The second, final part of the publication dedicated to American efforts to strengthen the defense of the Japanese advance in the beginning of 1942 in the threatened Dutch East Indies with the help of Curtiss P-40E fighter jets describes the tragic finale of the naval operation. In the course of it, two American vessels tried to break through the dangerous waters of the Indian Ocean in Java, the old tender (originally the first aircraft carrier of the US Navy) USS Langley and the modern transport ship SS Sea Witch. It transported a total of 59 Curtiss P-40E fighters and 33 American pilots. While Langley ended up on the seabed with 32 fighter jets after being attacked by Imperial Naval Air Force bombers, the Sea Witch was able to deliver its precious cargo of 27 P-40Es to the Java port, but too late for the planes to engage in combat at all before the Dutch capitulation. The fate of 33 American fighter pilots accompanying the fighters on the Langley tender was also particularly tragic. All of them survived the sinking of the ship, but all but two later perished in the subsequent sinking of the destroyer USS Edsall on March 1, 1942, or in Japanese captivity.
The publication details the fates of fighter pilots of the US Army Air Force and sailors from US Navy ships during the dramatic days of February 1942. It describes the successful actions of the Imperial Navy and Naval Air Force and the futile efforts of the Allied armed forces to reverse the unfavorable development of the war situation. He also pays attention to the situation of the Allied Air Force in Java during the last days before the Dutch capitulation. It introduces readers to a lesser-known chapter of the Second World War.