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P-38 Lightning vs Ki-61 Tony: New Guinea 1943-44 (Duel)

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The air battles over New Guinea in 1943-44 between the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) and the Japanese Army Air Force (JAAF) were fought from austere bases, far from each country's industrial base, that made sustained operations extremely difficult. Nevertheless, the USAAF and the JAAF fought a sustained year-long air battle of attrition in this harsh environment which ultimately decided the outcome of the war in the southwest Pacific. Donald Nijboer's P-38 Lightning vs Ki-61 Tony focuses on the central role of these two fighters in deciding the air battle over New Guinea. Both sides decided to commit their newest and best fighters to this remote theater, resulting in a series of knock-down air battles over an area between Weewak-Rabaul. This air campaign is not well known to most Americans, so this volume is both illuminating and helps to spotlight an obscure but important aerial duel in the Second World War. Although the book lacks the systematic, battle-by-battle approach of other titles in Osprey's Duel series, it does meet its objective of explaining how the duel between Tonys and Lightnings played out and why the P-38 was the winner. Overall, the volume is well-written, attractively-illustrated and aptly focused on its subject.

This aerial duel over north-central New Guinea primarily consisted of six squadrons (around 100) of P-38s vs. two sentais of Ki-61 (around 90 fighters) from July 1943 to the Spring of 1944. Both the USAAF and JAAF had been sparring over New Guinea since mid-1942, but neither side was able to gain a decisive advantage. As the author details in the open section on design and development, the P-38 was a radically-new fighter design that began to appear in quantity in the summer of 1942. Although the USAAF only committed a small number of squadrons to the Fifth Air Force in New Guinea, they proved much superior to the earlier P-39s and P-40s and quickly began to swing the air balance in favor of the USAAF. In desperation, Japan decided to commit its newest fighter - the Ki-61 Tony - in quantity to the New Guinea theater. As the author notes, the Tony was an unusual example of German-Japanese technical cooperation, mounting a license-built Daimler Benz engine in a Japanese airframe. Yet despite its advanced features, the Tony sacrificed the one Japanese trump card - maneuverability - which reduced its chances against the P-38. Nevertheless, a series of aerial encounters occurred between P-38s and Tonys in the second half of 1943, which resulted in the virtual annihilation of the two sentais of Tony. Not only was the P-38 superior to the Tony in the air, but the JAAF was unable to keep appreciable numbers of fighters operational at forward bases and crew quality was whittled down by disease and exhaustion (no rotation policy).

The strength of this volume is that the author effectively argues both the technical superiority of the P-38 over the Tony, as well as the tactical efficiency of the USAAF over the JAAF; it was these two factors that decided this duel. The only section that fails to really deliver is the one on combat, which provides anecdotes on a few aerial actions - mostly from the American viewpoint - but doesn't really provide a sequential sense of the battle in the way that Battle of Britain accounts do, for example. While the author makes very clear how P-38s were able to shoot down large numbers of Tony - poor tactics, lack of radios, better firepower - it wasn't obvious how the Tony was able to defeat the P-38s on occasion. Clearly the lack of Japanese unit records - which did not survive the war - makes it difficult for the author to provide the kind of clarity that we see in other more familiar air campaign analyses. In the analysis section, the author drives home the point that the Tony squadrons were annihilated by the P-38s - which in retrospect, makes the duel seem very one-sided - and that the JAAF had virtually ceased to exist as a coherent fighting force in the region by early 1944.

Artwork in the volume includes full-page, 3-way profiles of each aircraft; overhead cutaway illustrations of each fighter's armament; cockpit layouts for each aircraft; diagrams of P-38 and Ki-61 formation tactics; a cockpit view of a P-38 shooting down a Tony and an eye-catching battle scene of a P-38 engaging a Tony from astern. There are also a couple of maps that show effective radius for each fighter from their main operating bases in New Guinea. The author also provides a full-page profile of Lightning `ace' Cyril F. Homer (15 kills, incl. 5 Tony) and Tony `ace' Shogo Takeuchi (16 kills, unknown number of Lightnings). Overall, this volume is interesting and insightful, although the lack of comprehensive Japanese information leaves a few noticeable gaps.

This edition is well written, authoratatively researched and covers many significant aspects of the conflict in this theater. It does a particulalry good job exploring the two aircraft and their development, but it also contains enough information about the tactics of their use and the strategic considerations to be generally enlightening. It is a much better read and more interesting and informative work than the volume on the 475th FG

Donald Nijboer and Osprey Publishing team up to produce another fine volume in their 'Duel' series. In this case, the opponents are Lockheed's legendary P-38 Lightning and Kawasaki's Ki-61 Tony. Though this is Nijboer's first Osprey title, he has adapted to the tried-and-true Osprey Duel format. The result is an informative, well-illustrated mano-a-mano comparison between these two World War II foes.

By the time the Ki-61 was introduced into combat in early 1943, its P-38 nemesis had already established itself in the Southwest Pacific as a superlative fighter, many of its initial problems having beeen worked out. By contrast, the Tony had been rushed into combat because of Japanese setbacks and wasn't combat ready. Though Ki-61 pilots scored some victories, the IJAAF Tony units were decimated by P-38s and other Allied fighters. The exact combat record of the Ki-61 can't be known due to destruction of all Japanese records but, in this particular match-up, the Lightning reigned supreme.

Nijboer does a good job of describing the development and combat career of both fighters, the training given pilots, tactics used, the strategic situation and so on. The 'Statistics and Analysis' chapter is especially interesting. Realistically, even if the Ki-61 had not been prematurely committed to combat, it's hard to imagine how it could have been turned the American tide. The side-by-side bios of P-38 ace Cy Homer and Ki-61 ace Shogo Takeuchi along with the descriptions of dogfights made for fascinating reading.

As with other Duel titles, Nijboer's volume is wonderfully illustrated with b&w and color photographs, maps, color three-views/cockpit and armament detail views by Jim Laurier along with absolutely super(!) air combat scenes by Gareth Hector, who also did the gorgeous cover artwork.

All in all, P-38 LIGHTNING VS KI-61 TONY, NEW GUINEA 1943-44 is an excellent addition to the Duel series. Air combat buffs will want to latch on to this one! Recommended.

****
Review #950.

The title of this book ist irritating. Exactly it should mean: P 38 shooting down Ki 61. If you want to know even more about the P 38 in the Pacific Theatre, it will be one more book in your collection.
If you want to learn more about the Ki 61 and their pilots, you will be astonished. I can summarize the whole content of this part in one sentence: We know NOTHING about the plane nor their pilots, because there are no reports left.
The author lacks what always destroys a disquisition about a theme of WWII: He doesn't speak the language of the other side, here Japanese. So he tries to clear that problem with telling common stuff about the JAAF, which ist not enough.
As a German I can tell that this always separates the wheat from the chaff. You cannot be really objective, if you cannot ask the veterans except of the few (officers) speaking English.
Finally, if you want to learn more about the Japanese point of view (and even more about K-61-pilots) read "Japanese Army Air Force Aces 1937-1945" by Henry Sakaida.

The Lockheed P-38 was one of the most outstanding aircraft to serve in ww2. Read how its crews lived and fought in the pacific and performed against one of Japans remarkable fighters the Ki-61. A good book for WW2 buffs and modelers.