Last Flight of the Buffaloes - a World War II Story on the Fall of Java

Chapter 3 - Texas Boys

Leuwiliang, Several miles south of Buitenzorg, West Java

March 1942

Military observers and scientists often state that defending is a much easier task than attacking. That might be true if the attacking enemy had to fight uphill, in a territory familiar to the defenders, and/or in predictable terrain. The esteemed scholars, having taken much of their references from the great battles of Europe, have not, however, put into account tactical considerations in alien, non-continental terrain where the situation was completely, strategically, fucked, and how to unfuck that situation and deliver the mission.

That being said, the East Indies Campaign for ABDACOM had been, for the last several months, an utterly fucked situation. Then, trying to salvage anything that could be saved in this utter fuck-up of an operation is also the reason why Second Lieutenant James C. Desouza, Army of the United States, was here. Previously a Corporal James C. Desouza, United States Army, he was brought over from a recent deployment posting with 1-31st Infantry Regiment, 12th Infantry Division from the Philippines to be committed to the newly-instituted U.S. Army Officer Candidate School in Fort Benning, Georgia at the recommendation of a Lieutenant Colonel Robert J. Hall, USA, due to his unique linguistic abilities and cultural knowledge that would somehow, in the thoughts of the brass-hats up the chain of command, allow swift and easy communication between the English-speaking Anglo-American forces and the Dutch in the likely event that Imperial Japan decided to hound for the oil fields of the East Indies.

The fact that the Army thought that putting lieutenant's bars on one man who could speak English, Dutch, Malay, and some Javanese—Desouza's family had lived here for generations, and had only migrated to the United States when he was a teenager—could change the situation was somewhat worrying. The situation itself was put into place over several years of serious fuck-ups caused by infinite levels of foreign relations bureaucracy, military logistics, and different standards of training... this also how damn inept the allied forces were in working together.

And maybe had the Dutch commanders listened more to their more experienced Australian comrades, led by Brigadier Arthur C. Blackburn, Australian Army, this whole debacle of losing ground wouldn't have happened. Blackburn (whose 3,000-strong contingent of American, British, and Australian troops was called BLACKFORCE) recommended to cage in the Japanese with a swift mobile reserve force at potential landing beaches; instead, heavy-drinking General ter Poorten opted for spreading out his more numerous Dutch forces across the island. The western Japanese force, dubbed 'Force One' in Allied communiques, then proceeded to land at the most predictable landing spot that the first Dutch expedition had landed in several centuries ago: Bantam Bay. Aside from a small resistance from a few Dutch machineguns, they landed with little to no hassle, and invaded inland with astounding speed.

With the Java Sea lost in burning allied ships, even General Wavell, CinC ABDACOM, knew what was going to happen next and made a run for it. And what meager force the British, Australian, and Americans could gather, led by Brigadier Blackburn himself, were now trapped on an Island no one wanted to deal with except for the Japanese. There weren't a lot of Americans on Java, and the ones that were here was a bunch of Texas artillerymen from 2-131st Field Artillery Regiment, U.S. 36th Infantry Division, Texas Army National Guard shipped in all the way from Fort Worth. Having met Colonel Tharp, USARNG, this morning and briefing him on the state of affairs, he opened a bottle and said to Lieutenant Desouza: "Hell if I'm gonna be left for dead on a fucking Asian Island, I'd rather be doing it at ease, lieutenant."

Then he'd told him such a brilliant damn idea that was: "Sir, just me thinking, but since the Japanese are gonna come in from the North and Northwest, why don't we head up a hill and post an OP, install a radio relay so whoever comes in your airwaves, they'd be speaking American?"