Ley Reynolds
​You;​Lindsay Charman​
New Guinea Eagles, Vol. 1, IJAAF October 1942 to September 1943

by M. J. Claringbould, Avonmore Books, RRP approx. $45

This 208 page title is the latest in a long line of books by M.J. Claringbould covering Japanese air operations north of Australia during WW2. This reviewer had not realised that PNG/Solomons was regarded as an area allocated almost exclusively to the IJNAF until late 1942 when increasing losses led to IJAAF reinforcements being sent from Japan and NEI. The author, in 19 chapters, covers aircraft types, unit deployments, bases and op's in this period exhaustively, including quotes from Japanese personnel and b/w period photographs with informative captions.

The rugged terrain, changeable weather, inadequate supply services and tropical diseases all conspired to blunt IJAAF operations (this may not have seemed so to Australian forces at the time) and inflict continuing losses of men and machines. Japan's poor industrial base vis-a-vis the US meant that Allied airpower was almost always numerically superior. Successful campaigns on the PNG north coast were few and much of this was down to poor intelligence and a certain rigidity in IJAAF thinking.

The author is also at some pains to describe the correct development/nomenclature of equipment and provides 42 colour sideviews of the various types involved.

In some respects this is not an easy read but it is a complicated and, in this reviewer's opinion, important part of Australia's WW2 history, not previously covered in such detail. Recommended.