As Japan attacked in 1942, the reeling Allies formed a joint command, the first of the war, which fought until defeat at Java Sea. Fully illustrated, this explores this pioneering fleet.

The Japanese strike on Pearl Harbor and the near-simultaneous invasions of the Philippines and Malaya were soon followed by the invasion of the oil-rich Dutch East Indies. In mid-January, the American-British-Dutch-Australian (ABDA) Command was created to unify the available forces, of which its naval component would be its most integrated. It was the first joint Allied fleet of World War II.

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.

Packed with illustrations and photos, this traces the rise and fall of ABDACOM’s naval squadron – a unique mixture of cruisers and destroyers from four Allied navies – and how it performed when thrust into the path of the Imperial Japanese Navy.