Fire In The Sky

The Air War In The South Pacific

Contributors

By Eric M Bergerud

Formats and Prices

Price

$39.99

Price

$49.99 CAD

Format

Trade Paperback

Format:

Trade Paperback $39.99 $49.99 CAD

This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around April 13, 2001. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.

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. Despite operating under primitive conditions in a largely unknown and malignant physical environment, 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.
Request Desk/Exam Copy

Genre:

On Sale
Apr 13, 2001
Page Count
752 pages
Publisher
Basic Books
ISBN-13
9780813338699

Eric M Bergerud

About the Author

Eric M. Bergerud is professor of military and American history at Lincoln University in San Francisco and the author of Touched with Fire: The Land War in the South Pacific, Red Thunder, Tropic Lightning and The Dynamics of Defeat.

Learn more about this author