Every day a nightmare : American pursuit pilots in the defense of Java, 1941-1942 / William H. Bartsch.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bartsch, William H., 1933-

Series:

Williams-Ford Texas A&M University military history series ; no. 131.

Number 131: Williams-Ford Texas A&M University military history series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

United States. Army--History--World War, 1939-1945.

United States.

United States. Army. Air Corps--History.

World War, 1939-1945--Aerial operations, American.

World War, 1939-1945.

World War, 1939-1945--Campaigns--Indonesia--Java.

World War, 1939-1945--Regimental histories--United States.

Fighter pilots--United States--History--20th century.

Fighter pilots.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (537 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

College Station : Texas A&M University Press, c2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In December 1941, the War Department sent two transports and a freighter carrying 103 P-40 fighters and their pilots to the Philipines to bolster Gen. Douglas MacArthur's Far East Air Force. They were then diverted to Australia, with new orders to ferry the P-40s to the Philippines from Australia through the Dutch East Indies. But on the same day as the second transport reached its destination on January 12, 1942, the first of the key refueling stops in the East Indies fell to rapidly advancing Japanese forces, resulting in a break in their ferry route and another change in their orders. This time the pilots would fly their aircraft to Java to participate in the desperate Allied defense of that ultimate Japanese objective. Except for the pilots from the Philippines, almost all of the other pilots eventually assigned to the five provisional pursuit squadrons ordered to Java were recent graduates of flying school with just a few hours on the P-40. Only forty-three of them made it to their assigned destination; the rest suffered accidents in Australia, were shot down over Bali and Darwin, or were lost in the sinking of the USS "Langley" as it carried thirty-two of them to Java. Even those who did reach the secret field on Java wondered if they had been sacrificed for no purpose. As the Japanese air assault intensified daily, the Allied defense collapsed. Only eleven Japanese aircraft fell to the P-40s. Author William H. Bartsch has pored through personal diaries and memoirs of the participants, cross-checking these primary sources against Japanese aerial combat records of the period and supplementing them with official records and other American, Dutch, and Australian accounts. Bartsch's thorough and meticulous research yields a narrative that situates the Java pursuit pilots' experiences within the context of the overall strategic situation in the early days of the Pacific theater.

Contents:

Prologue. Never in our history has there been a time like the present

Plans for reaching you quickly with pursuit are jeopardized

We are virtually a floating ammunition dump

We came 4,700 miles and are pigeon-holed!

The news from Wavell is all bad

There goes our ferry route

Second lieutenants are expendable

You are not forgotten men

A collection of the worst landings I have ever seen

I'm all shot to hell!

These guys are really inexperienced

Someone is crazy! This is murder!

I deeply regret failure to hold Abda Area

I was thoroughly enjoying myself

Nothing will ever happen to me

He was wholly unrecognizable

How can we operate against such odds?

Every day a nightmare!

Nothing less than desertion

Thousands of men gone completely mad

Senseless in all senses

Give us 24 hours to get out of this God-damned place!

Epilogue

Appendix. Table 1. Pilots of 21st Pursuit Squadron

Table 2. Pilots of 34th Pursuit Squadron

Table 3. Pilots of 35th pursuit group

Table 4. Pilots of 14th, 20th and 51st pursuit groups

Table 5. Philippines pursuit pilots sent to Australia

Table 6. Pilots and aircraft of 17th Pursuit Squadron (provisional)

Table 7. Pilots of 20th Pursuit Squadron (provisional)

Table 8. Pilots and aircraft of 3rd Pursuit Squadron (provisional)

Table 9. Pilots and aircraft of 33rd Pursuit Squadron (provisional)

Table 10. Pilots of 13th Pursuit Squadron (provisional)

Table 11. Enlisted men of 17th Pursuit Squadron (provisional)

Table 12. Enlisted men of 20th Pursuit Squadron (provisional)

Table 13. Enlisted men of the 3rd Pursuit Squadron (provisional)

Table 14. Personnel embarked on USS Langley

Table 15. Japanese aircraft shot down or badly damaged.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-299-05263-0

1-60344-246-4

OCLC:

680622525