close look at an iconic weapon of WWII in a little know context. It is a strong package and will please a lot of readers.
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