South by Java Head
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South by Java Head is a novel written by Alistair MacLean and first published in 1958.
[edit] Plot summary - from back cover of 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 ".