GRIPPING ACCOUNTS OF HEROISM IN THE FACE OF NEAR CERTAIN DISASTER.Reviewed and Highly Recommended by Don DeNevi“ESCAPE FROM JAVA – – The Extraordinary World War II Story of the USS Marblehead”, by John JDomagalski. Pen & Sword MILITARY: 310 pages, hc; 2022. Distributed by Casemate Publishers,
$34.95; E-mail: [email protected]
This superlative book written by a deeply respected author-historian of U.S. naval operations inthe Pacific Theater in WW II, John Domagalski (www.pacificwarauthor.com), takes usthroughout the sinking ship as the story unfolds, placing us next to gunners fighting fatigue andshrapnel to keep their guns firing; then side-by-side with medical staff tending to the wounded;and he even places us behind the damage control sailors below working and splashing inflooded compartments to save the ship as the fires rage above. The damage was so critical theJapanese pilots and the nearby ships radioed naval headquarter in Tokyo they had sunk theMarblehead. Much later, those same Japanese were stunned to learn the super-human effortsof our resolute sailors and their resoluteness, successfully sailed the crippled ship 13,000 mileshome, an amazing achievement, beautifully narrated by John.By the time author John Domagalski copyrighted his fine narrative in the Spring of 2022, no onewho served aboard the USS Marblehead was still alive. One can imagine the enormouschallenges he faced writing about a story about a World War II conflict fought more than 75years ago – and no one had ever heard about! But John proudly mastered the difficulties,resulting in a minor masterpiece of a hitherto unknown story. His accumulation of the picturesalone required personal contacts and the patience that followed to secure their use. To test hisnarrative skill, read his two-page Acknowledgments, viii and ix. All in all, “Escape from Java” is a
must summer read.
