The Allied Defense of the Malay Barrier, 1941-1942

The Allied Defense of the Malay Barrier, 1941-1942

Author: Tom Womack

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2015-12-01

Total Pages: 367

ISBN-13: 1476622671

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Though few realize it, the Netherlands East Indies were the object of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Likewise, their invasions of Guam, Wake Island and the Philippines were mainly diversionary operations to safeguard their main assault on Dutch and British colonies. Since the end of World War I, Japan had coveted the vast East Indies oil reserves, and the colony had feared invasion since Germany overran Holland in May 1940. Isolated politically the weakly defended archipelago was a tempting prize. The East Indies government initially maintained a strict policy of neutrality while desperately working to build up its military strength. As Japanese actions pushed the region toward war, the Dutch reluctantly embraced closer ties with America and Britain. For a brief period, the East Indies were key players in Pacific War strategy. This book details for the first time in English the Dutch prewar strategy, their efforts to counter Japanese espionage and their sizable though largely forgotten military contribution in the early months of the Pacific War.


The Dutch Naval Air Force Against Japan

The Dutch Naval Air Force Against Japan

Author: Tom Womack

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2023-10-04

Total Pages: 401

ISBN-13: 147667888X

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Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Dutch Naval Air Force--or Marine Luchtvaart Dienst (MLD)--played a significant but largely overlooked role in the opening months of the Pacific War. With 175 aircraft, the MLD greatly outnumbered the combined forces of its American and British allies. In three months of intense combat, the MLD lost 50 percent of its personnel and 80 percent of its aircraft, as the Netherlands' colonial empire was stripped away. This book details MLD operations during the Japanese invasion of Dutch East Indies, giving a comprehensive overview of organization, personnel, aircraft, equipment and tactics. For the first time in English, the failed evacuation of Java is examined.


Tower of Skulls: A History of the Asia-Pacific War: July 1937-May 1942

Tower of Skulls: A History of the Asia-Pacific War: July 1937-May 1942

Author: Richard B. Frank

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 2020-03-03

Total Pages: 1107

ISBN-13: 1324002115

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"A sweeping epic.… Promises to do for the war in the Pacific what Rick Atkinson did for Europe." —James M. Scott, author of Rampage In 1937, the swath of the globe east from India to the Pacific Ocean encompassed half the world’s population. Japan’s onslaught into China that year unleashed a tidal wave of events that fundamentally transformed this region and killed about twenty-five million people. This extraordinary World War II narrative vividly portrays the battles across this entire region and links those struggles on many levels with their profound twenty-first-century legacies. In this first volume of a trilogy, award-winning historian Richard B. Frank draws on rich archival research and recently discovered documentary evidence to tell an epic story that gave birth to the world we live in now.


Last One Out

Last One Out

Author: Jack Torry

Publisher: Schiffer + ORM

Published: 2022-03-15

Total Pages: 389

ISBN-13: 1507302932

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This is an exciting story about a newspaper reporter who risked his life on countless occasions in Nanking, Singapore, and Manila to provide people throughout the world with riveting coverage of the war in Asia. Author Jack Torry spent two and a half years reading hundreds of the subject's newspaper articles, examining scores of letters written by McDaniel's parents and sister, going through personal letters he wrote during the war, and reviewing extensive interview notes in the Library of Congress. McDaniel was the last reporter to leave Singapore before its fall to the Japanese in 1942. He escaped on one of the last ships leaving Singapore, and when it was sunk by Japanese aircraft, he and 130 others had to survive on a deserted island.


Java Sea 1942

Java Sea 1942

Author: Mark Stille

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2019-11-28

Total Pages: 97

ISBN-13: 1472831624

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The battle of the Java Sea, fought in February 1942, was the first major surface engagement of the Pacific War and one of the few naval battles of the entire war fought to a decisive victory. It was the culminating point of the Japanese drive to occupy the Netherlands East Indies (NEI) and, to defend the territory, the Allies assembled a striking force comprised of Dutch, American, British and even an Australian ship, all under the command of a resolute Dutch admiral. On 27 February 1942, the Allied striking force set course to intercept the Japanese invasion force in the Java Sea. In one of the few such times during the whole of World War II a protracted surface engagement was fought unmolested by airpower. For over seven hours, the Allied force attempted to attack the Japanese invasion force, finally breaking off in the early evening. Some three hours later, the Allied force, now reduced to just four remaining cruisers and two destroyers, attempted another attack on the invasion convoy during which Japanese torpedoes scored heavily, sinking two Dutch cruisers and bringing the battle to a conclusion. Over the next two days, as the Allies attempted to flee, five more ships were sunk. From that point on, Allied naval power was eliminated from Southeast Asia. In this illustrated title, Mark Stille tells the full story of the battle of the Java Sea, explaining how and why the Japanese achieved such a resounding victory, and delving into the tremendous impact of the battle on the course of the Pacific War.


Forgotten Diplomacy

Forgotten Diplomacy

Author: Vincent K.L. Chang

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2019-11-26

Total Pages: 583

ISBN-13: 9004410929

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In this meticulously researched volume, Vincent Chang resurrects a near forgotten yet pivotal chapter of Dutch-Chinese ties to narrate how World War II, the civil war in China, and Indonesia’s decolonization redefined and remade this age-old bilateral relationship. Drawing on a unique range of hitherto unexplored archives, the book explains how China’s nascent rise on the global scene and the Netherlands’ simultaneous decline as a colonial power shaped events in Dutch-controlled Indonesia (and vice versa) and prompted a recalibration of their mutual ties, culminating in the Netherlands’ recognition of the People’s Republic and laying the foundations for Dutch and Chinese policies through to the present. Offering insightful analyses of power dynamics and international law at the close of empire, this book is a critical resource for historians and China specialists as well as scholars of international relations.


The Dutch Naval Air Force Against Japan

The Dutch Naval Air Force Against Japan

Author: Tom Womack

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2023-09-28

Total Pages: 401

ISBN-13: 1476648182

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Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Dutch Naval Air Force--or Marine Luchtvaart Dienst (MLD)--played a significant but largely overlooked role in the opening months of the Pacific War. With 175 aircraft, the MLD greatly outnumbered the combined forces of its American and British allies. In three months of intense combat, the MLD lost 50 percent of its personnel and 80 percent of its aircraft, as the Netherlands' colonial empire was stripped away. This book details MLD operations during the Japanese invasion of Dutch East Indies, giving a comprehensive overview of organization, personnel, aircraft, equipment and tactics. For the first time in English, the failed evacuation of Java is examined.


Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942 (Vol. 1) (The Pacific War Trilogy)

Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942 (Vol. 1) (The Pacific War Trilogy)

Author: Ian W. Toll

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 2011-11-14

Total Pages: 732

ISBN-13: 0393083179

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Winner of the Northern California Book Award for Nonfiction "Both a serious work of history…and a marvelously readable dramatic narrative." —San Francisco Chronicle On the first Sunday in December 1941, an armada of Japanese warplanes appeared suddenly over Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and devastated the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Six months later, in a sea fight north of the tiny atoll of Midway, four Japanese aircraft carriers were sent into the abyss, a blow that destroyed the offensive power of their fleet. Pacific Crucible—through a dramatic narrative relying predominantly on primary sources and eyewitness accounts of heroism and sacrifice from both navies—tells the epic tale of these first searing months of the Pacific war, when the U.S. Navy shook off the worst defeat in American military history to seize the strategic initiative.


Empires in the Balance

Empires in the Balance

Author: H. P Willmott

Publisher: Naval Institute Press

Published: 2008-09-01

Total Pages: 490

ISBN-13: 1612517285

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The respected British military historian H. P. Willmott presents the first of a three-volume appraisal of the strategic policies of the countries involved in the Pacific War. Remarkable in its scope and depth of research, his thoughtful analysis covers the whole range of political, economic, military, and naval activity in the Pacific. This first volume comprehensively covers events between December 1941 and April 1942, concluding with the Doolittle Raid on April 18. When published in hardcover in 1982, the book was hailed as an eloquent portrayal of great empires on trial that no one should miss. Willmott’s stimulating and original approach to the subject remains unmatched even today.