South Pacific Air War
Volume 5
Crisis in Papua September - December 1942
Michael Claringbould and Peter Ingman
Kent Town, SA: Avonmore Books, 2022
Paperback 236pp RRP: $46.95
Reviewer: Neville Taylor, February 2025
This volume records the day-by-day activities of both sides over a fifteen-week period that saw a move from air combat to more support for forces involved in land battles. Commencing with superb, coloured maps and overviews of both the Allies and Japanese, it can read with the preceding four volumes or stand alone and read as an individual work.
The series has been written by two highly-acclaimed authors who have virtually ‘lived and breathed’ the history of aviation in the Southwest Pacific, Michael has been instrumental in locating downed aircraft and identifying lost crews of both sides of the conflict. Michael has been involved in the recovery of aircraft, their subsequently restoration and placement in aviation museums.
With the increasing logistic difficulties facing the Imperial Japanese Army, there was a gradual withdrawal back to the coast at Buna and Gona. The Allies were able to build up the number of aircraft on PNG at Port Moresby, thus shortening flying times and extending ‘time over target’. Bombing raids harassed Japanese operations at Rabaul from which the Japanese were trying to provide aircraft for both PNG and Guadalcanal theatres.
Kokoda was recaptured by the Allies in mid-November, making available airstrips for Allied missions no longer required to fly over the treacherous Owen Stanley Ranges. Constant strafing runs put the IJA under huge pressure that resulted in the fall of both Gona and Buna. At the end of December the command of Japanese aircraft was shifted from the Imperial Japanese Navy to the Japanese Army Air Force.
The incredible detail of the day-by-day action over the fifteen-week period has been compiled as a result of exhaustive research of war records from both sides – aircraft types, crews, altitude flown, munitions expended, damage sustained, lost aircraft and fate of crews. Despite the much-improved Allied situation in the fifteen weeks, it came at a huge cost – Allied aircraft lost 115, fatalities 348, compared with the Japanese numbers of 51 and 72 respectively.
There are black and white photographs of aircraft, their crews and ground locations generously interspersed in the text, with even more impressive inclusion of Michael’s full-colour artwork of aircraft. Respective appendices listing aircraft losses and fatalities for the period provide a sobering view of the incredible attrition rates suffered by both sides. A Sources and Acknowledgments and detailed Index round out this volume.
On completion (i.e., Volume 6 is published) this series will make an invaluable contribution to the history of the events that threatened Australia’s security in the early years of the Second World War.
The RUSI – Vic Library is most grateful to the publisher for making this work available for review.
