ABDA Striking Force 1942
Product details
- ISBN 9781472872517
- Dimensions: 184 x 248mm
- Publication Date: 30 Jul 2026
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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As Japan attacked in 1942, the reeling Allies formed a joint command, the first of the war, which fought until defeat at Java Sea. Fully illustrated, this explores this pioneering fleet.
The Japanese strike on Pearl Harbor and the near-simultaneous invasions of the Philippines and Malaya were soon followed by the invasion of the oil-rich Dutch East Indies. In mid-January, the American-British-Dutch-Australian (ABDA) Command was created to unify the available forces, of which its naval component would be its most integrated. It was the first joint Allied fleet of World War II.
In this book, naval historian Angus Konstam studies this almost-forgotten formation, which was charged with defending the Malay Barrier, and preventing Japanese access to the Indian Ocean and Australian waters. Following its fleetingly successful debut at the Battle of Belikpapan in January 1942, a remorseless, grinding erosion of ABDACOM’s forces followed, during a string of naval clashes fought amid the straits and islands in the southern Java Sea. Outnumbered and without adequate air cover, it was a hopeless task, and ended in the fleet’s destruction at the battles of Java Sea and the Sunda Strait.
Packed with illustrations and photos, this traces the rise and fall of ABDACOM’s naval squadron – a unique mixture of cruisers and destroyers from four Allied navies – and how it performed when thrust into the path of the Imperial Japanese Navy.
Angus Konstam is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and has written widely on naval history, with well over a hundred books in print. He is a former Royal Navy officer, maritime archaeologist and museum curator, who has worked in the Royal Armouries, Tower of London, and Mel Fisher Maritime Museum. Now a full-time author and historian, he lives in Orkney.
Adam Tooby is a renowned digital artist.
