Raids on Saipan late 1944

I assumed it was the Navy bombing
from the Philippines.

They both did. It's one of the few cases where the army took part in a
distant over-water attack. (The navy meanwhile had some Zeros assigned
to the camaign in Malaya.)

There's a new book about the air war in Burma, titled (duh!) Burma Air
War in English. http://tinyurl.com/kxla

I'm struggling through it and posting my painful translation at
www.danford.net/rangoon3.htm

I've emailed the author without success.

all the best -- Dan Ford
email: www.danford.net/letters.htm#9

see the Warbird's Forum at www.warbirdforum.com
and the Piper Cub Forum at www.pipercubforum.com

I assume these come mostly from
captured documents, interrogations and such like carried out by the
Intelligence branch of Occupation Forces after the war?

The Japanese Self-Defense Agency has published a very good series of
campaign books, not translated nor likely to be, with useful maps.
(The organization is variously translated.) There are two Japanese
writers, Ikuhiko Hata a historian and Yasuho Izawa an aviation buff,
who have written extensively about air operations. Their books about
fighter units, both army and navy, are available in translation.

Dr Izawa especially has been generous with American and English
historians, and he has made some rough English translations of his own
work. He helped me with the Flying Tigers research and collaborated
with Christopher Shores in Bloody Shambles. You really ought to look
him up.

all the best -- Dan Ford
email: www.danford.net/letters.htm#9

see the Warbird's Forum at www.warbirdforum.com
and the Piper Cub Forum at www.pipercubforum.com

On Sat, 23 Aug 2003 23:06:10 +0900, Gernot Hassenpflug
wrote:

Are these different from the books written by the authors you mention
below? If you give me one name (of a book) I can find the others,

Right; Izawa & Hata had nothing to do with the semi-official
histories. These are the two I worked with (sorry about the HTML):

pJapan. Defense Agency. iNanpo shinko rikugun koku sakusen/i
(Army Air

Operations in Southeast Asia). Tokyo: Asagumo Shimbunsha, 1970.
The JDA
campaign histories are the best thing available on the Pacific War
from the
Japanese point of view, though uneven in quality. This one is
excellent.

p---. ---. iChugoku homen rikugun koku sakusen/i (Army Air
Operations in China). Tokyo: Asagumo Shimbunsha, 1974. And
this one is so-so.

As I say, the name of the author is variously translated. I think it's
something like Veteran's Bureau of the Self-Defense Agency.


all the best -- Dan Ford
email: www.danford.net/letters.htm#9

see the Warbird's Forum at www.warbirdforum.com
and the Piper Cub Forum at www.pipercubforum.com