South Pacific Air War Volume 5: Crisis in Papua softcover
South Pacific Air War: Volume 5: Crisis in Papua: September - December 1942 softcover
Volume Five of this series chronicles aerial warfare primarily in the New Guinea theater in the critical period between September and December 1942. It can be read alone or as a continuation of the previous four volumes which span the first nine months of the Pacific War. By early September the strategic picture in the theater had changed markedly within just six weeks. From their new Buna beachhead, the Japanese Army commenced a Papuan mountain campaign which threatened the Allied bastion of Port Moresby. Meanwhile the battle for Guadalcanal was raging, with the outcome of the wider Pacific War in the balance. Against this background a strengthened US Fifth Air Force took the fight to the IJA with direct air support. While this was being conducted by P-39s, P-40Es, A-20As and B-25s, raids by B-17s against Rabaul aided US forces in the neighboring Solomons. RAAF Beaufighters, Beauforts, Bostons, and Hudsons also contributed substantially to these efforts. At Rabaul, a wide variety of fresh IJN fighter and bomber units poured in the theater, although these became focused mainly on the Solomons. Such were the massive losses experienced, by November the IJN undertook a complete operational and administrative reorganization of its air power. Then, despite a strong reluctance to become involved, the IJA sent an advance reconnaissance detachment to Rabaul, the forerunner of major reinforcements that would arrive in December. Never before has this campaign been chronicled in such detail, with Allied and Japanese accounts matched together for a truly factual account of the conflict.
Published March 2022, 180 pages, black & white and colour photographs, 16 colour profiles and illustrations, maps, Allied and Japanese Losses tables softcover, 7" x 10" inches.
The Pacific Profiles series presents the most accurate WWII profiles to date of aircraft which served in the Pacific theater. Each is lavishly illustrated with many black & white photogaphs, colour squadron markings and colour aircraft profiles in each volume, Each profile is accompanied by supporting photos along with a brief history of the aircraft. A wide range of reference material was sourced to illustrate each profile, including colour movie film, post-war wreck surveys, official records, diaries and hundreds of photos. The author, Michael John Claringbould, is world-renown for his expertise on both the Allied and Japanese sides of the Pacific theater.
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