FLT #19: ABDA Striking Force 1942

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.