Kokoda air strikes : allied air forces in New Guinea, 1942 / Anthony Cooper.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cooper, Anthony James, 1961- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Combined operations (Military science).

World War, 1939-1945--Campaigns--Oceania.

World War, 1939-1945.

World War, 1939-1945--Papua New Guinea--Kokoda Trail--Aerial operations.

Bombing, Aerial--Papua New Guinea--Kokoda Trail.

Bombing, Aerial.

Kokoda Trail (Papua New Guinea)--History--Bombardment, 1942.

Kokoda Trail (Papua New Guinea).

Papua New Guinea--Kokoda Trail.

Physical Description:

xx, 507 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Sydney, N.S.W. NewSouth Publishing, 2014.

Summary:

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.

Contents:

1 Australia's 'Advanced Striking Force' 1

2 Losing Rabaul 30

3 Losing Lae and Salamaua 52

4 Fighters at last 90

5 Moresby's pre-invasion 'blitz' 130

6 The Yanks take over 174

7 Combing the Coral Sea 208

8 Preparing for the next push 238

9 Losing Buna 263

10 Losing Kokoda 303

11 Defending the eastern flank 332

12 Turning point at Milne Bay 377

13 The air supply debacle 421

14 Air supremacy by default 452.

ISBN:

9781742233833

174223383X

OCLC:

864292034