Book Review of
Pacific Adversaries Vol. 3
Imperial Japanese Navy vs The Allies
New Guinea & the Solomons 1942-1944
Author: Michael John Claringbould
Avonmore Books
ISBN: 978-0-6486659-5-3
By Ray Mehlberger
MSRP: $36.95
Copyright 2020
ISBN: 978-0-6486659-5-3
By Ray Mehlberger
MSRP: $36.95
Copyright 2020
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.
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.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Avonmore Books is located in Kent Town, South Australia.
This book is soft-cover of 104 pages in 6 ¾” x 9 ¾” page format.
The last 3 pages are blank.
The cover art shows a color illustration of Captain Ensign Frederick Streig downing a Zero near Rabaul on 27 January, 1944. His VF-17- F4U-1A Corsair, fuselage no. white 3. His Corsair is Navy-blue over a gray undercarriage, with a bright metal spinner, a white outlined area in front of the windscreen, a skull and crossbones pirate flag on the side of the nose and 5 aerial victory marks under the cockpit.
Zero is dark green with a black cowling and metal spinner, with yellow wing leading edges and is going down in flames.
The back cover has a color illustration of a late model 52 shotaicho Zero, discernable by its protruding exhaust stacks, cruising over Rabaul in late January 1941. This fighter carries “Rabaul Air Force” markings, using a tail coding system still not fully understood to this day. The coding is white 9-155.
The Zero is dark-green over a gray undercarriage, with a metal spinner, black cowling, diagonal white fuselage band, yellow wing leading edges and the Japanese rising sun insignias in the usual 6 locations.
This volume three of Pacific Adversaries conveys detailed stories of aerial warfare in the South Pacific, chosen because both Japanese and Allied records can be matched for an accurate accounting. Often the actual outcomes are very different to the exaggerated claims made by both sides upon which many traditional histories have relied on to date.Further, for each of the chosen stories, photographic or other evidence enables an accurate depiction of the aircraft involved.
Through these chosen snapshots, Pacific Adversaries will portray the South Pacific conflict as accurately as possible. This third volume focuses exclusively on confrontations with the Japanese Navy Air Force (JNAF) in New Guinea and the Solomons, known to the Japanese as the “South Seas”.
The JNAF first appeared in the South Pacific in December 1941 and was at the vanguard of offensive efforts during the course of 1942. Following the bloody Guadalcanal Campaign, the JNAF fought a largely defensive war in New Guinea and the Solomons against increasingly powerful Allied forces..
Perhaps surprisingly, right through to the end of 1943, the JNAF offered significant resistance to the Allies and never ceded air superiority in the vicinity of its key base of Rabaul. Only in 1944, when units were withdrawn to the Central Pacific, and the Philippines, was the JNAF presence in the South Pacific finally wound down to just a token force.
Never before have detailed accounts matched up adversaries so closely and in doing so shone light on events in Pacific skies so many years ago.
The book contains 70 black and white wartime photos
These include photos of U.S., British and New Zealand pilots and their aircraft. Japanese pilots and their aircrafts. A photo of the Espirito Santo airfield. Wreckage of a B-17. Photo of a U.S. ammo dump. Two photos of U.S. anti-aircraft emplacements. Two ships – the USS Chicago, the USS Salerno and the USS Aaron Ward destroyer, a photo of the inside of a Japanese communications center.
There are 2 color photos. A photo of the book’s author in Darwin Australia with the Japanese attachè after the war. A photo of a Wildcat chasing a Zero.
There is a color line drawing by a Japanese artist of the cockpit interior and crew of a G4M1 “Betty”.
For color side profile illustrations there are:
3 of the A6M2 Zero, 8 of the A6M3 Zero and 2 of the A6M5 Zero. 4 of the Mitsubishi G4M1 “Betty” and 1 of the G3M2 “Nell”. 3 of the F4U-1 “Corsair”. One of the Lockheed F5A-1 “Lightning”.One of the PB4Y-1. 2 of the Curtiss P-40E with the New Zealand Air Force. 2 of the Douglas P-70.One of the F4F-4 “Hellcat”. 2 of the Boeing B-17E. One of the Nakajima J1N1-S “Irving”. One o the C-47A. 5 of the B-25D. 2 of the P-40N-5 with the New Zealand Air Force.
Multiple views are:
A 5-view of a Nakajima A6M2-N float plane.A 3-view of the Lockheed P-38G-13-LO. A 3-view of the Nakajima J1N1-S “Irving”. A 4-view of a Beaufighter Mk. Vic. A 3-view of a F4U-1A Corsair.
This book will be of great interest to aircraft modelers and aviation historians alike.
I want to sincerely thank Casemate Publishers, the N. American distributor of Avonmore books for this review sample.
All Avonmore titles can be viewed on Casemate’s website at:
Avonmore Books is located in Kent Town, South Australia.
This book is soft-cover of 104 pages in 6 ¾” x 9 ¾” page format.
The last 3 pages are blank.
The cover art shows a color illustration of Captain Ensign Frederick Streig downing a Zero near Rabaul on 27 January, 1944. His VF-17- F4U-1A Corsair, fuselage no. white 3. His Corsair is Navy-blue over a gray undercarriage, with a bright metal spinner, a white outlined area in front of the windscreen, a skull and crossbones pirate flag on the side of the nose and 5 aerial victory marks under the cockpit.
Zero is dark green with a black cowling and metal spinner, with yellow wing leading edges and is going down in flames.
The back cover has a color illustration of a late model 52 shotaicho Zero, discernable by its protruding exhaust stacks, cruising over Rabaul in late January 1941. This fighter carries “Rabaul Air Force” markings, using a tail coding system still not fully understood to this day. The coding is white 9-155.
The Zero is dark-green over a gray undercarriage, with a metal spinner, black cowling, diagonal white fuselage band, yellow wing leading edges and the Japanese rising sun insignias in the usual 6 locations.
This volume three of Pacific Adversaries conveys detailed stories of aerial warfare in the South Pacific, chosen because both Japanese and Allied records can be matched for an accurate accounting. Often the actual outcomes are very different to the exaggerated claims made by both sides upon which many traditional histories have relied on to date.Further, for each of the chosen stories, photographic or other evidence enables an accurate depiction of the aircraft involved.
Through these chosen snapshots, Pacific Adversaries will portray the South Pacific conflict as accurately as possible. This third volume focuses exclusively on confrontations with the Japanese Navy Air Force (JNAF) in New Guinea and the Solomons, known to the Japanese as the “South Seas”.
The JNAF first appeared in the South Pacific in December 1941 and was at the vanguard of offensive efforts during the course of 1942. Following the bloody Guadalcanal Campaign, the JNAF fought a largely defensive war in New Guinea and the Solomons against increasingly powerful Allied forces..
Perhaps surprisingly, right through to the end of 1943, the JNAF offered significant resistance to the Allies and never ceded air superiority in the vicinity of its key base of Rabaul. Only in 1944, when units were withdrawn to the Central Pacific, and the Philippines, was the JNAF presence in the South Pacific finally wound down to just a token force.
Never before have detailed accounts matched up adversaries so closely and in doing so shone light on events in Pacific skies so many years ago.
The book contains 70 black and white wartime photos
These include photos of U.S., British and New Zealand pilots and their aircraft. Japanese pilots and their aircrafts. A photo of the Espirito Santo airfield. Wreckage of a B-17. Photo of a U.S. ammo dump. Two photos of U.S. anti-aircraft emplacements. Two ships – the USS Chicago, the USS Salerno and the USS Aaron Ward destroyer, a photo of the inside of a Japanese communications center.
There are 2 color photos. A photo of the book’s author in Darwin Australia with the Japanese attachè after the war. A photo of a Wildcat chasing a Zero.
There is a color line drawing by a Japanese artist of the cockpit interior and crew of a G4M1 “Betty”.
For color side profile illustrations there are:
3 of the A6M2 Zero, 8 of the A6M3 Zero and 2 of the A6M5 Zero. 4 of the Mitsubishi G4M1 “Betty” and 1 of the G3M2 “Nell”. 3 of the F4U-1 “Corsair”. One of the Lockheed F5A-1 “Lightning”.One of the PB4Y-1. 2 of the Curtiss P-40E with the New Zealand Air Force. 2 of the Douglas P-70.One of the F4F-4 “Hellcat”. 2 of the Boeing B-17E. One of the Nakajima J1N1-S “Irving”. One o the C-47A. 5 of the B-25D. 2 of the P-40N-5 with the New Zealand Air Force.
Multiple views are:
A 5-view of a Nakajima A6M2-N float plane.A 3-view of the Lockheed P-38G-13-LO. A 3-view of the Nakajima J1N1-S “Irving”. A 4-view of a Beaufighter Mk. Vic. A 3-view of a F4U-1A Corsair.
This book will be of great interest to aircraft modelers and aviation historians alike.
I want to sincerely thank Casemate Publishers, the N. American distributor of Avonmore books for this review sample.
All Avonmore titles can be viewed on Casemate’s website at:
Highly recommended.