Publishers Weekly
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Military historian Gamble (Target Rabaul) delivers an inspiring and impeccably researched tale of the Australia-based 38th Reconnaissance Squadron's air combat against the Japanese from December 1941 through September 1942. Unlike the later bombing campaigns, these early actions were small and somewhat ad hoc, but they were strategically vital, Gamble writes. The Kangaroo Squadron faced unusually steep challenges; in addition to bad weather, extremely challenging over-ocean navigation, and flight distances that stressed their planes' fuel endurance, no ground personnel were available for two months, so the crews did all the maintenance and repairs on their B-17E bombers in addition to flying eight- to 12-hour-long missions. Nevertheless, they contributed to some of the major actions of the war: they flew into the middle of the attack on Pearl Harbor; carried out several daring missions to the Philippines, including the rescue of General MacArthur and his family; and played an important role in U.S. victories at the Battle of the Coral Sea and the battle for Guadalcanal. Both the air war expert and the general reader will enjoy and learn something from this well-crafted work. (Nov.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

A history of some of the first American fliers to engage with the Japanese enemy following Pearl Harbor and Midway.The Japanese attack on American bases in the Pacific was still fresh in memory, writes former naval aviator Gamble (Invasion Rabaul: The Epic Story of Lark Force, the Forgotten Garrison, January-July 1942, 2014, etc.), when a dozen B-17 bombers and their crews arrived in Australia. The small squadron was assigned to lay into distant Japanese targets, including a "1,600-mile raid on the Japanese stronghold at Rabaul." Only some of the planes were able to fly, owing to accidents and mechanical problems; without adequate fighter support at first, they made easy targets for Japanese fighter planes, including newly outfitted float planes. The first bombers could carry only a few bombs each, given the weight of the fuel needed for such long hauls, but on occasion they made them count. The American air assault on New Guinea was only a minor part of the overall campaign, but it was enough to dissuade Japanese forces from attempting a threatened invasion of Australia. Gamble isn't much of a stylist"oblivious to the cigarettes constantly dangling from their lips, they orchestrated the myriad chores necessary to prepare a twenty-ton bomber for combat"and the story is largely a footnote in the American air war in the Pacific, mainly carried out from aircraft carriers and island bases closer to the Philippines and then the Japanese homeland. Still, the author has a solid grasp of big-picture strategy and of the alternating tedium and terror of war, especially as bomber crews experienced it, never knowing when anti-aircraft fire would take them down or the fuel would run out before they could return to base. Gamble closes with the search for a downed bomber and its return, decades after crashing, to American soil.For buffs of World War II-era aviation history and the Pacific campaigns. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.