Introduction

In Tidal Wave from Leyte Gulf to Tokyo Bay, Thomas McKelvey Cleaver offers a deep analysis of the political and strategic situation in the last months of the Pacific War, interwoven with engaging accounts of kamikaze raids and aerial combat. He explains how the last months of the Pacific campaign constantly challenged the crews of the US Navy ships, whose pilots conducted continual bombing missions and aerial skirmishes, how the success or failure of the ship’s gunners spelled life or death for their vessels, and how the commanders had to protect their ships from the worst ravages of the Pacific Typhoons.

The A5M “Claude” known internally to Mitsubishi as the KA-14 and formally as the Navy Type 96 Navy Carrier-based Fighter was the first all metal monoplane to enter service as carrier-based aircraft. The Claude is the direct predecessor to the A6M “Zero” and did see combat through the beginning of the Second World War but had been pretty much removed from combat by 1942. Late in the war a few were even used as kamikaze aircraft.

This book covers the PB4Y-1/1P Liberator in US Naval service. Armed with the success of land based bombers used by the USAAC anti-submarine command in the Atlantic along with RAF Coastal Command on the other side of the Atlantic, the Navy went to the AAC to ask for a share of the B-24 production. This was granted in return for the Navy canceling orders for the Boeing PBB Sea Ranger thus freeing up that production capacity for B-29s.

Ginter books are well known in both the modeling and aviation community for their in-depth photo coverage and history of the title subject. This book on the PB4Y-1 , number 105 in the Naval Fighters series, lives up to the sterling reputation established by all of the previous volumes. It is a great companion volume to the one on the PB4Y-2!