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Re: The Loss of Java
Hi Ed!
This book was previously published in dutch.
Het verlies van Java, een kwestie van Air Power.
Very good study.
The author P.C. Boer as written some (definitive) studies on the early air war in the East Indies.
The main theme, the dutch built air bases as a cheap answer to the problem of defending the East Indies, but failed to provide a matching air force and a proper defence for those air bases. As the outer air bases were lost to the Japanese, they provided a spring board to Java, the main dutch bastion.
Once the air attack on Java started, the Japanese had superior numbers and the initiative, quickly dispensing with the remaining air forces in a short war of attrition.
Without air power, Java was untenable.
Highly recommended.
__________________
Ruy Horta
12 O'Clock High!
And now I see with eye serene
The very pulse of the machine;
A being breathing thoughtful breath,
A traveller between life and death;
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