Book Review of
Operation I-Go
Yamamoto’s Last Offensive
New Guinea & the Solomons, April 1943
Author: Michael John Claringbould
Avonmore Books
ISBN: 978-0-6486659-4-6
By Ray Mehlberger
Copyright 2020
MSRP: $39.95
ISBN: 978-0-6486659-4-6
By Ray Mehlberger
Copyright 2020
MSRP: $39.95
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Avonmore Books is located in Kent Town, South Australia.
This book is soft-cover of 158 pages in 6 ¾” x 9 ¾” page format.
The cover art shows a color illustration of a No. 705 Japanese “Betty” on its way to bomb Port Moresby on 12 April 1944, escorted by a pair of land-based Model 21 Zeros.
The “Betty” is dark-green, with a light-gray under-carriage and a black anti-glare panel in front of the windshield, bright metal spinners and a large white square with the Japanese rising-sun insignia on it on the sides of the fuselage. Its bomb bay door is open.
The 2 Zeros are also dark-green over light-gray under-carriages, with bright metal spinners, black cowlings, a yellow fuselage band and white 189 on their rudders.
The back cover has another color illustration on it. It shows Lieutenant Richard Culton, flying a 41 Fighter Squadron Airacobra, being attacked by a No. 204 Kukutai Zero over Port Moresby on 12 April 1943 and going down in flames. Culton subsequently bailed out and took tea with surprised villagers before returning to his airfield.
His aircraft is overall olive-drab, with white star above the left wing in a blue circle and a white spinner.
The Zero is dark-green over a light-gray under-carriage, with a bright metal spinner, black cowling, yellow fuselage band and white tail code of T2 over 166.
By early 1943, Japanese forces in the South Pacific had suffered three key strategic setbacks at Guadalcanal, Kokoda and the Battle of the Bismark Sea. However, Japanese strength in the theatre was far from spent, and the commander of the Combined Fleet, Admiral Yamamoto sensed an opportunity.
By temporarily bolstering his air force at Rabaul with carrier-based airpower, Yamamoto assembled a strike force of hundreds of aircraft. With these he planned to overwhelm Allied defences in a multi-day blitz against four crucial locations. Named Operation I-Go, it would be the largest IJN air operation ever launched in the region.
The odds favored the plan, but by 1943 I-Go was a huge gamble. Would it strike a body blow and give the Allies reason to pause their advance ? Or would it cause irrecoverable wastage of IJN offensive air power ?
The results of I-Go were surprising, although it only achieved a fraction of what the Japanese claimed. The greatest worry was that it led to the death of its architect Yamamoto.
This is the first detailed account of I-Go, written with reference to both Japanese and Allied sources, and it surely sets a new historical benchmark for this key chapter of the Pacific War.
The book contains 67 black and white wartime photos of Japanese and Allied pilots and their aircrafts.
These include 4 photos of Admiral Yamamoto, before and during the war.
Photos of ships are: the corvette HMNZS Moa, the USS Kanawha, the USS Adam Ward, 2 photos o the Australian corvette HMAS Pirie, the small merchant ship Hanyan and the HMAS Wagga.
There are 13 color maps included.
A color illustration of a Wildcat dog-fighting with a Zero over Lunga Point during Strike X, which targeted Guadalcanal shipping.
There are 4 data lists.
At the end of the book there is a 3 page Notes and Acknowledgements and a 5-page Index of Names.
Color profiles include:
A 3-view of a Mitsubishi Ki-46 “Dinah”.& a side-view.
A 3-view of a Mitsubishi A6M2 Model 32 Zero.
A 3-view of a Grumman F4F-4 “Wildcat”
A side-view of a Douglas SBD-4 “Dauntless”
A 5-view of a Aichi D3A2 “Val” & 3 side-views of it.
16 side-views of the A6M2 Zero Model 21
3 side-views of the A6M3 Zero Model 22.
3 side-views of the Curtiss P-40E “Kittyhawk” in US markings and 3 side-views of it in RAAF markings.
2 side-views of the Curtiss P-40K in US markings and 2 side-views of it in RAAF markings.
2 side-views of a Lockheed P-38G “Lightning”
A side-view of a Lockheed P-38F “Lightning”.
A side-view of a Bell P-39D & P-400 “Airacobra”
7 side-views of a Mitsubishi G4M1”Betty”.
THE AUTHOR:
Michael Claringbould –author & illustrator, spent his formative years in Papua New Guinea in the 1960’s during which he became fascinated by the many WWII aircraft wrecks which lay around the country. Over subsequent decades he assisted in identifying such aircraft and helped the US and Japanese governments recover missing aircraft crews in New Guinea and the Solomons.
Michael has served widely overseas as an Australian diplomat, including in the South Pacific where he had the fortune to return to Papua New Guinea for three years commencing in 2003.
Michael is a contributing editor for Flightpath magazine and has written several books on the Pacific War. More recently, his history of the Tainan Naval Air Group in New Guinea. Eagles of the Southern Sky, received worldwide acclaim as the first English language history of any Japanese air unit.
An executive member of Pacific Air War History Associates, Michael also holds an Australian pilots license and a PG4 paraglider rating. These days he also enjoys developing his skills as a digital 3D aviation artist.
This is one neat book. It will be of great interest to aircraft modelers and aviation historians alike.
Highly recommended.
I want to sincerely thank Casemate Publishers, the N. American distributor of Avonmore Books for this book sample.
All Avonmore Book titles can be seen on Casemate’s website at:
Avonmore Books is located in Kent Town, South Australia.
This book is soft-cover of 158 pages in 6 ¾” x 9 ¾” page format.
The cover art shows a color illustration of a No. 705 Japanese “Betty” on its way to bomb Port Moresby on 12 April 1944, escorted by a pair of land-based Model 21 Zeros.
The “Betty” is dark-green, with a light-gray under-carriage and a black anti-glare panel in front of the windshield, bright metal spinners and a large white square with the Japanese rising-sun insignia on it on the sides of the fuselage. Its bomb bay door is open.
The 2 Zeros are also dark-green over light-gray under-carriages, with bright metal spinners, black cowlings, a yellow fuselage band and white 189 on their rudders.
The back cover has another color illustration on it. It shows Lieutenant Richard Culton, flying a 41 Fighter Squadron Airacobra, being attacked by a No. 204 Kukutai Zero over Port Moresby on 12 April 1943 and going down in flames. Culton subsequently bailed out and took tea with surprised villagers before returning to his airfield.
His aircraft is overall olive-drab, with white star above the left wing in a blue circle and a white spinner.
The Zero is dark-green over a light-gray under-carriage, with a bright metal spinner, black cowling, yellow fuselage band and white tail code of T2 over 166.
By early 1943, Japanese forces in the South Pacific had suffered three key strategic setbacks at Guadalcanal, Kokoda and the Battle of the Bismark Sea. However, Japanese strength in the theatre was far from spent, and the commander of the Combined Fleet, Admiral Yamamoto sensed an opportunity.
By temporarily bolstering his air force at Rabaul with carrier-based airpower, Yamamoto assembled a strike force of hundreds of aircraft. With these he planned to overwhelm Allied defences in a multi-day blitz against four crucial locations. Named Operation I-Go, it would be the largest IJN air operation ever launched in the region.
The odds favored the plan, but by 1943 I-Go was a huge gamble. Would it strike a body blow and give the Allies reason to pause their advance ? Or would it cause irrecoverable wastage of IJN offensive air power ?
The results of I-Go were surprising, although it only achieved a fraction of what the Japanese claimed. The greatest worry was that it led to the death of its architect Yamamoto.
This is the first detailed account of I-Go, written with reference to both Japanese and Allied sources, and it surely sets a new historical benchmark for this key chapter of the Pacific War.
The book contains 67 black and white wartime photos of Japanese and Allied pilots and their aircrafts.
These include 4 photos of Admiral Yamamoto, before and during the war.
Photos of ships are: the corvette HMNZS Moa, the USS Kanawha, the USS Adam Ward, 2 photos o the Australian corvette HMAS Pirie, the small merchant ship Hanyan and the HMAS Wagga.
There are 13 color maps included.
A color illustration of a Wildcat dog-fighting with a Zero over Lunga Point during Strike X, which targeted Guadalcanal shipping.
There are 4 data lists.
At the end of the book there is a 3 page Notes and Acknowledgements and a 5-page Index of Names.
Color profiles include:
A 3-view of a Mitsubishi Ki-46 “Dinah”.& a side-view.
A 3-view of a Mitsubishi A6M2 Model 32 Zero.
A 3-view of a Grumman F4F-4 “Wildcat”
A side-view of a Douglas SBD-4 “Dauntless”
A 5-view of a Aichi D3A2 “Val” & 3 side-views of it.
16 side-views of the A6M2 Zero Model 21
3 side-views of the A6M3 Zero Model 22.
3 side-views of the Curtiss P-40E “Kittyhawk” in US markings and 3 side-views of it in RAAF markings.
2 side-views of the Curtiss P-40K in US markings and 2 side-views of it in RAAF markings.
2 side-views of a Lockheed P-38G “Lightning”
A side-view of a Lockheed P-38F “Lightning”.
A side-view of a Bell P-39D & P-400 “Airacobra”
7 side-views of a Mitsubishi G4M1”Betty”.
THE AUTHOR:
Michael Claringbould –author & illustrator, spent his formative years in Papua New Guinea in the 1960’s during which he became fascinated by the many WWII aircraft wrecks which lay around the country. Over subsequent decades he assisted in identifying such aircraft and helped the US and Japanese governments recover missing aircraft crews in New Guinea and the Solomons.
Michael has served widely overseas as an Australian diplomat, including in the South Pacific where he had the fortune to return to Papua New Guinea for three years commencing in 2003.
Michael is a contributing editor for Flightpath magazine and has written several books on the Pacific War. More recently, his history of the Tainan Naval Air Group in New Guinea. Eagles of the Southern Sky, received worldwide acclaim as the first English language history of any Japanese air unit.
An executive member of Pacific Air War History Associates, Michael also holds an Australian pilots license and a PG4 paraglider rating. These days he also enjoys developing his skills as a digital 3D aviation artist.
This is one neat book. It will be of great interest to aircraft modelers and aviation historians alike.
Highly recommended.
I want to sincerely thank Casemate Publishers, the N. American distributor of Avonmore Books for this book sample.
All Avonmore Book titles can be seen on Casemate’s website at: