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
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. His first interest was in the Pacific War, which he has studied for more than 30 years. A student of history, international affairs, and defence policy for most of his life, Cox holds a degree in National Security Policy Studies from The Ohio State University and a doctorate of jurisprudence from Indiana University School of Law. He is a contributor to Military History Online (www.militaryhistoryonline.com) and resides in Indianapolis.

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