Download or read book The Last Days of the United States Asiatic Fleet written by Greg H. Williams and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2018-05-11 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After the attack on Pearl Harbor (December 7), American sailors of the Asiatic Fleet (where it was December 8) were abandoned by Washington and left to conduct a war on their own, isolated from the rest of the U.S. naval forces. Their fate in the Philippines and Dutch East Indies was often grim--many died aboard burning ships, were executed upon capture or spent years as prisoners of war. Many books have been written about the ships of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet, yet few look into the experiences of the common sailor. Drawing on official reports, past research, personal memoirs and the writings of war correspondents, the author tells the story of those who never came home in 1945.
Download or read book The Fleet the Gods Forgot written by Walter G. Winslow and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2014-08-15 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The dramatic tale of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet in World War II received little attention prior to the publication of this book in 1982, when Winslow chronicled their short and tragic story of heroism and defeat.Greatly outnumbered by vastly superior forces, and saddled with defective equipment; a lack of supplies, reinforcements, and air cover; and, towards the end, an incompetent and bungled Allied combined command, the Asiatic fleet met the Japanese head-on. Within a matter of three months, however, the beleaguered ships were totally wiped out. Captain Walter Winslow, a naval aviator on board the USS Houston, flagship of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet, was in a unique position to tell the riveting story. As an active participant in all the major battles the fleet engaged in, he had an intimate understanding of the calamities that befell it. In addition, he drew upon the his own extensive notes he kept from a POW camp while interviewing other American, British, Dutch, and Australian prisoners from the Allied fleet. Winslow also painstakingly tracked down war documents and battle reports from all the ships assigned to the fleet to paint a complete picture filled with graphic details of the fleet’s only victory at Balikpapan; the disastrous Battle of the Java Sea that broke the back of the combined Asiatic fleet; the ghastly spectacle at Sunda Strait where the Houston struggled to survive; the suspenseful episode in the submarine Perch trapped in the mud at the bottom of the sea; and the daring escape from Corregidor of eighteen crewmembers from the USS Quail who refused to surrender to the Japanese forces.
Download or read book The Lonely Ships written by Edwin Palmer Hoyt and published by David McKay Company. This book was released on 1976 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book In the Highest Degree Tragic written by Donald M. Kehn and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2017-08-01 with total page 560 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the Highest Degree Tragic tells the heroic story of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet’s sacrifice defending the Dutch East Indies from the Japanese in the first three months of the Pacific War. Donald M. Kehn Jr.’s comprehensive narrative history of the operations involving multiple ships and thousands of men dramatically depicts the chaotic nature of these battles. His research has uncovered evidence of communications failures, vessels sinking hundreds of miles from where they had been reported lost, and entire complements of men simply disappearing off the face of the earth. Kehn notes that much of the fleet went down with guns blazing and flag flying, highlighting, where many others have failed to do so, the political and strategic reasons for the fleet’s deployment to the region in the first place. In the Highest Degree Tragic rectifies the historical record, showcasing how brave yet all-too-human sailors and officers carried out their harrowing tasks. Containing rare first-person accounts and anecdotes, from the highest command echelons down to the lowest enlisted personnel, Kehn’s book is the most comprehensive and exhaustive study to date of this important part of American involvement in World War II.
Download or read book A Blue Sea of Blood written by Donald M. Kehn and published by Quarto Publishing Group USA. This book was released on 2009-01-15 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On the morning of March 1, 1942, the WWI-era destroyer USS Edsall—under orders to deliver some forty Army Air Force fighter crews to the beleaguered island of Java—split off from the USS Whipple and the tanker Pecos and was never seen again by Allied forces. Despite the later discovery of bodies identified as Edsall crew members near a remote airfield on the coast of Celebes, what happened to the ship remains a matter of mystery and, perhaps, deliberate obfuscation. This book explores the many puzzling facets of the Edsall’s disappearance in order to finally tell the full story of the fate of the vessel and her crew. Based on exhaustive research of the historical record—including newly deciphered Japanese documents and previously unrevealed material from the crew’s family members—A Blue Sea of Blood offers a painstaking reconstruction of the ship’s history. The book investigates not only the Edsall’s mysterious final action, but also her wide-ranging pre-war career and the curious uses to which her story was put—generally under false pretenses—first by the pre-war US Navy and then by the Japanese wartime propaganda machine. And finally, military historian Donald Kehn considers the circumstances surrounding the curious obscurity of the Edsall’s heroic service and final battle in American histories. Redressing six decades of official indifference, Kehn’s account recovers a significant chapter missing from the history of World War II—and tells a long-overdue story of courage and tragic loss.
Download or read book The Last Stand of the Asiatic Fleet written by David DuBois and published by . This book was released on 2017-05 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Timber Ridge Press is proud to announce the upcoming release of The Last Stand of the Asiatic Fleet: MacArthur's Debacle in the Pacific. Slated for a May 2017 release, this historical non-fiction work by Historian David DuBois is a must-read for World War II enthusiasts.
Download or read book Escape from Java written by John J. Domagalski and published by Pen and Sword Military. This book was released on 2022-03-24 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The harrowing, triumphant true story of an antiquated light cruiser and its crew suddenly under fire in the Pacific as WWII erupted: “An engrossing tale.” —Naval Historical Foundation The old light cruiser Marblehead was living out her final years of naval service as a member of the United States Asiatic Fleet in 1941. The small group of mostly antiquated ships based in the Philippines sailed the waters of East Asia to show the American flag in places like China, Hong Kong, Japan, and Singapore. Then the sudden eruption of World War II in the Pacific put the warship on the front lines of the conflict as Imperial Japan unleased a series of devastating attacks across the region. On the morning of February 4, 1942, the warship was surprised by Japanese planes northeast of Java. Two large bombs slammed into Marblehead, causing fires and casualties and knocking out her steering gear. A third bomb exploded close by underwater. The near miss ripped a large gash into her hull, allowing a torrent of water to rush inside the ship. Escape from Java takes us throughout the ship as the story unfolds—next to gunners toiling to keep their guns firing, with medical staff tending to the wounded, and alongside damage control sailors working in flooded compartments. The Japanese confidently radioed that they had sunk the ship—but through courage, sacrifice, and superhuman effort, Marblehead would set out on a harrowing 13,000-mile journey back to the US . . . “An engrossing tale of an obsolescent ship’s survival amid great odds set against the brutal early fighting of the Pacific War. This book will appeal to a wide audience not only as high wartime adventure but simply as a story of gritty perseverance when the odds are heavily against.” —Naval Historical Foundation
Download or read book History of United States Naval Operations in World War II The rising sun in the Pacific 1931 April 1942 written by Samuel Eliot Morison and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 476 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Volume III: The Rising Sun in the Pacific, 1931-April 1942 chronicles the difficult early months of the campaign in the Pacific, detailing the navy's reverses at Wake Island, in the Philippines, and along the Malay Barrier.
Download or read book The U S China Military Scorecard written by Eric Heginbotham and published by Rand Corporation. This book was released on 2015-09-14 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A RAND study analyzed Chinese and U.S. military capabilities in two scenarios (Taiwan and the Spratly Islands) from 1996 to 2017, finding that trends in most, but not all, areas run strongly against the United States. While U.S. aggregate power remains greater than China’s, distance and geography affect outcomes. China is capable of challenging U.S. military dominance on its immediate periphery—and its reach is likely to grow in the years ahead.
Download or read book History of United States Naval Operations written by James A. Field, Jr. and published by University Press of the Pacific. This book was released on 2001-12-01 with total page 520 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Americans think of the Korean War as death and hardship in the bitter hills of Korea. It was certainly this, and for those who fought this is what they generally saw. Yet every foot of the struggles forward, every step of the retreats, the overwhelming victories, the withdrawals and last ditch stands had their seagoing support and overtones. The spectacular ones depended wholly on amphibious power -- the capability of the twentieth century scientific Navy to overwhelm land-bound forces at the point of contact. Yet the all pervading influence of the sea was present even when no major landing or retirement or reinforcement highlighted its effect. When navies clash in gigantic battle or hurl troops ashore under irresistible concentration of ship-borne guns and planes, nations understand that sea power is working. It is not so easy to understand that this tremendous force may effect its will silently, steadily, irresistibly even though no battles occur. No clearer example exists of this truth in wars dark record than in Korea. Communist-controlled North Korea had slight power at sea except for Soviet mines. So beyond this strong underwater phase the United States Navy and allies had little opposition on the water. It is, therefore, easy to fail to recognize the decisive role navies played in this war fought without large naval battles.
Download or read book U S S Houston the Last Flagship of the Asiatic Fleet written by Heber A. Holbrook and published by . This book was released on 1981 with total page 107 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Ship of Ghosts written by James D. Hornfischer and published by Bantam. This book was released on 2009-03-25 with total page 577 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "Son, we’re going to Hell." The navigator of the USS Houston confided these prophetic words to a young officer as he and his captain charted a course into U.S. naval legend. Renowned as FDR’s favorite warship, the cruiser USS Houston was a prize target trapped in the far Pacific after Pearl Harbor. Without hope of reinforcement, her crew faced a superior Japanese force ruthlessly committed to total conquest. It wasn’t a fair fight, but the men of the Houston would wage it to the death. Hornfischer brings to life the awesome terror of nighttime naval battles that turned decks into strobe-lit slaughterhouses, the deadly rain of fire from Japanese bombers, and the almost superhuman effort of the crew as they miraculously escaped disaster again and again–until their luck ran out during a daring action in Sunda Strait. There, hopelessly outnumbered, the Houston was finally sunk and its survivors taken prisoner. For more than three years their fate would be a mystery to families waiting at home. In the brutal privation of jungle POW camps dubiously immortalized in such films as The Bridge on the River Kwai, the war continued for the men of the Houston—a life-and-death struggle to survive forced labor, starvation, disease, and psychological torture. Here is the gritty, unvarnished story of the infamous Burma–Thailand Death Railway glamorized by Hollywood, but which in reality mercilessly reduced men to little more than animals, who fought back against their dehumanization with dignity, ingenuity, sabotage, will–power—and the undying faith that their country would prevail. Using journals and letters, rare historical documents, including testimony from postwar Japanese war crimes tribunals, and the eyewitness accounts of Houston’s survivors, James Hornfischer has crafted an account of human valor so riveting and awe-inspiring, it’s easy to forget that every single word is true. BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from James D. Hornfischer's Neptune's Inferno.
Download or read book They Fought With What They Had The Story of the Army Air Forces in the Southwest Pacific 1941 1942 written by Walter Dumaux Edmonds and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 1951 with total page 561 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Gunboats and Marines written by Bernard D. Cole and published by . This book was released on 1983 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The 1920s were years of turmoil in China, as revolution and civil war spread throughout the country. The many Americans then in China -- primarily missionaries, businessmen, and diplomats -- were caught in this upheaval. Their safety often depended on the armed protection of the sailors and marines of the United States Asiatic Fleet. In the middle 1920s, however, this fleet consisted of one cruiser, two divisions of submarines, about twenty destroyers, a dozen gunboats, and assigned Marine Corps detachments. This book tells the dramatic story of the role the United States Navy played during this tumultuous period of Chinese history"--Jacket.
Download or read book Pearl Harbor Revisited written by Frederick D. Parker and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2012-07-31 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the story of the U.S. Navy's communications intelligence (COMINT) effort between 1924 and 1941. It races the building of a program, under the Director of Naval Communications (OP-20), which extracted both radio and traffic intelligence from foreign military, commercial, and diplomatic communications. It shows the development of a small but remarkable organization (OP-20-G) which, by 1937, could clearly see the military, political, and even the international implications of effective cryptography and successful cryptanalysis at a time when radio communications were passing from infancy to childhood and Navy war planning was restricted to tactical situations. It also illustrates an organization plagues from its inception by shortages in money, manpower, and equipment, total absence of a secure, dedicated communications system, little real support or tasking from higher command authorities, and major imbalances between collection and processing capabilities. It explains how, in 1941, as a result of these problems, compounded by the stresses and exigencies of the time, the effort misplaced its focus from Japanese Navy traffic to Japanese diplomatic messages. Had Navy cryptanalysts been ordered to concentrate on the Japanese naval messages rather than Japanese diplomatic traffic, the United States would have had a much clearer picture of the Japanese military buildup and, with the warning provided by these messages, might have avoided the disaster of Pearl Harbor.
Download or read book Playing for Time written by Lodwick H. Alford and published by Merriam Press. This book was released on 2006-04 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author's memoir of his service as an officer on board the destroyer U.S.S. Stewart (DD-224) of the Asiatic Fleet from before the war through its abandonment in a dry dock in Java in February 1942, also serving as a history of the ship's wartime service. The author also provides a history of the Asiatic Fleet during that time period when it was part of the naval forces that stopped the Japanese juggernaut on their southward expansion in the Pacific.
Download or read book Ready Seapower a History of the U S Seventh Fleet Color written by Department of Department of the Navy and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2014-12-13 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: U.S. interest in the Far East dates from the earliest years of the republic, when American merchant ships sailed across the vast Pacific to ply their trade in the ports of China, the Philippines, Indochina, and the East Indies. Warships of the U.S. Navy followed soon afterward to protect those commercial carriers and to promote American diplomatic interests in Asia. The U.S. Seventh Fleet, successor to the Asiatic Squadron and Asiatic Fleet of the 19th and early 20th centuries, began making its own naval history in the early days of World War II. Unique among the nation's naval forces, the fleet has taken part in all the major conflicts and most of the crises and confrontations of the last six decades. It has defended U.S. interests and worked with America's Asian alliances to deter aggressors and maintain peace and stability in the region. The fleet's Sailors have provided humanitarian assistance and disaster relief to numerous countries devastated by natural and man made disasters. The fleet's area of responsibility in the 21st century encompasses 48 million square miles of the Pacific and Indian oceans, an area holding half of the world's population, 35 nations, and many of its most prosperous economies. Much of the world's energy resources and oceangoing trade passes through waters guarded by the warships, aircraft, and men and women of the U.S. Seventh Fleet, whose motto is appropriately-Ready Power for Peace.
