What is 'Aerothentic Publications'?

Aerothentic Publications is a precise publications enterprise which specialises in the aviation war in the Pacific. President of Aerothentic Publications is Michael John Claringbould,

In 1984 Michael was instrumental in the salvage and recovery of a Douglas A-20G bomber from New Guinea, now the subject of one his books on this page.

Michael continues to identify aircraft wrecks all over the Pacific, including Japanese ones and, in 1997, made two important discoveries on Guadalcanal --the site of Pug Southerland's F4F-4 Bu 5192, the first US aircraft shot down in the Guadalcanal campaign, and the site of 355, a missing G4M1 of the 705^th Kokutai.

For the past twenty years Michael has been amassing photos and data on the aerial Pacific campaigns and is now writing and publishing full-time. He has three published works (Black Sunday, The Forgotten Fifth, and Helluva Pelican), and is planning five more in the next three years.

The Forgotten Fifth:Classic Photographic Chronology of the Fifth Air Force in Action in the Pacific in WW2.

by Michael John Claringbould
Price: $34.20 US. Price includes padded shipping and handling. See bottom of page for ordering information.

This photographic work is the most diverse and encyclopaedic ever published about the Fifth Air Force in WW2. It contains a collection of rare photos with detailed captions, each of which tells a complete story, and concentrates on human interest and historical minutiae. Conducted with painstaking research, the author has drawn on a lifetime of cataloguing and documenting the most esoteric parts of this unique air force. The photos guide you through the course of the Fifth's rich history - from its retreat to Australia to its occupation of Japan three and a half years later. This classic relies on two main features, the first being rare combat and historical photos, the second being the quality and interest contained in the meticulous captions which support them. All source material is original, and draws on post-war wreck discoveries, interrogation reports, captured Japanese documents, intercepts of enemy transmissions, declassified US unit histories, wartime debriefings, post-war interviews with US and Japanese veterans, and even maintenance records! Much information derives exclusively from Australian and Japanese archives, inaccessible to researchers until recently.

The Fifth's extensive history owes much to the divergent personalities who forged an indelible mark on the Pacific war - leaders such as its Commander, General George Churchill Kenney, along with its other leaders, pilots and groundcrew. Of course, also covered are its aces and others, but the Fifth's history was also enriched by a diversity of outsiders such as controversial aviator-hero Charles Lindbergh, entertainers Bob Hope, John Wayne and Carole Landis, and even future president Lyndon B. Johnson, awarded a Silver Star which would be questioned after the war.

Also published for the first time is a must for every aviation historian: an index of more than 1,500 Fifth Air Force aircraft identities, their units and nicknames, including every type and variant of aircraft flown by the Fifth.

The text of 48,502 words is fully indexed, individual aircraft are indexed by type, nickname and serial number. Laser-printed in 11-point Times-Roman and Frisky fonts on bond enamel A4 paper with 300 gms binding cover and with 154 black and white laser-reproduced photos from private and official collections, including Australian, US and Japanese archives. Each photo caption reveals diverse and elaborate detail. Examples include:

• the present whereabouts of aircraft which disappeared into Pacific jungles, and how their wreckage was located;
  
• The Steak & Eggs Special, an A-20A which officially didn't exist, and forced-landed off a beach near Cooktown;
  
• the final patrol -the group shot of the Lightning pilots who escorted the Japanese surrender delegation to Ie Shima;
  
• why a particular Pacific Lightning carried Swastika kill markings;
  
• why the fate of the crew of a Liberator named Czechem was kept secret for forty years;
  
• details and reasons behind unusual field modifications to the Fifth's aircraft;
  
• how a Flying Fortress captured by the enemy at Clark Field was ferried to Japan for evaluation;
  
• how parts of a Liberator forced-landed in northern Australia are being used to restore a Liberator in Australia;
  
• dramatic low-level strafing photos of enemy airfields & aircraft just before their destruction;
  
• Japanese sailors clinging to the side of a bombed destroyer just before it capsized and sank;
  
• groundcrews sweating over gun panels, exposed radial and in-line engines, as well as damaged airframes;
  
• the esoteric post-war recovery of Congressional Medal of Honor awardee Neel Kearby from New Guinea's jungle;
  
• the eventual fate of the ten Mitchells which flew the infamous 12^th April 1942 Royce mission to the Philippines.

BLACK SUNDAY:WHEN WEATHER CLAIMED THE FIFTH AIR FORCE

by Michael John Claringbould
Price: $26.65 US. Price includes padded shipping and handling. See bottom of page for ordering information.

In New Guinea on 16^th April 1944 the U.S Fifth Air Force lost thirty-seven aircraft to a late-afternoon frontal system which cut them off from their home bases of Gusap, Nadzab and Saidor. Another nine were seriously damaged, and as a result the Fifth suffered its biggest operational loss of the war. The freak weather created the biggest weather-related loss in aviation history. The events of the day were lost to history for five decades because they occurred in such a remote theatre.

Eight years in the making and now in its third edition, the author has recently completed a revised 53,161-word depiction of this epic mission, which includes six appendices, a detailed index, and rare photographs. The book documents every loss and incident, including quotes from survival reports and describes post-war discoveries of several of the missing aircraft. The narrative was assembled from more than 200 first-hand sources, including declassified USAAF, Japanese and Australian records, private records, interviews with survivors, and field trips to New Guinea.

To date the historical legacy left by the Fifth Air Force has largely been ignored. Those interested in flying will find the magnitude and nature of this mission's losses absorbing. Aviation historians will recognise that the minutiae and detail contained in the book is unsurpassed in this field. Fifth Air Force veterans who were in New Guinea at the time will understand the full extent of the misfortune. Laser-printed in Times-Roman and Braggadocio fonts with 300 gms binding cover; rare photos from private and official collections, including Australian, Japanese, Dutch and U.S archives.

HELLUVA PELICAN: THE RECOVERY OF A WW2 BOMBER FROM NEW GUINEA JUNGLE

by Michael John Claringbould
Price: $22.40 US. Price includes padded shipping and handling. See bottom of page for ordering information.

"Helluva Pelican" traces the complete wartime and contemporary history of the most intact WW2 aviation relic ever recovered - Douglas A-20G Havoc bomber serial of the 388^th Bombardment Squadron - The Hell 92N Pelican II. To reconstruct the aircraft's history in its entirety the author, who participated in its salvage, interviewed the aircraft's surviving pilot. He eventually drew on more than 160 sources including his own diary kept during the recovery. Above all, "Helluva Pelican" is classic aviation nostalgia for anyone with more than passing interest in the Pacific War and its echoes.

• 16^th April 1944 . . . a late afternoon weather front seals off New Guinea's Markham Valley to a returning formation of Fifth Air Force bombers and fighters. One of them is a Havoc twin-engined bomber which puts down into an isolated jungle tract. Its two crew take fifteen days to evade carnivores and Japanese infantry to make safety.
  
• August 1976 . . . the completely overgrown aircraft is discovered intact by the author.
  
• October 1984 . . . a five-man recovery team from the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) is dropped into a clearing by Chinook helicopter to recover the aircraft. In a coincidence of history, the gremlin-ridden salvage operation also takes fifteen days.
  
• September 1996 . . . due to political and economic factors the aircraft is not fully restored by the RAAF until twelve years later. Parts from several other Fifth Air Force A-20Gs are used to complete the project.
  
• text is fully indexed, with six appendices and location map;
  
• laser-printed in 12-point Times-Roman and Frisky fonts on bond enamel B4 paper with 250 gms binding cover;
  
• color cover with rare black and white photos from private collections, including Australian and U.S archives;