Product Description

Hurricanes over Singapore is the companion volume to the successful Buffaloes over Singapore published in 2003. It continues the story of the RAF's gallant but futile attempt to stop the might of the Japanese invasion force in its quest to conquer not only Singapore, but also Sumatra and Java and all the other islands that constituted the Netherlands East Indies.

The Hurricanes went into action over Singapore on 20 January 1942 and the last two aircraft made the final flight at Java on 8 March that year. During the intervening time the Hurricane pilots and ground crew - British, New Zealanders, Australians, Canadians, Dutch and Americans - gave their all, with many making the supreme sacrifice. The majority of survivors would spend the next 3 .50 years as prisoners of the Japanese - and some of their heart-rending stories are detailed here.

This expertly researched account, the most comprehensive to date, and accompanied by rare photographs, is told wherever possible by the pilots themselves, the majority of whom were young and inexperienced. Their efforts should not be forgotten and this book is a dispassionate tribute to those who fell in battle, those who died as prisoners and those who survived the trials and tribulations of imprisonment.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #790156 in Books
• Published on: 2004-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

Customer Reviews

Must reading for those interested in the WWII air war the Pacific.
I found it hard to put this book down, there has been so little coverage of the war in the air over Singapore. I am definitely going to order the first book in the series, "Buffaloes Over Singapore", also.

Newcomers to a losing battle
Hurricanes were to save the world in 1942, or at least the British and Dutch Far East. This was not to be. Much in the same lines as "Buffaloes over Singapore", this book takes an in-depth, day-by-day look on Hurricane operations in the same theater. Again, there is not much in the way of analysis or comments, but the matter-of-fact accounts of the pilots who undertook operations in the fast-crumbling situation over Java and Singapore. The drama and the inevitability of fate, like a Greek tragedy, are readily felt as the campaign draws to its inescapable end. There is a very interesting photo section made up of the very few period pictures existing. There is a whole chapter on the life of surviving pilots as PoWs. Appendices show the complete Hurricane victory claims, the casualties, and the origins and fate of every single airframe serving with 232 (P), 232, 258, 242, and 605 Sqns. Ideal companion to the former "Buffaloes..." and indispensable component of any collection of books on the Pacific war.