IL-2: Battle in the Far East?

I was browsing YouTube tonight when I came across an interesting video made by YouTube user ‘Bismark’ talking about the possibilities of an IL-2 expansion into the Far East/Burma theatre. While I’m still writing up my part two of “What Comes Next” I thought this might be an interesting interlude.

Bismark’s video is all about a post made by Hiromachi, a user on the 1CGS IL-2 Sturmovik forums, with considered thoughts and ideas on an expansion into the Burma battle.

So I came up with an idea to take next game into a jungles and mountains of Burma and India border, presenting the major battles from the period of late 1943 to late 1944. Burma was a theater of operations since Japanese invasion on Malaya, and as the war progressed Japanese have reached the borders of India but could not cross it due to increasing Allied resistance. Valleys and hills of Burma and India saw air operations for 3 following years, with rather stable front being possibly the longest continuous fights in same region of the world war two.

It’s a major battle area that receives very little attention in anything but the more obscure history books. I’ve always been fascinated by the theaters unusual selection of British and American aircraft along with a unique combination of Japanese types – Some well known and others that are virtually unknown to all but the most avid aviation historian.

Here’s the selection of aircraft that Hiromachi picked:

Allied

Hawker Hurricane MK II B/C

Supermarine Spitfire Mk VIII

Vultee Vengeance Mk II

North American B-25 J Mitchell

Japanese

Mitsubishi A6M2 or A6M5

Nakajima Ki-43 Model II Late or Model III

Mitsubishi Ki-51

Kawasaki Ki-48-IIc or Mitsubishi Ki-21-IIc

Premium:

North American P-51A Mustang

Nakajima Ki-84 Hayate