Darwin 1942 (three stars)

Not well known in the United States, the February 19th, 1942 Darwin Raid saw the Allies once again taken by surprise by the Japanese. This book is one of the few that really looks at the topic.

While the author clearly knows the topic, the emphasis seems to be a bit off in this Osprey book, which is part of a series that focuses on specific campaigns. While the author does provide background (the "road to war" type info) he seems to be more obsessed with the U.S. Army Air Corps unit which just happened to be at Darwin during the raid, the P-40s of the 33rd Pursuit Squadron. This unfortunate unit, just formed using pilots who had no combat experience and didn't know each other, did not last long at the hands of the veteran pilots of the Imperial Japanese Navy. While this is an important story, does it warrant describing the circumstances of each pilot's shootdown? Does it make any sense to map where every single P-40 went down? And is it necessary to discuss the motivations of one of the pilots involved in the melee?

As I said, the author obviously knows the topic, as evidenced by map produced showing the attack patterns of the various Japanese elements. But little is said about the antiaircraft artillery present other than a few impressions here and there. Did the guns lack experienced crews? Did they not have ancillary equipment such as predictors? Were any of the zeros dedicated to suppressing the flak? None of this is looked at.

Good artwork, maps and photos.