South China Sea 1945: Task Force 38's bold carrier rampage in Formosa, Luzon, and Indochina: 36 (Air Campaign)

Another great book by the authors associated with Osprey press. As I own nearly 100 of the Osprey publications, their detail of information and quality of material is fantastic.Paul Wheeler

This is an amazingly detailed description of the U.S. Navy “Fast Carrier Force” / Task Force 38 campaign into the South China Sea January 9 - January 19, 1945. It tells of the preparation for the naval intrusion and the ensuing air attacks on Formosa (Taiwan), the eastern China coast, Hong Kong, Hainan Island, Camranh Bay, and against assorted Japanese shipping in the sea. The purpose of the raid was to sever, or at least interrupt, Japanese sea communications with Indonesia and Southeast Asia in general.The book describes each air attack in detail. It also describes the logistics support provided by Task Group (TG) 38.03 to Task Force 38 in supplying fuel oil, ammunition, bombs, general supplies, and replacement aircraft.In the grand scheme of things, I don’t think this 10-day foray was all that significant. It sank 300 000 tons of Japanese shipping, 30 small warships, and destroyed 600+ aircraft. Japan had already suffered much greater total losses by that time. But it was significant in that TF 38 had attacked what the Japanese regarded as an almost internal shipping area.This undertaking usually gets a paragraph or two in most books on WW II in the Pacific. This book offers a description of a very specialized subject.

As a former Naval Aviator and a descendant of a participant of Admiral Halsey’s bold foray into the South China Sea in January 1945, I was looking forward to reading this account. Many accounts of the Pacific War either gloss over or entirely emit this this effort, situated between the dramatic battles of Leyte Gulf and Iwo Jima, as it mainly consisted of the largely uncontested slaughtering of Japanese shipping and pounding of Japanese airfields by carrier-based aviation. Over the course of this ten-day campaign, Halsey’s forces dramatically demonstrated the ascendancy of American naval air power relative to dramatically reduced Japanese naval & air forces available in their former bastion of the South China Sea.While the narrative itself is generally without issue, repeated errors or omissions involving the illustrations quickly caught my attention. Several well known photographs are featured with incorrect captions, such as the IJN aircraft carrier Zuiho incorrectly captioned as Zuikaku, and an Independence class light carrier incorrectly captioned as Essex class. A beautiful two page illustration depicts a Grumman F6F-5N Hellcat night fighter shooting down a Nakajima L2D “Tabby” transport – yet the depicted Hellcat is missing its unique radar pod on the starboard wing despite the illustration’s caption literally saying “The F6F-5N is recognizable by the radome on its wing”! Additionally, the two page graphical depiction of the destruction of Japanese Convoy Hi-86 provides an incomplete account, with only the actions of Task Group 38.3 (USS Essex & USS Ticonderoga) mentioned while the participation of Task Group 38.2 (USS Hornet, USS Lexington, and USS Hancock) is entirely omitted.Perhaps my biggest peeve is with two page graphic depiction of the audacious night raid on Kiirun Harbor Formosa by TBM Avengers of Night Torpedo Squadron 90 (VTN-90) from the USS Enterprise (CV-6) on 22 January 1945. Admittedly I’m a little biased towards this significant yet little known action, as a relative of mine was one of the eighteen airmen who conducted this night attack, so you can imagine my frustration as I noted error after error in the short account – wrong date, wrong times, wrong number of aircraft involved, wrong ordinance employed, and an incomplete account of targets struck and damage inflicted!In short, for a series entitled “AIR CAMPAIGN”, I found this work to be lacking on the details I’ve come to expect from Osprey Publishing and overall this to be a lackluster account.

This Osprey Air Campaign series book highlights the bold U.S. carrier raid into the South China Sea in early 1945. The South China Sea had formerly been a secure area for Japan's Navy and its commerce lifeline to Southeast Asia. Admiral Halsey led the U.S. Navy's Task Force 38 in air strikes on Formosa, Luzon, and Indochina. The raid damaged Japan's vital resources lifeline while establishing that the U.S. Navy could go pretty much where it wanted in the Western Pacific.The author has provided a very detailed narrative, marred by occasional repetition, to drive home his message. The text includes an extensive selection of period photographs and modern battle graphics and maps. Recommended to students of the Pacific war of the Second World War.

Normally Osprey does a fairly good job with these books, however this is an exception. It is filled with errors that should have easily been found and corrected. For example a widely recognized picture of the Japanese light carrier Zuiho being identified as the fleet carrier Zuikaku. Stating that the Ise class had 356mm main guns yet calling them 12 inches when a simple conversion table could tell you 356mm is 14in. The topic is interesting but because of the errors it really takes away from the quality of the book.