Those early days of World War II evolved as a bleak and perilous period in our nation’s history. A militarily unprepared United States, suddenly faced with war on several fronts, with a Pacific Fleet all but rendered useless and European Allies coursing toward disaster, had no choice at the outset but to stall for time in Southeast Asia, waging war as best she could with whatever forces were already there.
While major land fighting raged from the Philippines to Singapore, little attention was given to the beleaguered Asiatic Fleet, whose few battle reports, in the main, could impart only gloom to an already hapless situation. Thus, within a matter of three months’ time, the little fleet, manned by courageous Americans short of everything but guts, a fleet whose victories were few but its unsung heroes many, passed without notice into the shadowy recesses of time.
It is my sincere hope that The Fleet the Gods Forgot will contribute an historical atmosphere conducive to a better understanding of the United States Asiatic Fleet in World War II—a proud little fleet that met a vastly superior enemy head on, and literally fought to the bitter end.