Discovered this book by Anthony Cooper in a Collins book store in Wagga on Saturday. It caught my eye as is a substantial paperback. It details the Spitfire's role in the defence of Darwin and the struggles the squadrons had with lack of spares and replacement aircraft as well as the negative opinions of the likes of MacArthur. Lots of familiar names were noted when I flicked through it - Caldwell, Goldsmith, Foster, Sly etc.
The author and publishers of the book Darwin Spitfires have provided a wealth of supplementary material for the reader at the website for the book including 12 appendices, maps, glossaries, pilot biographies, reviews of the book and links to numerous photos from the AWM archives.
Hopefully the website will eventually include a page for errata as it is identified in the text.
One appendix, "RAAF Air Combats in NWA" clearly charts the numerous claims and losses for both sides. The author uses the description "written off" for a category heading rather than the more familiar expression "shot down". Quite a few Japanese aircraft that engaged in combat over Darwin and sustained damage managed to make the long overseas flight back to their base where their bombers and fighters were "written off". Most or all of the Japanese bomber crews would survive in such cases but their Type 1 bombers would no longer fly combat. They would be relegated to flying as "hacks" or become a source of valuable spare parts for other bombers which needed repairs. Whether a Japanese bomber or fighter was "shot down" or "written off", the Spitfire pilots still eliminated an enemy aircraft from combat though the crew would live to fly another day in the later case.
Pen & Sword in the UK are about to release a new edition of this book in hardback. Same cover etc but good to see a quality RAAF work getting 'out there'.