Operation Ro-Go 1943: Japanese air power tackles the Bougainville landings (Air Campaign, 41) Paperback – November 21, 2023

Great micro-history, as are all the books by this author. Meticulous research and lively writing style bring to mind Daniel Ford's "Flying Tigers" or any of the histories by Christopher Shores. New respect for the Japanese pilots and aircrew and support troops, who forged on against a technologically and numerically superior foe. Kudos to author for including Henry Sala is and "Siege of Rabaul," another gem.

It’s a highly detailed and well-researched booklet (90+ pages) on the Japanese air attacks to resist the American landings on Cape Torokina on the island of Bougainville in early November of 1943. It also describes the corresponding American air attacks on the Japanese base of Rabaul on the Island of New. Britain at the same time. The text is accompanied by several color maps, numerous black and white period photos, and a couple of color renderings.The quality of the research is well worth a 4- or 5- Stars rating. I gave the booklet an overall 3-Stars rating because the entire incident just wasn’t all that significant in the grand scheme of the air war in the Pacific. It was not a Pacific equivalent to the American air attacks on Schweinfurt and Regensburg or the RAF attack on Nuremberg that occurred at approximately the same time. It also wasn’t anywhere near the magnitude of later air battles in the Philippine Sea during the invasion of the Marianas or Leyte and Luzon in 1944.Both sides at the time grossly exaggerated the losses inflicted on each other by a factor of three to five. The author uses Japanese and American combat records to establish the true losses. US Fifth Air Force claims at the time were especially overdone.The final chapter “Aftermath and Analysis” (pages 87- 93) puts the campaign and air losses into relative perspective. Although the Japanese navy only deployed 173 airplanes and crew, 120 were destroyed — a loss rate of 70%. In addition, the quality of air crews declined significantly and sometimes humiliatingly. The author describes an incident in which a Japanese reconnaissance air crew reported finding two American LSTs escorted by a half-dozen PT boats. The air crew reported them to headquarters in Rabaul as constituting two aircraft carriers escorted by nine destroyers. The Japanese then deployed an attack force of two squadrons of “Val” dive bombers and “Kate” torpedo bombers. Naturally, the attackers subsequently couldn’t find any such aircraft carriers.

In the aftermath of the Guadalcanal campaign, Japan attempted to shore up its position in the Southwest Pacific. In 1943, an Allied advance up the Solomon Island chain threatened the Japanese stronghold at Rabaul. In response, skilled Japanese naval aviators flew in to conduct a land-based counterattack. This counterattack would be called Operation R-Go.This Osprey Air Campaign series book dissects the Japanese counterattack and the Allied response. Both were driven to some extent by politics, and each would be costly. One of the outstanding features of this book is the effort by the author to determine the real loss rates of aircraft; both sides tended to exaggerate significantly. The text includes lots of period photographs and modern illustrations and battle diagrams, as well as details of air combat. Well recommended to students of the Second World War in the Southwest Pacific.

thank you

If you enjoy military history, you should buy lots of Osprey books - but not this one. Osprey Publishing is an excellent company, and generally produces outstanding books. To be clear, this book is up to Osprey's usual high standards for research (plus one star), and for enlightening, often rare, photos and images (plus another star). Mr. Laurier, the illustrator, has done a fine job.Unfortunately, none of that helps if the book is unreadable. Mr. Claringbould, the author, has produced a complete mess. Every paragraph is confusing; even his single sentences are often difficult to follow. Slogging through two or three pages left me confused, annoyed and with a headache. I gave my copy away without finishing it, and that is a rare occurrence.

That's how long it took to arrive. I liked the book.