Storm Over Kokoda

STORM OVER KOKODA: Australia’s epic battle for the skies of New Guinea, 1942

Peter Ewer

Pier 9, 2011, 256pp

A potential reader picking this book up in a bookshop and reading the title might expect that that it would cover all of the events of the air war over Papua New Guinea during 1942. Unfortunately, that reader would be disappointed, as the story essentially ends with the Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942. Despite the implication in the title, air operations in support of the Kokoda Trail campaign are not covered. Nor are the magnificent efforts of the RAAF in support of the Army at Milne Bay and operations over the Papuan beachhead battles of late 1942/early 1943, where airpower made a significant contribution.

That said, what is covered in the book is covered well, and in a readable style. This includes the early reconnaissance and bombing operations by Catalina and Hudson aircraft, and the fighter operations of Number 75 Squadron from its arrival in Port Moresby in mid March 1942 until the squadron was withdrawn in early May.

Dr Ewer provides useful background on the development of aviation in New Guinea between the world wars. He also makes some acerbic (but well sourced) comments about the development of Australian air power in the same period, summarising the broader treatment of this subject in his earlier work Wounded Eagle: The bombing of Darwin and Australia’s air defence scandal.

Dr Ewer’s unflattering comparisons between the products of the inter-war British aviation industry and those of the more free-wheeling US industry are a timely reminder of the need to ensure that Australia purchases military equipment (not just aircraft) that is capable of performing the task, rather than favouring the output of those with whom we might be more familiar or comfortable.

The inadequate assessments of Japanese aviation capability made between the world wars, and well into the second, emphasise the need for intelligence analysts to focus on facts, not prejudices. Japanese pilots were very effective, and their aircraft had significant advantages compared to allied aircraft (albeit they also had weaknesses that allied pilots learned to turn to their own advantage).

The final chapter recounts the fate of many of the protagonists, a sad proportion of whom died later in the war, too often in flying accidents. The fate of many captured airmen is also recounted; while their captors treated some reasonably, many received a cruel death. The remains of some were found in shallow graves after the war, while others have not yet been recovered.

While the focus of the book is on Australian efforts and those of their American allies, the Japanese are not neglected. Surely the adage that fortune favours the brave must apply to the Japanese naval reconnaissance pilot Nobuo Fujita, whose floatplane was carried to its operational areas in a submarine. Fujita made reconnaissance flights over Sydney, Melbourne Hobart and Auckland in February 1942. Later in 1942 he made a lone bombing attack on the American northwest, in an attempt to ignite forest fires. Wet conditions defeated him, but it is surely a just reward for his valour that Fujita survived the war, dying peacefully in 1997.

There are some minor quirks in the book. One Japanese formation appears as both the 25th Air Flotilla and the 25th Air Group, while it seems unlikely that the coastwatcher Leigh Vial walked from Port Moresby to the outskirts of Salamaua in twelve days (page 140). A flight to Wau and then walking across the Kuper Range seems more likely.

JOHN DONOVAN