Do you like P-40s? Do you like unit histories? Is your interest the CBI?  If you can say yes to any of those three questions, then you need to add this book to your library.

Carl Molesworth has done several other books concentrating on either the P-40 or the CBI or both. As such, he has amassed a lot of information, most of which was retrieved the best way, from interviews and letters with surviving members, and from primary research.

The resulting book is an excellent example of one of the best ways to do a unit history book. Instead of a strict day-to-day log, the author gives us a taste of what it was like to be in the CBI during that time. There is more to war than just battles against the enemy. There are times when the biggest foe is the weather. Or even the higher-ups in your chain of command.

The 23rd FG was always the 'last with the less' when it came to getting planes, pilots and parts. To most in Washington DC, it was the place that got left-overs and was the lowest priority. They flew the P-40 into late 44, early 45 when European groups had been flying the more superior Mustangs and Thunderbolts for years. Missions had to be cancelled for lack of fuel. The Japanese army made its biggest gains in China during 1944 and many 23rd FG bases were overrun.

One doesn't often find books like this to be 'page-turners' but I was often caught up in the events as they unfolded and found myself reading far more than was intended when I picked it up to start reading. As a modeler, I could have wished for more than the few pages of pictures that are included, but those that are there were most appropriate and were ones I had not seen before.

As with everything I've read by Carl Molesworth, it is highly recommended.

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