Areas of operation in Java, 1942

Discussion in 'War Against Japan' started by Warlord, Mar 6, 2015.

  1. Warlord

    Warlord Veteran wannabe

    During the long retreat out of SE Asia and the Philippines that most Allied armies had to undertake through the dark months of the initial Japanese onslaught, a ragtag multinational "force" (more exactly, the remains of several), ended up trying to defend Java while almost out-everything, including morale.

    While the brass involved tried to work out some sort of sense, based on the ABDA scheme, out of the mess in the field, Americans coming down from the Philippine islands operated mostly in Eastern Java together with some Diggers escaping from Timor, while British units (and the odd American, like the 131st Field Artillery) made up the defenses for the western end; KNIL outfits were liberally sprinkled all over their home island, but mainly concentrated in the west on the Bandoeng Plateau.

    Was there some resemblance of a plan or an strategic idea behind this deployment? Or was it just circumstantial? For example, the P-40s on the way to Tjilaptap through the ill-fated Langley and the bit-more-lucky Seawitch were specifically tagged for the defense of Soerabaja (within the "American zone"), while air defenses were almost non-existent over Batavia (underperformers like the worn out KNIL-ML Buffaloes and CW-21 Demons didn't count against the Nates, Oscars, Bettys and Nells out of Sumatra) and other key installations on the plateau.
     
  2. lostinspace

    lostinspace Junior Member

    You posted this quite a while ago so you probably have already located this site on the Dutch East Indies, but just in case you haven't, here is a wealth of information on the ABDA catastrophe - http://www.dutcheastindies.webs.com/index.html

    Dave
     
  3. spidge

    spidge RAAF RESEARCHER

    The link does not work for me Dave.
     
  4. lostinspace

    lostinspace Junior Member

    Spidge, you're right, it's not coming up using what I posted; try typing in: the dutch east indies campaign 1941-1942 and then click on that link. I tried it a couple of times going that route and it worked. The actual site is called: The Netherlands East Indies 1941-1942, there is a ton of information covering most of the areas around Java, orders of battle for all the participants etc. Well worth the struggle to find it!

    Dave
     
  5. Warlord

    Warlord Veteran wannabe

  6. lostinspace

    lostinspace Junior Member

    Yes, I downloaded all that information too, but it disappeared during one of my (very occasional) cleaning episodes. I might have to download at least parts of it again as there is some material that you can't find anywhere else.

    Dave
     
  7. Warlord

    Warlord Veteran wannabe

    Mate, after all these years trying to gather info on such an elusive subject, I have found out that there's a lot of bibliography available, but... WRITTEN IN DUTCH!!!!

    In fact, first major related job written in english to hit the market was "The Loss of Java", by a Dutch author, P.C. Boer, a couple of years ago, and sadly, up to today, no one has decided to follow his example... :(

    Follow the series of posts this one started to get a little info on this job: http://ww2talk.com/forums/topic/25378-abda-cbi-seac-book-thread/?p=331305
     
  8. lostinspace

    lostinspace Junior Member

    That thread is what I would call information overload. I got side tracked by Peter Elphick and the "Singapore Traitor Affair". Guess I've been out of the loop for awhile, didn't realize there was a traitor named Patrick Heenan executed just before the surrender; as if Percival didn't have enough on his plate.

    Dave
     
  9. Warlord

    Warlord Veteran wannabe

    Being such a nuthouse, we also have a thread for this subject: :wink:

    http://ww2talk.com/forums/topic/20908-kranji-or-the-singapore-traitor/?hl=%2Bpatrick+%2Bheenan
     

Share This Page