(Ebook) The Battle Of The Bismarck Sea (The Forgotten 1943 Air Battle that Saved the Pacific) by Michael Veitch ISBN 9780733645907, 0733645909

(Ebook) The Battle Of The Bismarck Sea (The Forgotten 1943 Air Battle that Saved the Pacific) by Michael Veitch ISBN 9780733645907, 0733645909

The Battle of the Bismarck Sea (2-4 March 1943) took place in the South West Pacific Area (SWPA) during World War II when aircraft of the USAAF's Fifth Air Force and the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) combined to launch several devastatingly effective attacks on a single Japanese convoy which was carrying on board some much needed Japanese troops and supplies to reinforce their positions at Lae (New Guinea).  Most of the Japanese task force was destroyed in the Airborne engagement that resulted and Japanese Army and Naval losses were extremely heavy (at least 2890 Killed or Missing), while total losses to the Allied Aircrew involved in the attacks were only 13 Airmen Killed.The resulting orders to send the convoy came about in December 1942, when after a meeting in Tokyo was held by the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters, the decision was made to actively reinforce their positions in preparation for a major offensive inside what the Allies referred to as being the South West Pacific Area of Operations. Thus a boldly simple but resource heavy plan was devised to move some 6900 Soldiers and their Support units along with their heavy equipment and artillery from out of the Japanese bases on the island of New Britain using the port of Rabaul, where they were currently located, and to have them sail directly over to the fiercely contested battlefields in and around Lae. The plan was by its very nature considered to be an extremely risky undertaking, which had the potential to significantly weaken their overall defensive effort on Rabaul if it failed, but the reasoning for it going ahead was that the end result made it worthy of such a high risk - despite the chances of loosing some increasingly scarce resources in that area should it all go wrong. The Japanese High Command were also more then aware of the clear threat to the plans overall success was never going to be from Allied Naval Forces, but from that of the growing presence of Allied air