SOLOMONS AIR WAR: Volume 1 - Guadalcanal: August - September 1942

1-236451

Australia-based Claringbould has written numerous books about the WWII air war in the Pacific, with the distinction of checking Japanese records to verify or disprove US records. He's led expeditions to find lost WWII aircraft and illustrates at various islands and spots.

This book chronicles aerial warfare in the opening phase of the war in the WWII Solomons Islands theater, being the critical period of August-September 1942. The early August 1942 a bold American invasion of both Tulagi and Guadalcanal caught the IJN completely off guard. Nevertheless, Japanese air power responded swiftly and in some cases desperately.

An ever-increasing variety and number of IJN units was poured into the struggle, met initially with USN carrier-based Wildcats backed up by SBD Dauntless dive-bombers and the new TBF torpedo bomber. These were soon joined by USAAF fighters operating from the newly operational Henderson Field.