Mohawks over Burma

Lance K. LeRay was editor, BAR Magazine, Toronto.

As the author himself served for almost two decades in the Canadian air force, his material shows a deeper insight into aircraft and airmen than might be provided by the research of a non-service person. The focus of the book is the RAF’s role in the defence of southeast Asia against the Japanese, with an emphasis on the part played by three squadrons — numbers five, 146 and 155. In the tale’s spotlight is the Mohawk fighter, which served the RAF over Burma for 18 months starting in the summer of 1942. Readers seeking another Sagittarius Rising (Peter Davies Ltd., 1936), the classical recounting of flying scouts during WWI, or Black Thursday (E.P. Dutton, 1960), the riveting account of a World War II American bombing raid against Fortress Europe, will be disappointed. Nevertheless, those readers seeking offbeat chapters of the air-war story of World War II will find the time spent with Mohawks over Burma highly rewarding. The manuals will tell you what an airplane was supposed to do. The pilots who flew it tell you, in Mr. Beauchamp’s book, how it actually performed under service conditions. The Mohawk had been made by the American firm, founded by aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss, and had provided the allies with its famous jenny trainer in World War I. The Mohawks that wound up in Burma had been made for the French and not field-tested for Southeast Asia’s warm, damp climate. Unpressurized fuel tanks caused many a problem. The Mohawk was no Spitfire, not even a Hurricane, but it came to be loved by the men who flew it — over Burma.