New Guinea Eagles Volume 1 - The Japanese Air Army from Rabaul to Wewak October 1942 to September 1943

[Orwell1984]

Due this year.


https://avonmorebooks.com.au/?page=3&id=260

New Guinea Eagles Volume 1 chronicles the Japanese Air Army campaign in New Guinea from when its first units arrived in October 1942 until the late September 1943 raids against Nadzab and Port Moresby.
Never before have the rationale, activities and losses of JAAF air power in New Guinea been chronicled in such detail and accuracy. The force operated an impressive range of aircraft types but found it much easier to commit than withdraw from the challenging theatre.
This volume covers Rabaul's and Wewak's beginnings as major JAAF bases. The period involved guarding supply convoys, attacking Wau and two major forays into the Solomons. Then by mid-1943 the Allied air war had gravitated towards the burgeoning JAAF airfield complexes spreading out along New Guinea's northern coast. Two air divisions were combined to create the 4th Air Army in August 1943, and its aircraft soon ventured into the New Guinea Highlands before defending Nassau Bay, Lae and Salamaua.
A wide variety of fighter, attack, bomber and reconnaissance aircraft types operated with numerous air regiments, independent squadrons and headquarters attachments. Citing primary records, combats are aligned, strategies revealed and accurate losses chronicled. The problematic introduction of the Ki-61 Tony, widespread use of the Ki-51 Sonia and the struggles of the Ki-49 Helen are described in detail. Bolstered by maps, illustrations, aircraft profiles and rare photos, New Guinea Eagles Volume 1 offers a fresh and ground-breaking perspective of the JAAF experience.

[Edward]

". . . offers a fresh and ground-breaking perspective of the JAAF experience."

Whoo boy.

In my opinion Rick Dunn, Henry Sakaida and Lex McAulay did this years ago.

[edwest2]

Can you name the book they did?

[Edward]

Originally Posted by edwest2

Can you name the book they did?

Sure! Love to

Richard L. Dunn - Articles on JAAF in New Guinea

"Nakajima Type 1 Model 1 Army Fighter (Ki-43-I) Armament — A Reassessment" (2002, 2004)
https://www.warbirdforum.com/rdunn43.htm

"248th Hiko Sentai" A Japanese 'Hard Luck' Fighter Unit" (2004)
https://j-aircraft.com/research/rdunn/248th/248th.htm

"Double Lucky?: The Campaigns of the 77th Hiko Sentai" (2005)
Translated to Japanese and published in Japan as a paperback book.
https://www.warbirdforum.com/lucky.htm

"Wewak, the Early Days Pt. 1"(2005) Arawasi Magazine
http://www.arawasi.jp/salebook.hp/ara-magazine3.html

"Wewak, the Early Days Pt. 2 (2005) Arawasi Magazine
http://www.arawasi.jp/salebook.hp/ara-magazine4.html

"4 Kokugun Takes Charge" [Wewak] (2008)
Paper presented at at conference at the MacArthur Memorial. Unsure if this has been published.

Elements of all of these articles were incorporated in Dunn's two books:

Exploding Fuel Tanks: Saga of Technology That Changed the Course of the Pacific Air War (R.L. Dunn 2011)

South Pacific Air War: The Role of Air Power in New Guinea and the Solomon Islands Campaigns, January 1943 to February 1944 (Naval Institute Press 2024)

Henry Sakaida
Japanese Army Air Force Aces 1937-1945 (Osprey Publishing 1997)

Lex McAulay
MacArthur's Eagles: The U.S. Air War Over New Guinea 1943-1944 [Wewak and Hollandia]
(Naval Institute Press 2004)

Both Dunn and McAulay pioneered the use of ATIS material - translations of captured Japanese unit records, technical documents and personal diaries.

All three authors utilized Dr. Yasuo Izawa and Ikuhiko Hata's essential history of the JAAF Japanese Army Air Force Fighter Units and Their Aces, 1931-1945 - both the original Japanese edition and the English language translation with Christopher Shores (Grub Street Publishing 2002).

All but one of Larry Hickey's unit histories on bomber units of the Fifth Air Force (22nd, 312th, 43rd and 3rd BGs) as well as all of John Stanaway's fighter group histories published by Schiffer (8th, 348th & 475th FGs) include research and translations on the JAAF in New Guinea by Osamu Tagaya.

While the above sources cover the New Guinea theater there are two other publications from the early 1990's that include the JAAF that are worth mentioning.
Dan Ford did an extraordinary job of covering the JAAF in all of their encounters with the American Volunteer Group over Burma and China by having JAAF records and memoirs translated for his book Flying Tigers: Claire Chennault and the American Volunteer Group (Smithsonian Press 1991).

Dr. Izawa's research on the JAAF appears in Chris Shores et al's Bloody Shambles I and II covering the Philippines, Malaya and the Dutch East Indies campaigns from December 1941 - May 1942. (1992 and 1993).

Copies of an English language translation of Dr. Izawa's manuscript "Japanese Heavy Bomber Units" are floating around as well (regrettably still unpublished). It provides a great deal of information on JAAF and JNAF bomber units in the New Guinea campaign.

The vast majority of Rick Dunn's articles (content and links to other websites) can be found here.
https://rldunn.com/articles/

[Håkan]

I usually finds Michael Claringbould’s books quite interesting and well done/researched. This especially with the series he have done with Peter Ingman regarding the Solomons Air War and South Pacific Air War, which always contains some (at least to me) new titbits of information that I never seen before.

Best regards/Håkan