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Sneakpeak: FREE Article and Update
🕑 Added 2020-12-20 12:20:59 +0000 UTCHey all,
Hope you are having a good and safe December! For one of the upcoming videos, teased already in this post, I thought I'd link an interesting article as an introduction into the topic. In the upcoming video, Justin Pyke and I will talk about the reasons why Japan lost the air war in the South Pacific. The full source list and reading recommendations are of course given in the description of the video when it goes live [or just scroll down here :) ].
The article that got us thinking about this topic was Hiroyuki Shindo's Japanese air operations over New Guinea during the Second World War. It is open access so I link it here for those that want to read it: LINK. Published in the Journal of the Australian War memorial, it gives a great breakdown and overview of the Japanese strategy, it's merits and flaws.
Above, you will also find some screenshot from the video. When it comes out, we expand a bit on Shindo's article and talk about the key moments in the South Pacific air war and why Japan lost.
Looking forward to releasing it soon, and as always looking forward to your comments. Thank you for your support !
Chris
Sources / Reading recommendations from the next video
Hiroyuki Shindo, Japanese air operations over New Guinea during the Second World War, Journal of the Australian War Memorial: https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/journal/j34/shindo
Eric Bergerud, Fire in the Sky: The Air War in the South Pacific, Westview Press: https://www.amazon.com/Fire-Sky-Air-South-Pacific/dp/0813338697
Michael Claringbould & Peter Ingman, South Pacific Air War Volume 1-3, Avonmore Books: https://avonmorebooks.com.au/?page=3&id=92
Michael Claringbould & Luca Ruffato, Eagles of the Southern Sky, Avonmore Books: https://www.amazon.com/Eagles-Southern-Sky-Japanese-Illustrated/dp/0473217635
John Lundstrom, First Team and the Guadalcanal Campaign, Naval Institute Press: https://www.usni.org/press/books/first-team-and-guadalcanal-campaign
Bruce Gamble, Target Rabaul, Zenith Press: https://www.amazon.com/Target-Rabaul-Allied-Infamous-Stronghold/dp/0760344078
Comments
Fantastic, I always like to hear from Justin.
Interesting, in depth, article,. I was surprised that the IJN & IJA actually overcame their differences and worked together as I know coordination between the 2 were often the source of lost opportunities, like the Battle Off Samar where the Army's attack on the ships of Taffy 3 came only after Admiral Kurita's Center Force had decided to retreat.
Dave D
I have not yet read the article, but .... It seems to me that unless the US was demoralized to the point where they gave up, there was never any hope for a victory for Japan. The industrial capacity and resource-richness of the US meant that any naval conflict that lasted more than a year was going to result in the Japanese losing. Since, as the old truism goes, "Naval strategy is build strategy", and the US could out-build Japan 10:1 or more, the eventual outcome was never truly in doubt IMO.
Michael Moran
I really enjoyed reading that article you linked to. If you could only pick one of the books, which one would you recommend?
