Fire in the Sky; The Air War in the South Pacific

Eric Bearton (Jacket Design) Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2000. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. xxviii, 723, [1] pages. List of Maps. Important Military Terms, Acronyms, and Place-names. Maps. Chronology of Events. Author's Note on Technical Information. Notes. Sources and Bibliography. Index. Ink notation on fep. Minor ding to top boards. Professor Bergerud's specialization has been the study of war and peace in the 20th century, particularly regarding the United States and Asia. 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. 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. Condition: Very good / Very good.

Keywords: Aerial Combat, Aircraft Development, Air Warfare, Army Air Force, B-17. B-24, B-25, Bombers, Buna, Combined Fleet, Robert DeHaven, Fifth Air Force, Guadalcanal, George Kenney, Naval Aviation, Tactics, Strategy, Thirteenth Air Force

ISBN: 081332985X

[Book #75163]

Price: $45.00

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