Playing for Time: War on an Asiatic Fleet Destroyer

Merriam Press World War 2 Memoir Series

Lodwick Alford's memoir of his service as an officer on board the destroyer USS Stewart (DD-224) of the Asiatic Fleet from before the war through its abandonment in a dry dock in Java in February 1942, also serving as a history of the ship's wartime service, including as a patrol boat in the Japanese Navy. The author also provides a history of the Asiatic Fleet during that time period when it was part of the naval forces that stopped the Japanese juggernaut on their southward expansion in the Pacific.

Contents

Pearl Harbor Attacked

The Asiatic Fleet: USS Stewart (DD-224)

War!

Playing for Time

Saga of the USS Peary (DD-226)

Japanese Juggernaut Rolls South

Destroyers Win One

Impending Disaster

The Beginning of the End

Baptism of Fire: USS Stewart

Abandon Ship!

Allied Defeat!

The Enemy Mops Up

Escape From the Java Sea

Ordeal of Edsall and Whipple

Isabel Runs Gauntlet

"Titivate Ship"

Born Again-Under the Rising Sun

Homeward Bound

Remaining Destroyers and Other Ships

Personae

Recognitions, Decorations and Awards

Ship's Company Personnel of USS Stewart (DD-224) at Time of Battle of Badoeng Strait, 20 February, and Abandonment, 22 February 1942

Bibliography

Brief Biography of Lodwick H. Alford

37 B&W photos

Review by Vic Campbell: Capt. Alford describes with vivid texture the life of a young officer aboard a four piper in the Asiatic Fleet. It surprises me, finding myself, a destroyer veteran and officer of Vietnam, experiencing my own life over again through his descriptions in a time 30 years before mine. The wardroom-the staterooms-the watches... One feels the salt air sting the eyes and the protocol stiffen the spine. It all comes back. There is so much tradition in the Navy. It lives from generation to generation.