ACES WILD : A Tale of the Pacific war by Odgers, George

French's Forest, 1988, Childs, First Australian edition, hard bound in dust jacket, 6x9, VG/VG condition, ( author wrote several of the volumes of the RAAF official History of WW 2 ). 200 pages. Set on the fictional Pacific island of Balanai in the final stages of World War 11, this novel tells the story of a group of six men-fighter aces -driven to desperate measures by the unreasonable orders of their commanding officer.As the Japanese forces were defeated in major engagements to the north of Balanai and with the 'island hopping' strategy of the US forces, tens of thousands of Japanese soldiers were left behind on the bypassed islands to 'wither on the vine'. The RAAF forces on Balanai were no longer in the front line of the action and their contribution could not affect the end result of the war.However, the commanding officer, former World War I hero, Air Commodore Arnold Tremayne Blandy, desperate to get his men forward with the Americans and be part of the last advance against the Japanese, orders his pilots to keep up a high rate of operational effort (beyond that which was actually required), flying missions against the remaining Japanese ground forces.The men obey his orders and watch in despair as life after young life is needlessly wasted -all the time wondering which of them is to be next. Six of the fighter aces, led by Group Captain David Miller, find the continuing slaughter unbearable, and take the unprecedented step of formally tendering their resignations. As the action rises to a crescendo, two of the pilots, Miller and Eddington, refuse a direct order from Blandy and are suspended from operations, with a charge of mutiny hanging over them.The author skilfully portrays the personality changes experienced by men under immense physical and psychological pressures. The reader follows the experiences of David Miller and the other pilots, and knows what it is like to live on the edge of the jungle and on the edge of death. Yet, the reader can also follow with sympathy the deterioration of Blandy into a bitter, warped, ageing man obsessed with getting back into the front line of battle at any cost.