The Battle of Java Sea, fought on February 27, 1942, marked the high tide of Japanese naval power in the Pacific. Poor organization, strategic confusion, inter-service competition, and national ...

Speaking in October this year on the readiness of U.S. armed forces, then-Secretary of Defense Mark Esper referenced Task Force Smith—a unit decimated in the early days of the Korean War as a result ...

In 1942, the Japanese surged through the Dutch East Indies, conquering territory at an incredible pace. By February, Japanese troop convoys advanced towards Java, as they were met by a small Allied ...

The voice was like a voice of doom. It was the voice of Dr. Hubertus Johannes van Mook, Lieutenant Governor General of The Netherlands East Indies: It is not that dozens of battleships, scores of ...

TIME Correspondent Robert Sherrod last week cabled from Melbourne this account of how the Dutchmen of Java died fighting: When the history of War II is written, that page belonging to the indomitable ...

On December 8, 1941, an Allied naval officer might reasonably have thought to himself “It’s not that bad.Really, could be worse.” The United States Navy (USN) could still pack a punch, and it could ...