Battle of Tarakan (1942)

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Battle of Tarakan
Part of World War II
Date January 11-12, 1942 Location Tarakan Island, Netherlands East Indies Result Decisive Japanese Victory
Combatants
Empire of Japan	Kingdom of the Netherlands
Commanders
Major General Shizuo Sakaguchi	Lieutenant Colonel S. de Waal
Strength
Over 6,600	Over 1,300
Casualties
255 killed	All killed in battle or executed after surrendering

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 Tarakan took place on January 11-12, 1942. The oil port of Tarakan, in the Netherlands East Indies was one of the main objectives for the Empire of Japan in the Pacific War.

Japanese forces landed on the east coast of Tarakan at midnight on 11 January 1942. After mounting a brief, but fierce resistance, the Koninklijk Nederlands Indisch Leger (Royal Netherlands East Indies Army, or KNIL) garrison surrendered on the morning of January 12. All prisoners of war were executed by the Japanese in retaliation for the destruction of the oil installations; a feat that was repeated later in Balikpapan.

Tarakan remained under Japanese occupation until May 1945 when it was liberated by Australian troops in the Battle of Tarakan (1945).

Contents 1 Order of battle 1.1 Ground forces 1.1.1 Japanese Units 1.1.2 Dutch Units 2 References

[edit] Order of battle

[edit] Ground forces

[edit] Japanese Units

Sakaguchi Detachment

• HQ 56th Regimental Group
• Tankette Company
  • 146th Infantry Regiment (+)
    • I Battalion, 56th Field Artillery Regiment
    • 1 Company, 56th Engineer Regiment
    • 2 Company, 56th Transport Regiment
• Infantry elements, 2nd Kure Special Naval Landing Force
• 2nd Oilfield Construction Unit
• 5th Airfield Construction Unit

[edit] Dutch Units

Tarakan Local Command

• Tarakan Garrison Battalion (7th KNIL Infantry Battalion)
  • Motorised detachment with 7 armored cars
• 3 Coastal Artillery Regiment(?)
  • Two mobile coastal artillery batteries (total of 3 x 75 mm guns and 2 x 70 mm guns)
  • Five fixed coastal artillery batteries (total of 2 x 120 mm guns, 10 x 75 mm guns and 3 x 37 mm guns)
  • Two AA batteries (total of 4 x 40 mm guns and 4 x 20 mm guns)
  • Four AA machine gun platoons (each with 3 x 12.7 mm HMG)
• Two engineer platoons
• Mobile Auxiliary First Aid Platoon

[edit] References

• Klemen L. The Netherlands East Indies 1941-42

• Samuel Eliot Morison (2001), The Rising Sun in the Pacific 1931 - April 1942. University of Illinois Press, Urbana.

• Dr. Leo Niehorster [http://orbat.com/site/ww2/drleo/index.htm World War II Armed Forces

Orders of Battle and Organizations]