Full Description
General Douglas MacArthur is one of the towering figures of World War II, and indeed of the twentieth century, but his leadership of the second largest air force in the USAAF is often overlooked.
When World War II ended, the three numbered air forces (the Fifth, Thirteenth and Seventh) under his command possessed 4004 combat aircraft, 433 reconnaissance aircraft and 922 transports. After being humbled by the Japanese in the Philippines in 1942, MacArthur and his air chief General George Kenney rebuilt the US aerial presence in the Pacific, helping Allied naval and ground forces to push back the Japanese Air Force, re-take the Philippines, and carry the war north towards the Home Islands.
Following the end of World War II, MacArthur was the highest military and political authority in Japan and at the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950 he was named as Commander-in-Chief, United Nations Command. In the ten months of his command, his Far East Air Forces increased dramatically and saw the first aerial combat between jet fighters.
Written by award-winning aviation historian Bill Yenne, this engrossing and widely acclaimed book traces the journey of American air forces in the Pacific under General MacArthur's command, from their lowly beginnings to their eventual triumph over Imperial Japan, followed by their entry into the jet age in the skies over Korea.
Contents
Prologue: MacArthur and Airpower
Chapter 1: Starting Out in the Crosshairs of Calamity
Chapter 2: Shoestring Air Force
Chapter 3: Who's in Charge of What?
Chapter 4: Making Do with Nothing
Chapter 5: Clinging to New Guinea
Chapter 6: The Battles of Buna
Chapter 7: Airpower Over Naval Power
Chapter 8: The Battle of the Bismarck Sea
Chapter 9: Japanese Air Superiority Challenged
Chapter 10: Japanese Air Superiority Met Head-On
Chapter 11: Allied Air Superiority Achieved
Chapter 12: Cartwheel Over Rabaul
Chapter 13: Expanding the Perimeter
Chapter 14: The Ploesti of the Pacific
Chapter 15: MacArthur's Return to the Philippines
Chapter 16: MacArthur's Expanding Air Force
Chapter 17: Victory in Leyte and Mindoro
Chapter 18: The Bloody Road to Manila
Chapter 19: The Superfortress
Chapter 20: From Borneo to Formosa
Chapter 21: First Strikes on Japan
Chapter 23: After the War
Chapter 24: MacArthur's Air Force in Korea
Epilogue: By the Numbers
