The Darkest Hour presents the Imperial Japanese Navy offensive in the
Indian Ocean area in March-April 1942, the main goal of which was to
destroy the Royal Navy in the Far East and achieve domination on the
western flank of the Pacific War on the eve of the Battle of Midway. The
bold operation by two Japanese task forces (Kido Butai and Malay Force)
in the Indian Ocean would only be possible with the fall of Singapore in
February and the Dutch East Indies in early March 1942.
From the strategic point of view, the Japanese offensive in the Indian
Ocean was the only moment in the Second World War when the Axis forces
could coordinate their efforts to severely threaten the position of the
British Empire in the crucial Middle Eastern and Indian theaters.
Volume 2 of The Darkest Hour describes the movements of the invincible
Kido Butai, consisting of five aircraft carriers and their escorts, that
expected to crush the British bases on Ceylon and once and forever
destroy the main core of the Eastern Fleet. The chaos provoked by the
Kido Butai would then become a great opportunity for the Malay Force to
cut off the British shipping routes in the western part of the Bay of
Bengal.
The Darkest Hour is the first systematic attempt to describe this
less-well known part of the Pacific War by researching both British and
Japanese archive documents and other sources published in many
countries, including the United Kingdom, Japan, and India.
The second volume examines the Japanese aerial assault upon the British
bases on Ceylon, and the attacks against the carrier HMS Hermes,
cruisers MS Cornwall and Devonshire, and the destroyer HMAS Vampire.
The Darkest Hour Volume 2 includes extensive tables detailing the
composition of the Japanese air attacks and is illustrated with
photographs and with color artworks of the ships and aircraft involved.