South by Java Head

South by Java Head is a novel written by Alistair MacLean and first published in 1958.

Plot summary

Template:From the Back Cover of the 1961 Fontana edition. The shattered city of Singapore is surrendering to the advancing Japs. Picking their way through the smoking rubble towards the quay are a struggling party of refugees - soldiers, nurses and civilians. Dawn sees them far out to sea but with the first murderous dive bombers already aimed at their ship. Thus begins an ordeal few are to survive, a nightmare succession of disasters wrought by the hell-bent Japs, the unrelenting tropical sun and by the survivors themselves, whose hatred and bitterness divides them one against the other.