Book review - "Rising Sun, Falling Skies: The Disastrous Java Sea Campaign of World War Two" by Jeffrey Cox

You don't read that much about the Java Sea Campaign in English language war history, despite involvement of the US, British and Australia... mostly I guess because it was so disastrous for the Allies. And it involved defending the Dutch East Indies, so it didn't have the emotional devastation of say the loss of Malaya and Singapore did for the British Empire, and the Philippines did for the US.

But it was an important campaign and deserved a good book and Cox has produced and exhaustive, readable account. Sometimes it got bogged down in detail but there's some fantastic research and great stories in there. He sets the scene - background to the Pacific War, the early days after Pearl Harbour, the formation of ABDA, the consistent disasters: fall of Malaya and Singapore, loss of Force Z, the collapse of Bataan, the series of naval defeats one after the other...

Was Java Sea winnable? Cox defends the much maligned leadership of the time but there were some flaws which could have been dealt with better: bad personnel, too much politicking between competing Empires, ineffective US torpedoes, poor co-ordination between Allies, wavering strategy (hit and run tactics may have proved more effective).

Cox is sympathetic and scholarly. He's withering on MacArthur and full of praise for Admiral Hart. The Aussies are in it a bit but not much - mostly about the Yarra.