Author of the bestselling Darwin Spitfires, Anthony Cooper casts a forensic eye over the role that Allied air forces played – or failed to play – in crucial Second World War campaigns in New Guinea.

This is the story of the early battles of the South West Pacific theatre – the Coral Sea, Kokoda, Milne Bay, Guadalcanal – presented as a single air campaign that began with the Japanese conquest of Rabaul in January 1942.

It is a story of both Australian and American airmen who flew and fought in the face of adversity with incomplete training, inadequate aircraft, and from poorly set up and exposed airfields. These men persisted despite extreme exhaustion, sickness, poor morale and the near certainty of being murdered by their Japanese captors if they went down in enemy territory.

Details: Non-fiction, published 2014.

Format: Soft cover, illustrations (photographs), 528 pages.

Dimensions: 23.4 cm (h) x 15.3 cm (w) x 3.8 cm (d) / 953 grams.