After the huge advances made in the early months of the Pacific war, it was in remote New Guinea where the advance of Imperial Japanese Naval Air Force (IJNAF) A6M Zero-sen fighters was first halted due to a series of offensive and defensive aerial battles ranging from treetop height up to 30,000 feet.
He is based in the UK..
Gareth completed the battlescene artwork and cover artwork.
Gareth Hector is a digital artist of international standing as well as an aviation history enthusiast.
He has worked on the Osprey Aviation list since 2000, and in that time he has produced some of the finest artwork seen in these volumes.
He has been drawing since he could hold a pencil and throughout his life he has worked in many mediums creating artwork on a variety of subjects.
Jim Laurier is a native of New England, growing up in New Hampshire and Massachusetts.
He now lives in Australia.
Michael is also an associate editor of the historical aviation magazine Flightpath , to which he has been contributing articles for 18 years.
He is author of three books on the USAAF Fifth Air Force: The Forgotten Fifth , Forty of the Fifth, and Black Sunday , and co-author of Eagles of the Southern Sky , a history of the Tainan Kaigun Kokutai in New Guinea, and The Roarin 20s , a unit history of the USAAF 312th Bombardment Group.
During a career in the Australian foreign service he undertook postings across Oceania and the Pacific.
About the Author: Michael John Claringbould was raised in Papua New Guinea, where he developed his fascination for the Pacific air war.
Using specially commissioned artwork, contemporary photographs, and testimony, this fascinating study explains how, despite their initial deficit in experience and equipment, the Airacobras managed to square the ledger and defend New Guinea.
Neither IJNAF or USAAF pilots had been trained for such extreme conditions, incurring many additional losses aside from those that fell in combat.
The battles unfolded over mountainous terrain with treacherous tropical weather.
Initially, the IJNAF fought Australian Kittyhawks, but by May 1942 the latter had fought themselves into oblivion, and were relieved by USAAF P-39 and P-400 Airacobras.
After the huge advances made in the early months of the Pacific war, it was in remote New Guinea where the advance of Imperial Japanese Naval Air Force (IJNAF) A6M Zero-sen fighters was first halted due to a series of offensive and defensive aerial battles ranging from treetop height up to 30,000 feet
