Customer Reviews

Battle of the Java Sea

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A relatively good book about the sea battles which resulted in the loss of the Netherlands East Indies to the Japanese Empire in 1942. During these battles, the U.S. lost the heavy cruiser Houston, several destroyers, and the first airplane carrier Langley. The losses to the Australians, Dutch, and British were more heavy. The plum target for the Japanese were the oil of the Indies and the rich island of Java. These battles determined the fate of the Dutch Empire in Asia and placed a threat to Australia.
One thing I liked about this book, which I felt lacked in some of the other battle books is the relative strength of the Allies versus the Japanese Empire. Thomas spent a large amount of page space covering this and why the Allies failed in this crucial battle.
I gave this book an average rating, since the style of writing by Thomas was not page turning. The battles were detailed, but no personal experiences were written into them. One faced why the ABDA forces failed and the Japanese won.

David Arthur Thomas' Battle of the Java Sea is a comprehensive account of the decisive sea battle of early 1942 resulting in an Allied defeat at the hands of the still-surging Imperial Japanese Navy. The Allied ABDA Strike Force was cobbled together from a ragged mix of American, British, Dutch and Australian ships under the command of Dutch Admiral Karel Doorman, who died aboard his flagship during the battle. Their task was to thwart the Japanese invasion of Java; their defeat at the hands of a numerically and qualitatively superior Japanese assault force under Admiral Takeo Takagi sealed the fate of the entire Netherlands East Indies.

The US Navy, of course, was still reeling from the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor less than 3 months earlier and we should remember that by the time of Java Sea the British and Australians had been at war [albeit not against Japan] and taking a pounding for more than two years and that the Dutch homeland had been occupied by the Germans since May 1940. The ABDA force was a fleet desperately short of support and supplies that found itself at the far end of an impossibly long supply line.

In spite of the daunting odds, the Allied ships sold themselves dearly in a doomed effort. Their sacrifice should not be forgotten. David Thomas' book is a valuable contribution to the study of early WWII in the Far East - a period far too often overlooked. At the time of Java Sea the prospects of victory against Japan were still very much in doubt. We would do well to remember and learn from those dark days when we were heavy underdogs.