In mid-1943, the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force (IJAAF) took over responsibility for New Guinea air operations from the Imperial Japanese Navy. In its first large-scale contest against the USAAF, the IJAAF was challenged to defend its bases, defend the sea lanes supporting numerous Japanese outposts along the coast, and influence ground operations. In this book, the second of two on the New Guinea campaign, Pacific War scholars Mark Stille and John Rogers draw upon years of research and Japanese, American and Australian sources to explain how the New Guinea air war turned against the Japanese between June 1943 and 1944. The over-extended IJAAF gradually lost combat strength in the face of vastly improved Allied airpower, leaving the Japanese unable to contend.
