Fire In The Sky The Air War In The South Pacific

by Bergerud, Eric M.

• ISBN13: 9780813338699
• ISBN10: 0813338697
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-04-13
• Publisher: Basic Books

Summary

In the first two years of the Pacific War of World War II, air forces from Japan, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand engaged in a ruthless struggle for superiority in the skies over the Solomon Islands and New Guinea. Despite operating under primitive conditions in a largely unknown and malignant physical environment, both sides employed the most sophisticated technology available at the time in a strategically crucial war of aerial attrition. In one of the largest aerial campaigns in history, the skies of the South Pacific were dominated first by the dreaded Japanese Zeros, then by Allied bombers, which launched massed raids at altitudes under fifty feet, and finally by a ferocious Allied fighter onslaught led by a cadre of the greatest aces in American military history.Utilizing primary sources and scores of interviews with surviving veterans of all ranks and duties, Eric Bergerud recreates the fabric of the air war as it was fought in the South Pacific. He explores the technology and tactics, the three-dimensional battlefield, and the leadership, living conditions, medical challenges, and morale of the combatants. The reader will be rewarded with a thorough understanding of how air power functioned in World War II from the level of command to the point of fire in air-to-air combat.

Author Biography

Eric M. Bergerud is professor of military and American history at Lincoln University in San Francisco and the author of Touched with Fire: The Land War in the South Pacific, Red Thunder, Tropic Lightning and The Dynamics of Defeat.

Table of Contents

List of Maps	ix
Important Military Terms, Acronyms, and Place-names	xi
Preface	xv
Maps	xxiii
Part One The Three-Dimensional Battlefield	1	(154)
Defining the Battlefield: Air-Base Networks	5	(90)
War in an Unlikely Place: Japanese Air-Base Networks in the South Pacific	5	(44)
Sites for Victory: Allied Base Networks	49	(46)
The Land and Air	95	(60)
Modern War in a Primitive Place	97	(28)
A Malignant Land	125	(12)
A Dangerous Sky	137	(18)
Part Two Machines and Men in the South Pacific	155	(252)
Japanese Warplanes	189	(38)
Japanese Navy Aircraft	199	(20)
Japanese Army Aircraft	219	(8)
Allied Aircraft	227	(82)
Allied Fighters	239	(33)
Allied Bombers	272	(37)
Airmen in the South Pacific	309	(98)
Preparation for War	310	(31)
Morale	341	(66)
Part Three Fire in the Sky: Air Battle in the South Pacific	407	(250)
Deadly Geometry: Fighter Warfare in the South Pacific	445	(86)
Fighter Formations and Missions	446	(19)
Maneuver and Melee	465	(66)
Making History: Bombers in the South Pacific	531	(126)
A Confused Start	540	(22)
Allied Bombers Take Control	562	(36)
Helping the Ground-Pounders	598	(23)
The Destruction of Japanese Airpower	621	(36)
Conclusion	657	(20)
Chronology of Events	677	(2)
Author's Note on Technical Information Including Table of Major Warplanes in the South Pacific Theater	679	(6)
Notes	685	(10)
Sources and Bibliography	695	(8)
Index	703