Battle of Ambon
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| Battle of Ambon | |||||||
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| Part of World War II, Pacific War | |||||||
 Laha airfield, Ambon (as seen in 1945). The Bay of Ambon and the southern part of the island are in the background. (Photographer: Staff Sergeant R. L. Stewart.) |
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| Combatants | |||||||
| Netherlands, Australia, United States | Japan | ||||||
| Commanders | |||||||
| J. R. L. Kapitz | Ibo Takahashi; Takeo Ito (land forces) |
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| Strength | |||||||
| 3,900 | 5,300 | ||||||
| Casualties | |||||||
| Netherlands: ?; Australia: 15 killed in action, 35 wounded. US: ?. Another 300+ Allied personnel massacred after surrendering. | 55 dead, 135 wounded | ||||||
| Pacific campaigns 1941-42 |
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| Pearl Harbor – Thailand – Malaya – Wake – Hong Kong – Philippines – Dutch East Indies – New Guinea – Singapore – Australia – Indian Ocean – Doolittle Raid – Solomons – Coral Sea – Midway |
| Netherlands East Indies campaign 1941-42 |
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| Borneo 1941-42 – Menado – Tarakan 1942 – Balikpapan 1942 – Ambon – Makassar Strait – Palembang – Badung Strait – Timor – Java Sea – Sunda Strait – Java |
The Battle of Ambon occurred on the island of Ambon in the Dutch East Indies, on January 30-February 3, 1942 during the Pacific campaign of World War II.
During 1941, as the western Allies perceived the possibility of war with Japan, Ambon was seen to be a strategic location, because of its potential as a major air base. The Australian government and military commanders saw that it could be used in raids on northern Australia.
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[edit] The defences
At the outbreak of war on December 8, the existing Royal Netherlands East Indies Army garrison, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel J. R. L. Kapitz, consisted of 2,800 Indonesian colonial troops, under Dutch officers. The garrison was poorly equipped and trained, partly as a result of the Netherlands itself having been defeated and occupied by Nazi Germany.
The Allies also had few aircraft to spare. By mid-December, two flights of Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) light bombers were deployed there, along with assorted US Navy and Royal Netherlands Navy aircraft. The Australian Army's 1,100-strong Gull Force, commanded by Lt Col. L. N. Roach, arrived on December 17. The force was comprised of the Australian 8th Division's 2/21st Infantry Battalion, as well as some divisional artillery and support units. Kapitz was appointed Allied commander on Ambon. Roach had visited the island before Gull Force's deployment and requested that more artillery and machine gun units be sent from Australia.
On January 6, after Dutch and British territories to the north fell to Japan, Ambon came under attack from Japanese aircraft. Roach complained about the lack of response to his suggestions and — as a result — he was replaced by Lt Col. John Scott on January 14.
[edit] The battle
Allied aircraft attempted some sorties against an approaching Imperial Japanese Navy fleet with little success. The fleet, including the aircraft carriers Hiryū and Sōryū, about 5,300 Japanese troops — marines from the 1st Kure Special Naval Landing Force and soldiers from the Imperial Japanese Army's 228th Infantry Regiment — reached Ambon on January 30, 1942. The remaining Allied aircraft were withdrawn that day, although RAAF ground staff remained.
Ambon Island has what might be described as a "figure eight" or "hourglass" shape. In the belief that the terrain on the southern part of the island was too inhospitable for landings, the Allied forces were concentrated in the north. However, the initial Japanese landings, on January 30, were in the south. Although the Japanese ground forces were numerically not much bigger than the Allies, the Japanese had overwhelming superiority in air support, naval and field artillery, and tanks.
Within a day of the Japanese landing, most positions occupied by the Dutch forces were surrounded and Dutch troops made a fighting reteat towards Ambon City. Although the paso position at the "neck" of the island formed a considerable natural obstacle, a follow-up landing in the north broke the deadlock. The main body of Australians at Laha airfield, on the north-west shore of the Bay of Ambon, did not become engaged until February 1, and held out until February 3, when Scott ordered them and the remaining Dutch troops to surrender.
[edit] The Laha massacre
Although Allied casualties in the battle itself were relatively light, at intervals for a fortnight after the surrender, more than 300 Australian and Dutch prisoners of war were chosen at random and summarily executed, at or near Laha airfield. It is possible that U.S. Navy personnel were among those executed. According to Australian War Memorial principal historian, Dr Peter Stanley: "[t]he Laha massacre was the largest of the atrocities committed against captured Allied troops in 1942."[1]
According to Stanley, over the following three and a half years, the surviving POWs:
- ...suffered an ordeal and a death rate second only to the horrors of Sandakan, first on Ambon and then after many were sent to the island of Hainan [China] late in 1942. Three-quarters of the Australians captured on Ambon died before the war's end. Of the 582 who remained on Ambon 405 died. They died of overwork, malnutrition, disease and one of the most brutal regimes among camps in which bashings were routine.
In 1946, the Laha massacre and other incidents which followed the fall of Ambon became the subject of the largest ever war crimes trial, when 93 Japanese personnel were tried by an Australian tribunal, at Ambon. Among other convictions, four men were executed as a result. An SNLF Captain, Kunito Hatakeyama, who was in direct command of the massacres, was hanged; Rear Admiral Koichiro Hatakeyama, who was found to have ordered the killings, died before he could be tried.[2]
The trials were the basis for the fictional feature film Blood Oath (1990).
[edit] Other consequences
Another result of the capture of Ambon was the realisation of Australian fears of air attacks, when Japanese planes based at Ambon took part in major air raids on Darwin, Australia on February 19.
