Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/News/April 2018/Book reviews




 * By Nick-D

Darwin 1942 is the 304th book in Osprey Publishing's campaign series, and covers the Bombing of Darwin by Japanese forces on 19 February 1942. It was written by Bob Alford, a semi-professional historian who has previously authored several other works on this engagement.

On face value, the bombing of Darwin is well suited to the short and sharp 96-page format of these books. It was something of a one-off attack (none of the subsequent raids was even close in size to this major operation), and the fighting was clearly defined and has been well documented in other books and primary sources. Moreover, there's a real need for a modern and professional work on the topic: for some reason few professional historians have ever covered this raid (the only major attack mounted against Australia since it became a country), with the field being dominated by amateur historians who crank out poor quality works which typically obsess over minor elements of the battle.

Unfortunately, this book is a mess. By far its largest flaw is that the narrative is focused on the experiences of the small and ill-prepared American fighter squadron which happened to be passing through Darwin at the time of the raid and was quickly wiped out when it attempted to intercept the vastly larger and better trained Japanese force. The attack on multiple ships in the harbour, which occupied the attention of over 100 Japanese aircraft and resulted in most of the raid's casualties, is dealt with in a few short paragraphs. Meanwhile the brief air battle over Darwin gets page after page. The aircraft destroyed on both sides are identified by pilot and serial number, but not all of the ships that were sunk or damaged are even named. There's also no analysis of the events following the raid (in which some of the Australian units performed well, while others panicked and fled) or its effects - Darwin was a major centre for the Australian military for much of the war, and endured many small raids until the end of 1943. The book's only saving graces are its excellent maps (the best I've seen on this topic) and good selection of photos.

While Osprey's editorial standards can be hit and miss, I genuinely have no idea how such an obviously flawed book was allowed to go to press - presumably it was commissioned to meet the 75th anniversary of the raid last year and couldn't be fixed in time. Overall, this is another poor book in what's a pretty low-quality genre.

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Books by Barbara W. Tuchman