THUNDER IN THE EAST

Description

As the victories Japanese armies swept through south-east Asia it seemed as if nothing could stop them.  Singapore, Malaya, and Burma had all easily fallen, but one prize still eluded the new masters of the east – India – the jewel in the crown of the British Empire.  It was only a matter of time before the Japanese struck, and at the beginning of 1944 they did.

Launched from the steaming jungles of northern Burma, a vast Japanese army punched deep into the heavily forested foothills of Assam.  Only General ‘Bill’ Slim and his ‘forgotten’ 14th Army stood in their way.  Destroy the 14th Army, and India was at their mercy.

But the British, Gurkha and Indian Divisions stood firm and the fighting that followed at Imphal and on the narrow ridges near Kohima bore witness to some of the most vicious, desperate and bitter hand-to-hand combat of the Second World War.  Amidst the rat-infested, stinking hellhole of the battlefield time was running out for the Japanese.

In the skies over the battlefield, the fighter pilots of the RAF had become masters of the sky.  Air superiority was finally achieved after weeks of bitter fighting, enabling supply-carrying Dakotas to relieve and reinforce the embattled defenders ready to counter-attack.

The Japanese invasion had run out of steam and slowly, but inexorably, the Allies drove them back, fighting through the rains that caused streams to become rivers, and turned rivers into floods.  But through the long advance across the Irrawaddy to Mandalay, Rangoon and the final defeat the RAF fighter-bombers kept up their continuous attack; strafing supply dumps and airfields, and dive-bombing enemy concentrations in unequalled precision strikes.

One such strike was the operation to take back the Japanese-held Mingaladon Aerodome near Rangoon on October 20, 1944 when a composite air force, made up of P-47 Thunderbolts from 261 and 146 Squadrons, carried out a low level attack on the vital Japanese stronghold.

Thunder in the East captures all the fury of this bitter engagement. After completing his bombing attack Warrant Officer Thomas “Lucky” Carter flying his distinctive P-47 “Pistol Packin’ Mamma,” engages Nakajima Ki-43 Oscars and Ki-44 Tojo’s along with other Thunderbolts of the unit.