What happened here?

[John Beaman]

There has not been a post in weeks. Is there no interest in the Pacific War? Cannot beleive someone doesn't want to start a flame war about claims or something!

For starters, does anyone have any comments about the new books on Buffalos Over Singapore and Hurricanes Over Singapore compared to Bloody Shambles? I.e., I would assume the focus is on units flying those machines, but do they add to our overall knowledge or are they mostly antedotal?

[Jim Oxley]

In many ways Buffaloes Over Singapore is already covering territory dealt with in Bloody Shambles. Haven't read Hurricanes Over Singapore so I can't comment.

Still, although Brian Cull is (IMHO) a rather dull author compared to Chris Shores, his book does contain more detailed info on the pilots who flew the Buffalo, and the trials and tribulations of same. Especially interesting are the views on the Buffalo's as a fighter expressed by both the successful pilots (eg Fisken, Vanderfield) and the not so successful. Mind you the majority of pilots viewed themselves as no more than meat for butchering by the Japanese.

It is definitely worth the read.

[Håkan]

Hello,

In my opinion, Brian Cull’s “aircraft type books” (Hurricanes over Tobruk, Spitfires over Sicily, Hurricanes over Malta, Buffalos Over Singapore and Hurricanes Over Singapore) are in some ways disappointing and in some ways interesting.

The disappointing is that they doesn’t covers much “new” info – the Singapore books are mostly covered in Bloody Shambles pt. 1-2 (with C. Shores et al) and the Malta book is mostly covered in the Malta books written together with C. Shores et al. They also doesn’t uses much info from the opposing forces (i.e Japanese, Italian and German).

The interesting points are the rich amount of RAF and Commonwealth pilot interviews (unfortunately almost none with opposing pilots), which are used to give more “flesh” to the books and in this view, they are definitely worth the read and a nice complement to Shores books.

Best wishes/Håkan Gustavsson

[Jukka Juutinen]

I definitely like these two "over Singapore" books due to the extensive use of pilot accounts. I haven´t seen the Bloody Shambles books, but I have the Malta:Spitfire Year and I find that not too absorbing. But, these two are excellent!

[Graham Boak]

There is very little discussion on this board because of the excellent j-aircraft.com which covers the Pacific War. Obviously there is something of a bias to one side, but the capability is there already.

[Ruy Horta]

The reason this forum was added was an extra service to the community, not to compete with the excellent J-aircraft (how could it?!). Interesting subjects however can always pop up, although it has been silent for a while.

[Jukka Juutinen]

Well, I did ask a serious question which apparently goes unanswered. Had I asked "Did Saburo Sakai take off at 12.00 hrs or 12.01 hrs on date X" the answers would be pouring in, I guess.

[Ruy Horta]

Were IJNAF and IJAAF fighters designed to similar structural specs? What were the allowed g-limits and VNE of e.g. the J2M3?

Perhaps I'm getting too cynical lately, but I very much doubt that you were expecting serious answers here.

What the lack of reactions proofs is that the TOCH crowd is not as technical as you would have wished...

On a constructive level, here's a chance to share this knowledge with fellow community members!


EDIT:
Personally I am interested in the subject, I've collected some Japanese languange reference (can't read them). Unfortunately that's a community forum, you must be satisfied with the answers you get, if any...

[Jukka Juutinen]

I never ask questions just to provoke. If I knew the answer, I´d tell you.

[JoeB]

Originally Posted by Jukka Juutinen

Had I asked "Did Saburo Sakai take off at 12.00 hrs or 12.01 hrs on date X" the answers would be pouring in, I guess.

It's an interesting comment about the different personalities of the two fora, which is a pretty clear difference IMO besides the fact one's original focus is LW and one Japanese air arms. Here most posts are about ops/losses/tail numbers LW v Allies this or that day, on J-a majority of posts are on model plane building. J-a doesn't have anywhere near as much about when Sakai took off as this forum does about when some LW guy took off. J has some aeronautical engineering discussion (you contribute to), relatively rare on TOCH even about LW planes. I enjoy most the bit broader (than one day or one pilot) operational discussions on both. I wish both had more of a tendency to compare and contrast between air wars on the same high level they discuss their specialities, but that's not common on either one. Relative lack of activity on this sub forum tends to illustrate that, there just aren't that many people intensely interested in both, apparently. On TOCH esp the main people seem to have a pretty rigid idea of "off topic", if you relate something to an air war outside WWII LW and opponents, it's irrelevant.

Anyway I enjoy lurking and occasionally contributing on both, taking each for what it is (I wish J-a would adopt this software format though).

Joe