Peter C. Boer

The Loss of Java, 18 February – 7 March 1942

Singapore, NUS Press, 2010

604 pp. ISBN 978-9971-69-513-2

Synopsis

The Loss of Java presents a detailed account of the air, sea and land battles between the Allied and Japanese armed forces during the battle for Java that followed the evacuation of southern Sumatra in February 1942. Little has been written about the allied air campaign, or about why Dutch forces fought just one major land battle with the Japanese, the Battle of the Tjiater Pass, in the later stages of the struggle. The Loss of Java shows that the strategy adopted by the Dutch grew out of a carefully-devised plan of defence, and that the battle of Java comprised not one (the Battle of the Java Sea) but four major engagements with the Japanese.

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