A shoutout to my good friend, Polish author Michael Piegzik who has released his newly published book with Helion &Company. It’s titled the Darkest Hour- The Japanese Naval Offensive in the Indian Ocean. Or what we know as Operation C, the Indian Ocean Raid. Michael lived for 3 years as a researcher under a Japanese government scholarship and is fluent in Japanese. Given these skills he was able to look at Japanese archival sources for this book. Thus the operation is explained extremely well with sources from all the belligerents that participated but with a particular never before seen Japanese perspective. Also, the book is filled with photographs and colour artworks of the ships involved in the operation and not to mention detailed compositions of the air groups which is always a plus for me.
Personally, The Indian ocean raid has always caught my attention and has many interesting events occur such as the Akagi very nearly getting bombed by Blenheim bombers and the Japanese Val dive-bombers achieving a 90% accuracy rate during their attacks on Dorsetshire and Cornwall. It was the Kido Butai at its Zenith before it met its fate at Midway. I remember years ago wanting to cover this operation but couldn’t find enough material for the research so I skipped it. I’m glad to see it now covered in detail in this book.
So If you’re looking for a book to read this summer, you should check it out. Volume 1- Opening moves is available now and Volume 2 which will cover the strikes on Ceylon and the operations in the Bay of Bengal will be released later this summer.
Montemayor
A shoutout to my good friend, Polish author Michael Piegzik who has released his newly published book with Helion &Company. It’s titled the Darkest Hour- The Japanese Naval Offensive in the Indian Ocean. Or what we know as Operation C, the Indian Ocean Raid. Michael lived for 3 years as a researcher under a Japanese government scholarship and is fluent in Japanese. Given these skills he was able to look at Japanese archival sources for this book. Thus the operation is explained extremely well with sources from all the belligerents that participated but with a particular never before seen Japanese perspective. Also, the book is filled with photographs and colour artworks of the ships involved in the operation and not to mention detailed compositions of the air groups which is always a plus for me.
Personally, The Indian ocean raid has always caught my attention and has many interesting events occur such as the Akagi very nearly getting bombed by Blenheim bombers and the Japanese Val dive-bombers achieving a 90% accuracy rate during their attacks on Dorsetshire and Cornwall. It was the Kido Butai at its Zenith before it met its fate at Midway. I remember years ago wanting to cover this operation but couldn’t find enough material for the research so I skipped it. I’m glad to see it now covered in detail in this book.
So If you’re looking for a book to read this summer, you should check it out. Volume 1- Opening moves is available now and Volume 2 which will cover the strikes on Ceylon and the operations in the Bay of Bengal will be released later this summer.
www.helion.co.uk/military-history-books/the-darkes…
3 years ago | [YT] | 725