With Sumatra having fallen, British squadrons regrouped in western Java. The collection of fighter squadrons that had seen action in Malaya and Sumatra were re-organised – most were disbanded, and all remaining pilots and aircraft […]
By the beginning of February 1942 the position of Java, the most important island in the Netherlands East Indies, was looking extremely precarious. Borneo and Celebes were already in Japanese hands, and Singapore and Sumatra […]
The port town of Darwin, in Australia’s Northern Territory, had become the main staging base for ships and aircraft heading towards Java. Darwin’s airfields had played host to many units and replacement aircraft bound for Java and the Philippines, along what was an increasingly tenuous […]
Since the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Pacific Fleet’s carrier force had been kept busy. Whilst waiting for the newly appointed Admiral Chester Nimitz to arrive and take control of the situation, three carriers had […]
Even before the fall of Singapore in mid-February 1942, British air forces had been concentrating on the Dutch island of Sumatra in the knowledge that the airfields there were safer than those on the fortress […]
By January 1942, the Allied air forces had suffered a series of setbacks that forced them to retreat south in the face of the Japanese offensive. The American Far East Air Force withdrew its remaining […]
The 19th Bomb Group had withdrawn to Australia following the disastrous early days of the war in the Philippines, and there it began to regroup. American commanders were keen to get the vaunted B-17s – […]
Following the initial Japanese attacks that had badly damaged the Far Eastern Air Force in December 1941, most of the surviving heavy bombers had been withdrawn well to the south. Meanwhile the remnants of the […]
As the invasions of the Philippines and Malaya were proceeding according to schedule, the Japanese began the second phase of their offensive – this time, taking Allied positions to the east. Amongst the most important […]
As British and Commonwealth troops headed for Singapore, the Japanese air forces moved to complete the besiegement of the city. Several convoys of transports were engaged in either bringing fresh troops and supplies to the […]
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