Australia in the War of 1939-1945 Four-volume set of Series Three: Air
Canberra, Australia: Australian War Memorial, 1954-68. Four volume-set. Quarto, original blue cloth, gilt lettering on spines. Volume I: xiii, 786 pp., four appendices included; Volume II: xiii, 534 pp., one appendix included; Volume III: xvii, 732 pp., one appendix included; Volume IV: xiii, 540 pp. The set is illustrated throughout with numerous maps, diagrams and double-sided black-and-white photographic plates. Cover of Volume I slightly rubbed at spine ends, boards of Volume II a little scuffed; foxing on endpapers of Volumes I, III and IV; light spotting on edges of text blocks of all volumes; edges of dust-jackets for volumes II, III and IV slightly worn; otherwise a near-fine set. Complete four-volume set of first editions (with Volume II being a 1968 reprint of the 1954 first edition) of Series Three: Air.
Volume I: Royal Australian Air Force 1939-42 by Douglas Gillison (1962) concerns the air war against Japan from December 1941 to early 1943 when air superiority was first wrested from the Japanese.
Volume II: Air War Against Japan 1943-1945 by George Odgers (1968 reprint) describes the operations and problems encountered by the Royal Australian Air Force from 1943 to the end of the war while fighting Japan – the period in which the Allies possessed air superiority in the Pacific.
Volume III: Air War Against Germany and Italy by John Herington (1954) analyses the part played by increasing numbers of Australians in the first four years of the air war in Europe and the Middle-East.
Volume IV: Air Power over Europe 1944-1945 by John Herington (1963) concludes the account of Australian airmen who served in the war against Germany and Italy. Item #1645
Price (AUD): $250.00