Rising Sun, Falling Skies: The Disastrous Java Sea Campaign of World War II

by Jeffrey Cox

Overview

Few events have ever shaken a country in the way that the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor affected the United States. After the devastating attack, Japanese forces continued to overwhelm the Allies, attacking Malaya with its fortress of Singapore, and taking resource-rich islands in the Pacific - Borneo, Sumatra, and Java - in their own blitzkrieg offensive. Allied losses in these early months after America's entry into the war were great, and among the most devastating were those suffered during the Java Sea Campaign, where a small group of Americans, British, Dutch, and Australians were isolated in the Far East - and directly in the path of the Japanese onslaught. It was to be the first major sea battle of World War II in the Pacific.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781472810601
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	11/17/2015
Series:	General Military Series
Pages:	504
Sales rank:	171,851
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Jeffrey R. Cox is a litigation attorney and an independent military historian specializing in World War II, ancient Greece, and ancient Rome, as well as a contributor to Military History Online (www.militaryhistoryonline.com). He holds a bachelor's degree in National Security Policy Studies from The Ohio State University and has studied the Pacific War since 1981. The author lives in Indianapolis, IN.

Table of Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1. On the Day Before
Chapter 2. Just a Little More Time
Chapter 3. Breakdown
Chapter 4. Finding Trouble
Chapter 5. Shooting at Venus
Chapter 6. Slapped Together
Chapter 7. Luck – The Battle of Balikpapan
Chapter 8. Bloody Shambles
Chapter 9. Can't Catch a Break – The Battle of the Flores Sea
Chapter 10. A Thousand Cuts
Chapter 11. Too Clever by Half – The Battle of Badoeng Strait
Chapter 12. No Breath to Catch – Preliminaries to the Battle of the Java Sea
Chapter 13. Nerk Nerk Nerk – The Sinking of the Langley
Chapter 14. One Shell – Day Action of the Battle of the Java Sea
Chapter 15. A Turn Too Far – The Second Part of the Battle of the Java Sea
Chapter 16. A Hopeless Plan – The Escape from Java
Chapter 17. Dancing in the Dark – The Battle of Soenda Strait
Chapter 18. Nowhere to Run – The Second Battle of the Java Sea
Chapter 19. To the Winds – Escape Attempts from Java
Chapter 20. Aftermath – Not Quite Vanquished

Notes
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

In the Pacific War's first months, elements of four navies, Dutch, British, American, and Australian, fought a delaying action against superior Japanese forces as heroic as it was hopeless. Cox brings an attorney's incisiveness, a historian's comprehension, and a storyteller's passion to this compelling account of the Java Sea campaign. Rising Sun, Falling Skies commemorates not a defense but a defiance: a forgotten epic of character and honor.” —Dennis Showalter

“As Japanese forces were hitting Pearl Harbor, countrymen undertook to maul the Allies in the Java Sea. That 1941-1942 onslaught, which cost the Royal Navy the dreadnoughts Repulse and Prince of Wales, inflicted a string of defeats unjustifiably accorded short shrift in many histories. Here they receive an informed airing.” —World War II Magazine

“A seminal work about a long neglected part of World War II in the Pacific... richly detailed with accounts from the men on both sides of the conflict who fought desperate struggles in 1942 either as conquerors or defenders.” —Mike Walling, author of Forgotten Sacrifice and Bloodstained Sea

“. . . an excellent read on a topic too often glossed over in general histories and too rarely covered in specific ones.” —Strategy & Tactics

From the Publisher

04/01/2014
Cox, a freelance military historian, focuses on the first three months of World War II in the Southeast Pacific, which culminated in the February 1942 Battle of the Java Sea, in which the Allied Dutch, British, American, and Australian naval forces fell to the Japanese. Cox integrates his strategic and tactical analyses with the narratives of those involved in the Pacific Theater. He is very critical of Gen. Douglas MacArthur and Dutch Admiral Conrad Helfrich, whose personal failures so damaged Allied work in the Southeast Pacific. Cox points out that these united armies fought with different strategic goals, dramatically weakening the overall effort. With no experience in joint operations, they even fumbled basic cooperative moves, with fundamental deficiencies in communications, logistics, and air power. These, along with unfortunate accidents, severely handicapped the endeavor. The author expressly honors the bravery of those who were wounded or died in this failed attempt to defend Singapore, the Dutch East Indies, the Philippines, and Australia. Cox, who is also an attorney, ably documents his pointed conclusions, citing U.S., British, Dutch, and Japanese sources. VERDICT This book will appeal to all readers interested in military affairs, especially in relation to World War II.—Mark Jones, Mercantile Lib., Cincinnati

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