Every Day a Nightmare: American Pursuit Pilots in the Defense of Java, 1941–1942 (Volume 131)

Williams-Ford Texas A&M University Military History Series #131

by William H. Bartsch, Anthony Weller (Foreword by)

In December 1941, the War Department sent two transports and a freighter carrying 103 P-40 fighters and their pilots to the Philipines to bolster Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s Far East Air Force. They were then diverted to Australia, with new orders to ferry the P-40s to the Philippines from Australia through the Dutch East Indies. But on the same day as the second transport reached its destination on January 12, 1942, the first of the key refueling stops in the East Indies fell to rapidly advancing Japanese forces, resulting in a break in their ferry route and another change in their orders.   This time the pilots would fly their aircraft to Java to participate in the desperate Allied defense of that ultimate Japanese objective. Except for the pilots from the Philippines, almost all of the other pilots eventually assigned to the five provisional pursuit squadrons ordered to Java were recent graduates of flying school with just a few hours on the P-40. Only forty-three of them made it to their assigned destination; the rest suffered accidents in Australia, were shot down over Bali and Darwin, or were lost in the sinking of the USS Langley as it carried thirty-two of them to Java. Even those who did reach the secret field on Java wondered if they had been sacrificed for no purpose. As the Japanese air assault intensified daily, the Allied defense collapsed. Only eleven Japanese aircraft fell to the P-40s.   Author William H. Bartsch has pored through personal diaries and memoirs of the participants, cross-checking these primary sources against Japanese aerial combat records of the period and supplementing them with official records and other American, Dutch, and Australian accounts. Bartsch’s thorough and meticulous research yields a narrative that situates the Java pursuit pilots’ experiences within the context of the overall strategic situation in the early days of the Pacific theater.  

Genres: World War II

506 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

William H. Bartsch, a former United Nations development economist and independent consultant, now works exclusively researching and writing on the Pacific War. He is the author of three books published by Texas A&M University Press: "Doomed at the Start: American Pursuit Pilots in the Philippines, 1941-1942," "December 8, 1941: MacArthur's Pearl Harbor," and "Everyday a Nightmare: American Pursuit Pilots in the Defense of Java, 1941-1942."

Reviews

[Shrike58 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has been on various reading lists of mine since it was first published, but it was only in the last month or so that I got around to reading it; too bad for me. To a certain degree I wondered what could really be said about this campaign, as I figured that too much information had been lost. This turns out to be far from the case, particularly since Bartsch has done a fine job of hunting down the personal papers of pilots who were sucked into this lost cause. The further fact is that the United States Air Force apparently finds their involvement to have been an embarrassment even unto the present day, as the official entries for some of the participating senior commanders don't even mention Java; just a reference to an "undisclosed duty station." Amazing!

Originally written: April 4, 2019.

[Patrick Foley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was hard for me to get through... not because it is poorly written or the story isn't fascinating but because it is depressing. As a former military aviator it was all too easy to envision myself trying to fly and fight under the conditions so well described by the author. That those young men, with so little preparation and training, continued to fly, continued to struggle, is a testament to the resiliency and will of the American fighting man.
This is an excellent book that does a marvelous job of showing the chaos of war and the horrible costs of unpreparedness and lack of training in war.

[Louis Dorny · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have the greatest respect for Bill Bartsch’s research and writing, and his work fills a void. This volume is the third in his effort to bring to light the trials of U. S. Army pursuit pilots in the Western Pacific early in the war, this one dealing with operations in Java and the work in Australia to get them and their planes to the Dutch Indies. He has a vast amount of personal data and personal experiences, and presents it in a very readable and engaging manner. Like most military campaigns there is confusion and disconnects at every turn. This book portrays that very well, and too the trials the men endured in this campaign. He has gathered and sequenced the personal experiences data into rational groups and spins the tale with élan. The narrative is augmented with several rosters of the involved squadrons, and – I’ve never been able to find this before – a list of the Army pilots in the Navy’s seaplane tender LANGLEY when she sailed from Fremantle in February, and therefore, those lost in USS EDSALL when she was sunk by the Japanese.

This period of fighter operations in Java from mid-February onward, Dutch, British, & American Army, is so tangled and the record so fragmented that assessing who flew which plane on a specific day in beyond us now. Mr. Bartsch’s effort to paint the panorama of this heartbreaking time helps untangle some of the threads, and he does so with pizzaz. Countless otherwise lost details come to the fore. Good work; good read.

L. B. Dornÿ, CDR, USN (ret.)

[E.J. Heijnis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a worthy addition to any World War Two air war enthusiast's library. The author offers a variety of perspectives on the time period and operations covered in the book, including both Dutch and American pilots and officers. The research is impeccable and the writing very digestible, despite the impressive amount of detailed information he offers. Mr. Bartsch analyzes political motivations and gives explanations for many of the baffling and sometimes disastrous decisions made in this chaotic theater. He'll also tell you what the pilots experienced in their daily lives as they struggled with failing equipment, an ineffective early warning system and an enemy who was better equipped, better trained and more numerous. Quotes from personal diaries really puts you in the heads of these brave men, fighting for a place that wasn't home for reasons they often didn't understand. Not to be missed, in particular if you have an interest in this part of the war.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Every Day a Nightmare" is one in a series of books by William Bartsch detailing what happened in the Pacific during early World War II when American pilots fought overwhelmed and often unsupported against the Japanese. Bartsch's attention to detail is amazing. He gives nearly a minute by minute account of the pilots, how they lived, how the fought and, for far too many, how they died. Bartsch sheds much needed light on these heroes who have been nearly forgotten. If you are interested in aviation or World War II or just want a good read on a little reported period of history this is just the ticket.