Description
Title: Allied Air Transport Operations South West Pacific Area in World War 2 Volume I, Development of Air Transport 1903 – 1943.
Author: Kelly, Robert
Condition: Mint
Edition: 1st Edition
Publisher: Robert Kelly
Publication Date: 2003
ISBN: 0646426370
Cover: Hard Cover without Dust Jacket (Laminated Boards) – 414 pages. Limited Edition of 2000.
Comments: Volume one covers the development of both civil and military air transport from the invention of powered flight in 1903 to the end of the Buna/Gona campaign at the start of 1943. The history ranges in detail from overview of operations down to the individual aircraft and aircrew involved in early SWPA formations.
Book specifications, Volume One:
• 414 pages, containing 15 maps and 87 photos
• fully indexed
• size is B5 (176x250mm or 7×10 inches)
Series overview:
The series is unique in that no comprehensive history of the air transport effort in the Pacific in WWII has been written – over 1500 planes and thousands of personnel were involved in transporting supplies and troops within the South West Pacific Area.
This is an authoritative series and is an essential reference for any military historian. It also will serve as a source of valuable information for others such as students, aviation enthusiasts and genealogists.
The author compiled his books from numerous sources including original records of the RAAF and USAAF.
The author & self-publisher:
Researching since 1984 and writing since 1996 author Bob Kelly has compiled and published three of a series of five volumes covering the neglected history of air transport in the SWPA in WWII.
Squadron Leader Robert ‘Bob’ Kelly AFC (RAAF Retired) was born at Waverton, Sydney in 1925 and joined the Royal Australian Air Force as an aircrew trainee in 1943.
In a long and distinguished career, Bob logged over 5600 hours as a radio operator, mostly in C-47s and Neptunes. He served extensively in Indochina and the Far East, including two tours of duty in Malaya and one in Vietnam.
After retirement from the Air Force in 1976, Bob took up military research and also became involved with aircraft restoration at the Queensland Air Museum in Caloundra.