Marmur, Jacland "Dutch Treat"

Rousing, morale-boosting short story from the early days of America’s participation in the Second World War. In tandem with a Royal Dutch naval vessel, a U.S. destroyer (the fictitious U.S.S. JOHN PROME), escorting a Dutch merchant vessel (the NUEDENBOORG) filled with civilian evacuees fleeing from Batavia (modern day Jakarta) in the Dutch East Indies to Australia, takes on a superior Japanese naval force in the Sunda Strait. All three Allied vessels gives the Japanese what-to, and, while the Dutch warship is sunk in action, the Allies, through sheer audacity, succeed in sinking several Japanese vessels. The Dutch freighter and her merchant crew are portrayed as particularly brave, and they survive the encounter. At tale’s end the small convoy is headed south for Perth.