I had read about the Java battle in S.E. Morisson's history of the U.S. Navy. Most of the forces were dutch as was the commander. There was some wishful thinking that they could defend Java against the japanese. The Dutch also did not want to simply abandon Indonesia which they viewed as Dutch territory.
The U.S. forces involved were a scratch force, basically what was left of the old Asiatic fleet.
As to the actual battle, the ships were a hodgepodge of Dutch, U.S. and CW with a Dutch commander. They had never trained together, had different tactics, language, communication codes. The battle plan of the Dutch admiral was basically "Follow me". During the battle, the U.S. ships did not understand most of the orders given and were just trying to survive. Yes, a real mess...
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