Blitzkrieg in the Far East 1: Japan is the sixth in the series of early war handbooks for I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum. The handbook is 116 pages long and covers the Japanese army during the first phase of the War in the Pacific, December 1941 to June 1942, when its battle-hardened armies inflicted defeat after defeat on the Allies.

Unlike the other titles so far in the series, the nature of Japan’s campaign of expansion means that the booklet is not divided into sections defined by the different types of division that fought, but into sections defined by the different geographical mini-campaigns: Malaya and Singapore, Burma, the Philippines, The Dutch East Indies and the South Seas. In effect, it is several theatre booklets rolled into one.

There are a total of forty-eight different lists split as follows:

·         Malaya & Singapore: 7 lists from 25th Army

·         Thailand & Burma: 5 lists from 15th Army

·         The Philippines: 16 lists from 14th Army

·         Hong Kong: 1 list from 38th Division

·         Borneo:  2 lists from 35th Brigade

·         The Dutch East Indies: 15 lists from 16th Army

·         The South Seas: 2 lists from the South Seas Detachment

Finally, we have the usual ratings and armoury sections, and a note on air support.

Although designed for IABSM, Blitzkrieg in the Far East: Japan contains a vast amount of information useful to gamers of other systems, and is really a must-buy for anyone interested in the early war period.