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The Storm at Kalidjati: Gateway to disaster after the fall of Singapore Paperback – 18 July 2017

by Francis Hansen (Author)

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This book follows the course of the post-Singapore campaign from its beginnings to the bitter end, woven around the story of 49th Bty, 48th LAA Regiment and other Royal Artillery units, to show how politics and military commands affected both ends of the scale, top to bottom, from the General to the Gunner, from the Brigadier to the Bombadier. What happened is often told in their own words and almost always taken from contemporary accounts. It is the true story of the fiasco in the Far East following the Allies’ first attempt to set up a joint command to stop the all-conquering Japanese, as first Hong Kong, then Malaya, Singapore and the Philippines fell before them. It was impossible to resource properly from the start and ABDACOM’s collapse left thousands of British and Australian personnel on the island of Java with orders to fight to the last man and the last bullet. The magic carpet out was only available for a select few. The senior officers who had staffed ABDACOM generally departed, and officers and men with particular skills or abilities that the Allies desperately needed were shipped away as the Japanese net closed around Java. Generally those left behind were those who were ‘expendable’. They were left under the command of the colonial Dutch commanders, men who had never expected nor been trained to deal with such a situation. Their defence plan for the island had two parts. Firstly to try to use what ships and aircraft they had to stop the Japanese landing on Java in the first place. The second (post-invasion) plan was based on the assumption that there were only two beaches where the Japanese might land. Given this, the Allied forces would undertake a fighting retreat to delay the invaders, so that any relief force that might be around would have time to turn up. Failing this, the ‘last stand’ would be around the city of Bandoeng in the mountainous central spine of the island. As plans go it was not particularly ambitious but, given the circumstances and the forces at their disposal, it was the best they could do. The major flaw in this was that it relied on the Japanese landing on one or both of two beaches. Unfortunately, they also landed on a third, only forty miles away by good roads from Kalidjati, one of the two major airbases on the island. It should have been obvious that such a facility so close to the coast would be a prime target for the enemy. There was plenty of room there for their fighter and bomber aircraft and they could destroy the puny defence forces on Java within days. And the airfield was also only a few miles from a road leading to Bandoeng; a shorter route to the one the Dutch commanders hoped the invaders would take. If the Japanese took Kalidjati, the whole defence plan would be in ruins. The loss of Kalidjati is the centrepiece and climax of this book. Kalidjati was where it all went wrong and with Kalidjati lost, Java was doomed. What happened there on 1st March 1942 was a ‘perfect storm’ when everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. It was a microcosm of the chaotic campaign that followed the fall of Singapore: a hostile climate, no knowledge of the local language, no orders or intelligence from above, lack of essential equipment, stores and ammunition, and incompetence, indecisiveness and inadequate communications at all levels. Many men paid a terrible price for their superiors’ failings in the flash-flood that swept through the airfield that day.

Print length

208 pages
Language

English
Publication date

18 July 2017
Dimensions

15.24 x 1.19 x 22.86 cm
ISBN-10

1548178993
ISBN-13

978-1548178994
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Product description

About the Author

Francis Hansen is the pseudonym of a history graduate and ex-archivist who has been researching this topic for years. Now retired, Francis lives in the Thames Valley with a partner who also has devoted their life to history, close to younger daughter Soph, her husband and five children, and very convenient for the National Archives. But not so convenient for elder daughter Elly, her husband and son in the United States.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (18 July 2017)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 208 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1548178993
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1548178994
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 15.24 x 1.19 x 22.86 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 1,204,762 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 19,719 in World History of World War II 1939-1945

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Edgar R Wagner

The fall of Kalidjati airfield, Batavia / Jakarta, and the fall of Java - March 1942

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 May 2018

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I found it to be well researched, interesting, and informative. I won't say that I found it to be an entertaining read on the level of authors like Ian Toll, John Toland, James Hornfischer, or Jeffrey Cox, because it wasn't, but it covers an important gap in the literature in the English language on when the Japanese invaded Java, concentrating on what happened at what was arguably Java's most important military airstrip, Kalidjati, and definitely worth reading if you have an interest in what happened in the Far East at that time. As a negative point, I missed a table with the acronyms used by the author and what they stand for. I also felt that the author was maybe just a tad too understanding of the Dutch, as are, I tend to get the impression, most English language historians. Dutch historians are a lot more critical, (see in particular Dr de Jong's masterpiece on what happened: Het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden in de Tweede Wereldoorlog (The Kingdom of the Netherlands During World War II) and in particular the five volumes on the Dutch East Indies, although, unfortunately, it is entirely in Dutch and I am not aware of there being any English translation). British and Australian service personnel actually caught up in the fighting in the Dutch East Indies often have a dig at the Dutch in their memoirs. I wish it was otherwise, but I'm with the Dutch historians on this one. Essentially, the Dutch political and military High Command simply got it wrong, before, during, and after World War II when it came to the Dutch East Indies, and people like Bombadier Jack Gunn, one of the protagonists of the book by Francis Hansen, paid high price for that political and military incompetence.

2 people found this helpful

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Jack Livesey

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 September 2017

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it is a great book about a forgotten part of world war two and is very well researched.

2 people found this helpful

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Jacky Dench

A story that needed to be told

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 9 October 2017

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A real eye opener. A very readable and informative book.

One person found this helpful

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The Storm at Kalidjati: Gateway to disaster after the fall of Singapore Paperback – 18 July 2017

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