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Re: Australian Spitfires
JoeB, Spitfires over Darwin only covers the Australian side of the air war over Darwin. The book is not about claims v's actual's (whch is always an area of contention).
The book presents (without fanfare) the true side of the Spitfire effort over Darwin from the Australian point of view; the limitations of the aircraft in that environment, it's losses and the reasons why, and the life that the flyers led in such a remote part of Australia. It doesn't in any way try to portray the Spitfire as a 'great' fighter, in fact it understates it to a degree.
But it does dubunk factually many of the myths of the Spitfires poor performance.
I agree that it would be nice to see a book that deals with both the Japanese and the Australian sides in the battle over Darwin - and indeed one that also does the same for 1942 when the USAAF were based there. But nothing has been put into print yet - although there is something in the throes I gather.
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