This is without a doubt the most boring WWII book I've come across. As it starts, it's not really obvious whether it's a novel or narrative, since it's all told third person. Eventually it becomes clear that Skidmore must have reconstructed it all from interviews with and diaries of those involved, but it makes for an awkward beginning. The book starts by recounting the events leading up to the Japanese conquest of British Singapore. Then it gets more murky because the initial escape from Singapore is made in two boats by the members of an anti-aircraft battery. They get split up en route, but make it to Sumatra, where there are loads of other escapes and refugees. After some boring to-ing and fro-ing, a small band of some twenty or so British officers are selected to escape to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) on a dubious native craft. With only a few Navy men and a Merchant Marine among them, and no navigation gear, they make their way to what they hope is safety, where they are reabsorbed into the military machine. Along the way, the severe class-conciousness of the British Army in WWII becomes quite clear, and not a whole lot happens. They get buzzed by a Zero that inexplicably doesn't fire, they get fired upon by a Zero who inexplicably doesn't finish them off, they meet a drunken Dutchman, they eat poorly (but not _that_ poorly), tempers fray, etc. There's nothing particularly thrilling or gripping in the whole book, and it's time poorly spent. The "1942" appears to have been added to the title to avoid confusion with a book by the same name written by S.C. George in 1946.