Continuing with their very nicely done Commonwealth Squadrons at War books, this one covers one of the lesser known units of the RAF, 146 Squadron. This unit was based in Southern Asia for the entirety of its existence and is one of the few SEA Thunderbolt squadrons. Formed in India during late 1941 with obsolete Hawker Audax aircraft, it got war worn Buffalos after the fall of Burma along with Mohawks for a short period. Eventually Hurricanes arrived and it operated those until the Thunderbolts arrived in mid 1944. The unit was pretty much a ground attack squadron so its air to air operations were basically non-existent. It ceased to exist in mid 1945 when it became 42 Squadron. .

In common with other editions, this one is basically a stats book that includes a unit history with lists of known aircraft/serials, a war diary of missions flown, aircraft lost, pilots and commander. 

Overall, it is another superbly researched and presented edition that is chock full of photographs of 146's aircraft and the men who flew them. It also includes three pages on very high quality paper of  color profiles of the aircraft flown by the unit. In fact, all the paper in this book is thicker than the norm. A book I found fascinating and one that is bound to be a valuable reference resource in the years to come. Most highly recommended.

February 2012

Review book courtesy of www.raf-in-combat.com. Visit them for other great titles

If you would like your product reviewed fairly and quickly, please contact me or see other details in the Note to Contributors.

Back to the Book Index

Back to the Main Page