Desperate Gambit: Project X and the American Aerial Defense of Java, 1941–1942
 

Scheduled for 28 April.


https://www.amazon.com/Desperate-Gam.../dp/1648432522


Usual disclaimer,
Ed

Re: Desperate Gambit: Project X and the American Aerial Defense of Java, 1941–1942
 

I am the associate author of this upcoming book by William H. Bartsch on the B-17 and LB-30 crews who were sent from the U.S. to Java in early 1942.

Over the next three months I will provide updates about the status of the manuscript, the research, the rare photographs that will appear in the pages and overall what readers can expect.

Desperate Gambit: Project X and the American Aerial Defense of Java, 1941–1942
Williams-Ford Texas A&M University Military History Series
(Texas A&M University Press - 28 April 2026)
By William H. Bartsch
584 pages w/ 32 b&w photos, 6 maps, appendices, bibliography and index - hardback (6.12" x 9.25") and ebook
$160 US - limited edition hardback
___ $ ebook

"In the dark days of World War II, just after Pearl Harbor, Japanese forces were moving almost at will across Southeast Asia and the Pacific. With his troops besieged in the Philippines and his bomber and fighter squadrons nearly reduced to impotence, General MacArthur pressured the US War Department to provide urgent help, particularly for replacements for the B-17 bombers decimated in the December 8 attack on Clark Field. President Roosevelt committed to send a large force of heavy bombers and their crews to the Philippines, a reinforcement plan code named “Project X.”

During the following weeks, the air force combat command made frenzied efforts to access the sixty-five Boeing B-17Es and fifteen Consolidated LB-30 heavy bombers that were to comprise the Project X force. The novice crews that were cobbled together would be required to fly their bombers two-thirds of the way around the globe, from MacDill Field in Florida to their new destination on the island of Java, where they were immediately thrown into combat. Project X, as the first test of the doctrine of strategic bombing, was an assignment unprecedented in US military history, though it was ultimately doomed to failure.

Continuing his masterful series of books on the air war in the Pacific Theater, military historian William H. Bartsch takes readers inside the headquarters planning rooms, the front-line command posts, and the cockpits of the aircraft to chronicle another chapter in the early days of the Allied effort to meet the Japanese challenge. Desperate Gambit:Project X and the American Aerial Defense of Java, 1941–1942 will be eagerly received by both general readers and professional historians interested in the evolution of aerial combat and strategic bombing of World War II in the Pacific.

About the Author
WILLIAM H. BARTSCH is the author of Doomed at the Start: American Pursuit Pilots in the Philippines, 1941–1942; December 8, 1941: MacArthur’s Pearl Harbor; Every Day a Nightmare: American Pursuit Pilots in the Defense of Java, 1941–1942; and Victory Fever on Guadalcanal: Japan’s First Land Defeat of World War II.

https://www.tamupress.com/book/97816...perate-gambit/

Re: Desperate Gambit: Project X and the American Aerial Defense of Java, 1941–1942
 

$160 !!!

Re: Desperate Gambit: Project X and the American Aerial Defense of Java, 1941–1942
 

There are a number of books that have been removed from my "must have" list due to price. I am hoping to find a used copy, at a price I can afford, of a few. If not, oh well.

Re: Desperate Gambit: Project X and the American Aerial Defense of Java, 1941–1942
 

Yeah, that was my reaction. I was expecting $60.

Re: Desperate Gambit: Project X and the American Aerial Defense of Java, 1941–1942
 

I thoroughly enjoyed reading William Bartsch's other books ie Doomed At The Start, Everyday A Nightmare and December 8, 1941.

But there is no way I would pay over $200.00 Australian for a book, any book. That's just silly money.

Re: Desperate Gambit: Project X and the American Aerial Defense of Java, 1941–1942
 

Look at any book published by an academic press. $190 is a starting price.

Re: Desperate Gambit: Project X and the American Aerial Defense of Java, 1941–1942
 

Same here

Re: Desperate Gambit: Project X and the American Aerial Defense of Java, 1941–1942
 

I will not call ‎ Texas A&M University Press an academic press. Besides I consider Richard Dunn's "South Pacific Air War: The Role of Airpower in the New Guinea and Solomon Island Campaigns, January 1943 to February 1944" one of the best research on the Pacific Air war, it cost only $38 !

Re: Desperate Gambit: Project X and the American Aerial Defense of Java, 1941–1942
 

Totally agree mars!

Re: Desperate Gambit: Project X and the American Aerial Defense of Java, 1941–1942
 

Between 1992 and 2014 TAMU Press published five of Bill Bartsch's books with the cost ranging from c. $25-$40 for a hardback edition.

Obviously things are different in 2026. I know of one other author whose upcoming WWII history is being priced at $120 by TAMU Press for a hardback copy with the ebook for much less.

Many academic presses will price a hardback edition at $100+ that is marketed to libraries and institutions while a concurrent release of a paperback edition is priced at $40-60 for undergraduate and graduate students. Archaeological site reports are often underwritten by an institution so that the cost might be kept below $200.

I assume that the higher cost for many books published by academic presses is due to factors such as limited print runs, editing by salaried editors, verification of content, creation of maps and charts, archival printing standards etc

Re: Desperate Gambit: Project X and the American Aerial Defense of Java, 1941–1942
 

That is mostly accurate. I have been working in book publishing for over 40 years. Most people have no idea how any book gets from proposal to printed copy. And that's understandable.

However, on a specialist site like this, it's good to have such background information.