South Pacific Air War, volume 1: The Fall of Rabaul, December 1941 - March 1942

[edwest2]

From the Stone & Stone website:


South Pacific Air War, volume 1: The Fall of Rabaul, December 1941 - March 1942 by Michael Claringbould and Peter Ingman is now available from Avonmore Books in Australia (with free shipping worldwide from The Book Depository).
Peter reports two more titles planned for the series:

• Volume 2: The Struggle for Port Moresby, March-April 1942, for release in mid-2018
• Volume 3: The Battle of the Coral Sea, May 1942, likely for release in 2019

Usual disclaimer,
Ed

[focusfocus]

Hi all

Good news

Can someone tell more about the contents of this book?especially the Japanese side.

Michel

[Michael Louey]

Hi Michel,

I have the book and it has detailed descriptions of air actions during the specified period with information about actions/units involved/personnel from both sides of the conflict. One of the authors Michael Claringbould writes for the local magazine "Flighpath" and has a lot of knowledge about the Japanese side of the conflict which is reflected in this book. If you have any specific questions you want to know about, please ask.

Regards

Michael

[chinesefox]

if "Japanese side" means--- materials(combat report,naval aviation units histories , etc) released by Japanese publisher or original military records from Japanese national archive ( released by 国立公文書館 アジア
歴史資料センター, in terms of value and essential , it is higher than many Japanese publishing books)


AS far as I can see, South Pacific Air War, volume 1's BIBLIOGRAPHY list(page 242) has nearly zero original military records from Japanese national archive ( released by 国立公文書館 アジア歴史資料センター).

------

last sentence was intended for other internet/forum's thread,now I edited it out.

[Michael Louey]

Originally Posted by chinesefox

after all, this is a piece of work done by Osprey, you can't expect too much from them.

I'll check my book later when I get home, but I wouldn't believe this bit of information above - The book is produced by Avonmore, an Australian publisher who have produced a number of high quality books on the Pacific Air War including "The Empire strikes South" by Dr Tom Lewis and "Zero Hour at Broome". Based on the detail of the identification of Japanese Units and Personnel listed in the different air actions, I'm sure the authors would have consulted Japanese records.

Note: I have no connection with the publisher.

[chinesefox]

Originally Posted by Michael Louey

I'll check my book later when I get home, but I wouldn't believe this bit of information above - The book is produced by Avonmore, an Australian publisher who have produced a number of high quality books on the Pacific Air War including "The Empire strikes South" by Dr Tom Lewis and "Zero Hour at Broome". Based on the detail of the identification of Japanese Units and Personnel listed in the different air actions, I'm sure the authors would have consulted Japanese records.

Note: I have no connection with the publisher.

that last sentence (from my first response) was intended for other internet/forum's thread,now I edited it out.

my apology.

[Michael Louey]

Home again,

The Bibliography does quote s number of what appear Japanese primary sources. Not being a specialist in Japanese sources - the following at least appear to be wartime records rather than secondary books -

BBKS Kan-49. NAII "Translation of Japanese Navy Messages" (There's a bunch of these which I expect are Allied intelligence intercepts).

There's also Chitose Kokutai Kodochoso. References to Japanese Monographs in the US Library of Congress.

Diary of Warrant Officer Nemoto Kumesako IJN Kiyokawa Maru.

The 1st paragraph mentions there are a large set of information are in the authors archives and he references in the bibliography can't include every individual reference. This is not one of those academic histories with footnotes on every action however it does go through the unfolding events in this area of action for the time covered in a bit of detail looking at the actions from both sides. There may be Japanese accounts with a more academic slant but I am not sure they will be accessible to non Japanese speakers nor would they match the impressions and operational units from the Allied side.

I have a large collection of histories of the air war for this area and this period from the Allied side but they don't cover all the actions covered here and certainly don't identify Japanese units and personnel to this (or any extent).

As I mentioned, Michael Claringbould writes monthly articles in Flightpath and you can see from these articles he's investigated the Japanese units/personnel as comprehensively as the Allied side.

Final word, is to make the judgement yourself - It's not a massively expensive book.

Cheers

Michael

[chinesefox]

as for "original military records(aviation) from Japanese national archive ( released by 国立公文書館 アジア歴史資料センター)

here are some examples

[edwest2]

More information:

http://www.j-aircraft.org/smf/index.php?topic=17529.0




Ed