Battle of the Java Sea

Thomas, David A.

ISBN 10: 0233960724 / ISBN 13: 9780233960722

Published by Andre Deutsch, 1968

About this Item

A very good to good first edition copy in a good dustcover. Some light shelf wear to the jacket and some page end spotting. There's also some glue from the binding on the lower spine end. The spine is straight, the binding is tight and the text is bight and clean. Please see photos.

Seller Inventory # ABE-1781369418245

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Battle of the Java Sea
• Publisher: Andre Deutsch
• Publication Date: 1968
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0233960724
• ISBN 13: 9780233960722
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Good
• Weight: 501 grams

About this title

Synopsis

This is the first full account of what Winston Churchill called "the forlorn battle," the attempt by a desperately small fleet of British, Australian, American and Dutch ships to stem the Japanese advance into Southeast Asia in the days immediately following Pearl Harbor.

The battle was forlorn because the Allies were outnumbered, outclassed, and outfought. Against a navy that was revealing itself as one of the best in the world, they had only a handful of cruisers and destroyers. The great capital ships that were intended to defend Singapore, Prince of Wales and Repulse, were among the first victims, sunk by aircraft in the Gulf of Siam, sacrificed by commanders who still believed the battleship could survive under air attack.

Mr. Thomas has reconstructed an hour-by-hour record of those grim days, days during which the Allied ships battled against confusion, muddle, misinformation, and plain bad luck, and one by one went to the bottom. His lucid analysis of these events is an important contribution to the history of the Second World War.