Kokoda Air Strikes: Allied Air Forces in New Guinea, 1942

AUSTRALIAN MILITARY

The author of the bestselling Darwin Spitfires casts a forensic eye over the role that Allied air forces played – or failed to play – in crucial World War II campaigns in New Guinea. This is the story of the early battles of the South West Pacific theatre – the Coral Sea, Kokoda, Milne Bay, Guadalcanal – presented as a single air campaign that began with the Japanese conquest of Rabaul in January 1942. It is a story of both Australian and American airmen who flew and fought in the face of adversity – with incomplete training, inadequate aircraft, and from poorly set up and exposed airfields. And they persisted despite extreme exhaustion, sickness, poor morale and the near certainty of being murdered by their Japanese captors if they went down in enemy territory.
xx, 507 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm Includes bibliographical references (pages 487-492) and index.First Edition., #240623
World War, 1939-1945 — Papua New Guinea — Kokoda Trail — Aerial operations. | World War, 1939-1945 — Campaigns — Oceania. | Combined operations (Military science) | World War, 1939-1945 — Campaigns — New Guinea. | World War, 1939-1945 — New Guinea — Aerial operations. | Bombing, Aerial — Papua New Guinea — Kokoda Trail. | Kokoda Trail (Papua New Guinea) — History — Bombardment, 1942. | Australian