Hold Back the Sun

High adventure fills the lives of American and Dutch fighting men in the opening months of the Pacific War. Brave women share their dangers and their love while empires crumble.Exhilarated by savaging the American Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, The Japanese Navy moves quickly to seize the rich mineral resources of Malaya and the Dutch East Indies. Two U.S. Asiatic Fleet lieutenants join the unequal struggle on the sea and in the air. Frank Rhea flies a floatplane off the old cruiser, U.S.S. Marblehead: scouting, spotting fall of gunshot, and attacking submarines. Jack Sewell commands the Gunnery Department of an equally ancient World War I destroyer: directing gun and torpedo attacks against warships and aircraft.In Java, Captain Garret Laterveer takes a squadron of obsolescent fighters to Singapore and then Borneo to battle nimble Japanese Zeros. Brave Dutch and British women enchant Frank, Jack, and Garret as the Japanese attacks roll down through the islands. Frank adores Dr. Cinta van Wely, who lives under the threat of revenge by a Japanese colonel she once insulted. Pamela Mallory, an exiled English noblewoman, ensnares Jack. Garret falls for Catherine van Zweden, a skilled nurse. Occasional victories boost the hopes of the Allies while colonial empires collapse around them. Then the Allies stake everything on the climactic Battle of the Java Sea.HOLD BACK THE SUN is laced with surface, aerial, and ground combat, scorched earth actions by the Dutch to deny their oil riches to Japan, accelerated wartime romance, and heroic efforts to save wounded sailors from the Japanese.