[John Beaman]

I've not seen any posts/reviews of this book since the above date. I am now about 3/4s through it I can say it is an extraordinary book. It is a highly detailed narrative about the aerial campaign over New Guinea/Port Moresby in 1942. The sub-title led me to think it might be only from the Japanese side, but it includes great detail from both sides.

Lest you think this is a tedious narrative of day to day ops, it is, but not overpowering like some books published in recent years. It has lots of "there I was" type personal stories neatly woven into the book. It is not a tedious read by any means except for the authors' use of Japanese names for their aircraft, but one gets used to that.

Lots of new photos, or old ones ID'ed.

Of course, for some of us, Saki Saburo's book was a primary source for this campaign. This book exposes, gently, a lot of flaws in his book which have been known about for years. This is no slam against him, but let's just say that Martin Caiden did him a disservice (as he has for so many).

The amazing thing is twofold:

1. Everyone overclaimed, a lot. Not really a surprise, but not often said.

2. The RAAF P-40s and USAAF P-39s, B-25s and 26s did really well, all things considered--not the slaughter or debacle that some books indicate.

The most interesting aspect it that the book was written by non-Japanese authors, although it is obvious that they has access to a lot of Japanese sources apparently, previously, unavailable to Westerners.

Highly recommended if you are interested in this period.