Battle of Borneo (1941-42)

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Battle of Borneo
Part of World War II, Pacific War
A map of the ABDACOM area, with Borneo just left of centre.
Date 1941-1942 Location Borneo Result Japanese victory
Combatants
Empire of Japan	Netherlands United Kingdom
Commanders
Major-General Kiyotake Kawaguchi	Lieutenant-General A.E. Percival (UK) Lieutenant-General Hein ter Poorten (KNIL)

Pacific campaigns 1941-42
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
Borneo 1941-42 – Menado – Tarakan 1942 – Balikpapan 1942 – Ambon – Makassar Strait – Palembang – Badung Strait – Timor – Java Sea – Sunda Strait – Java

The Battle of Borneo was a successful campaign in the Japanese war for control of Southeast Asia, culminating in the subjugation of the island of Borneo by Japanese Imperial forces.

Contents 1 Historical context 2 Background to the conflict 3 The battle 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Historical context

In 1941, Borneo was divided between the Netherlands East Indies and British crown colonies.

The so-called "White Rajahs", the Brooke family, had ruled Sarawak, on the northwest of Borneo, for over a century, first as Rajahs under the Sultanate of Brunei (a tiny but once powerful state entirely enclosed within the borders of Sarawak), and from 1888 as a protectorate of the British Empire. The Northeast of the island comprised North Borneo, since 1882 another British protectorate under the British North Borneo Company. Offshore lay the small British crown colony of Labuan.

The rest of the island, collectively known as Kalimantan, was under Dutch control. The Netherlands was invaded by Nazi Germany in 1940. However, Free Dutch forces, mainly the 85,000-strong Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL) and some antiquated aircraft of the Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNLAF or KLu), fought on, spread throughout the Dutch East Indies, and by December 1941 under an embryonic and somewhat chaotic joint allied command which became the shortlived American-British-Dutch-Australian Command (ABDACOM).

[edit] Background to the conflict

The Tripartite Pact, between the three Axis Powers of Germany, Japan and Italy, guaranteed mutual support, and this paid off for Japan in July, 1941 when the Nazi puppet regime in Vichy France ceded French Indo-China (now modern Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia) to Japan. This gave Japan land access to the Chinese mainland where it had long been engaged in military intervention and, since 1937, had been fighting a full-on war of invasion against the temporarily allied forces of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party of China. It also gave Imperial Japan a seaboard facing Sarawak and North Borneo across the China Sea. Japan turned its eyes from the war in China and towards strategic targets in the Pacific and the Dutch East Indies. In December that year, Japan struck out against United States possessions in Hawaii and the Philippines, declaring war on the United States and, according to the Pact, finally precipitating Germany's official declaration of war on America. With its rich petroleum exploitation capacity, Borneo was a prime target for Japan, and a very poorly guarded one. Chronically short of natural resources, Japan needed an assured supply of fuel in order to flex its muscles and achieve its long term goal of becoming the major power in the Pacific region. Borneo also stood on the main sea routes between Java, Sumatra, Malaya and Celebes. Control of these routes were vital to securing the territory.

Having planned for at least a year to engage in warfare against the UK, the Netherlands, and the United States, Japan had been encouraged by the success of Germany. its ally in Europe, and now in the Dutch East Indies it faced greatly weakened and overstretched opposition to its plans.

[edit] The battle

[edit] References

• Runciman S, The White Rajahs: A History of Sarawak from 1841 to 1946, Particularly 252-255. Cambridge University Press, 1960
• Percival, Arthur Ernest The War in Malaya, (especially Chapter XII: Operations in Borneo.) London, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1949.

[edit] External links