South Pacific Air War Volume 2: The Struggle for Moresby, March - April 1942 Paperback – July 11, 2019

Volume 2 continues the trilogy which details the air fighting leading up to and including the Battle of the Coral Sea.This volume covers the time period March 10th thru April 30th 1942 and is largely about the build up by both sides (but especially the Americans) of operational air units in Rabaul, Lae, Port Morseby, and Northern Australia. But this time period saw plenty of air strikes and counter strikes by both sides and is not merely about air units flooding into the theater.All the glowing comments I made about volume 1 apply to volume 2 as well; in fact I am even more impressed by the author’s stupendous efforts to chronicle the fate of every single aircraft & its crew that was lost by both sides during this time period. Of particular value are the two charts in Appendix 1 which act as a daily “score card” of the aircraft lost on each day.For the armchair warrior interested in the Pacific War this trilogy is a treasure trove of interesting knowledge.

I just want to thank you for your excellent book (South Pacific Air War Volume 2) that was ordered on Friday, February 28,2020 and arrived on Thursday, March 5, 2020. I had ordered it for my brother, who says he was very happy with the order. Thank you so kindly again!

thank you

On the plus side these books have some very detailed research of specific air attacks in New Guinea where the authors detail the aircraft, pilots, and losses on each side—what happened to the downed pilot and in some cases remarkable stories of survival. They also take a lot of the information found at pacificwrecks.com on the “x-drome” airfields and weave it into a narrative that is really additive to a better understanding of the strategic aims of Japan in 1942 and the struggle around Moresby. Finally the topography of the Owen Stanley Range and the weather implications are presented from a pilots view point—and as a pilot I found that very well explained and documented.On the negative side these books present the period through a chauvinistic lens. One is led to believe that tiny groups of RAAF pilots were responsible for winning the war. Again and again the reader is told how bungling Americans “took off in B-17s, half turned back for some reason and the other half failed to hit any target”. Meanwhile a single RAAF Hudson or Catalina wreaked havoc on Japanese ships and airfields. We’re told how these tiny groups held on as the P-40 “tomorrow hawks” were late to arrive.What the authors do not mention is every airplane the RAAF flew was American designed, produced, and sent on lend-lease. Even the “Wirraway”—and airplane given attention in these books out of all proportion to its relevance in the war—was the North American NA-16 lic built by Commonwealth. As the Japanese navy planned to invade Moresby and Darwin, had Australia relied on the United Kingdom for help they would all be speaking Japanese today. There is no mention of Lancasters, Mosquitos, or Spitfires in these books—because none were sent.Moreover the authors ignore that the Ostfriesland was sunk by Mitchell in level bombers only about 20 year earlier. By 1939 prevalent technology had air attack on ships executed by torpedo bombers, dive bombers, and level high altitude – the B-17s and G3Ms had similar results. And three years later in 1945 the dive bomber concept –all the Vals, Stukas, and Dauntlesses—were gone. Replaced by the heavy attack fighter.This set are worth buying and have a lot of interesting combat report based detail, previously uncovered material, and interesting computer illustrations. Just be prepared for the Australian bias and marginalization of the United States military—who by the way won the pacific war.

A

Covers this specific period of operations with detail photos and drawings

Research material for WWII Pacific