Battle of the Java Sea

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Battle of the Java Sea
Part of World War II, Pacific War
Japanese cruiser Haguro
Japanese cruiser Haguro (pictured) sank HNLMS De Ruyter, killing Admiral Karel Doorman
Date February 27, 1942 - March 1, 1942
Location Java Sea
Result Decisive Japanese victory
Combatants
United States
Netherlands
United Kingdom
Australia		 Japan
Commanders
Karel Doorman† Takeo Takagi
Strength
2 heavy cruisers
3 light cruisers
12 destroyers		 2 heavy cruisers
2 light cruisers
14 destroyers
10 transports
Casualties
5 cruisers sunk
5 destroyers sunk
2,300 sailors killed		 4 loaded troop transports sunk
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 the Java Sea was a major naval battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II. Allied ships suffered a disastrous defeat at the hand of the Imperial Japanese Navy, in action over several days in February-March 1942. The action included the smaller, but also significant Battle of Sunda Strait. It was the largest surface engagement since the Battle of Jutland in World War I.

Contents

[edit] Background

The Japanese invasion of the Netherlands East Indies progressed at a rapid pace as they advanced from their Palau Islands colony and captured bases in Sarawak and the southern Philippines. They seized bases in eastern Borneo and in northern Celebes while troop convoys, screened by destroyers and cruisers with air support provided by swarms of fighters operating from captured bases, steamed southward through the Makassar Strait and into the Molucca Sea. To oppose these invading forces was a small force, consisting mostly of American and Dutch warships, many of them of World War I vintage, under the command of Admiral Thomas C. Hart.

On January 23, 1942 a force of four American destroyers attacked a Japanese invasion convoy in Makassar Strait as it approached Balikpapan in Borneo. On February 13, the remaining Dutch and American ships, under the command of Dutch Admiral Karel Doorman, fought the Battle of Palembang, an unsuccessful attempt to prevent the Japanese from capturing the major oil port in eastern Sumatra. On February 19, the Japanese First Air Fleet, under Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, attacked and wrecked the port at Darwin in northern Australia which rendered it useless as a supply and naval base to support operations in the East Indies.

Shortly before the battle commenced, the odds were not good for the ABDA forces. The Allies were disunited (ships came from four separate navies) and demoralized by constant air attacks and the impending fear of doom. In addition, there was no coordination between Allied navies and air forces. Yet Admiral Doorman vowed to engage the Japanese at all costs.

[edit] The main action

The Japanese amphibious forces now gathered to strike at Java, and on February 27 1942, the main American-British-Dutch-Australian Command (ABDACOM) naval force, under Doorman, sailed northeast from Surabaya to intercept a convoy approaching from the Makassar Strait. The ABDA force consisted of two heavy cruisers (HMS Exeter, USS Houston) and three light cruisers (HNLMS De Ruyter (Doorman's flagship), HNLMS Java, HMAS Perth), and nine destroyers (HMS Electra, HMS Encounter, HMS Jupiter, HNLMS Kortenaer, HNLMS Witte de With, USS Alden, USS John D. Edwards, USS John D. Ford, USS Pope and USS Paul Jones.

The Japanese convoy was escorted by two heavy (Nachi, Haguro ) and two light cruisers (Naka, Jintsu) and fourteen destroyers (Yudachi, Samidare, Murasame, Harusame, Minegumo, Asagumo, Yukikaze, Tokitsukaze, Amatsukaze, Hatsukaze, Yamakaze, Kawakaze, Sazanami, and Ushio) under the command of Rear Admiral Shoji Nishimura. The Japanese heavy cruisers were much more powerful, armed with ten 8-inch (203 mm) guns each and superb torpedoes. The Exeter was armed only with six of these guns. While the Houston carried nine 8-inchers, only six remained operable as her aft turret had been knocked out in an earlier air attack.

HMS Exeter under attack in the Battle of the Java Sea
Enlarge
HMS Exeter under attack in the Battle of the Java Sea

The ABDA force engaged the Japanese in the Java Sea, and battle raged intermittently from mid-afternoon to midnight as the Allies tried to reach and attack the troop transports of the Java invasion fleet, but were repulsed by superior firepower. The Allies had local air superiority during the daylight hours (supplied by JAC, Java Air Command), as Japanese air power could not reach the fleet due to bad weather. The bad weather also hindered communication, making cooperation between the many allied commands involved (recce, air cover, land based HQ, etc.) even worse than it already was. Japanese jamming of radio frequencies didn't help either. Particularly noteworthy was the poor gunnery between both sides during the battle. High points of the daylight fight was the Exeter being critically damaged by a hit in the boiler room from an 8-inch shell (she then limped home escorted by Witte de With, thus the allied fleet lost her only ship with radar), Kortenaer braking in two and sinking rapidly from a torpedo hit and Electra sinking. On the Japanese side, only Asagumo was damaged badly enough to have to leave. During the night fight De Ruyter, Java and Jupiter were sunk, thanks to a lucky long lance torpedoes salvo (the great majority of torpedo's fired by both sides missed). Doorman went down with De Ruyter. Although the allied fleet did not reach the invasion fleet, the battle did give the defenders of Java a one day respite.

The badly damaged Exeter limped back to Sunda Strait with an escort of two destroyers, but they were sunk by Japanese heavy cruisers deployed there. The four American destroyers had left the battle early, on their own initiative.

[edit] Battle of Sunda Strait

Main article: Battle of Sunda Strait

Only the cruisers Perth and Houston remained. The two ships arrived at Tanjung Priok on February 28 where they received orders to sail through Sunda Strait to Tjilatjap. By chance, on the night of March 1, 1942, they encountered near Batavia a Japanese amphibious landing force including three cruisers and ten destroyers. In a ferocious night action that ended after midnight of March 1, the two Allied cruisers were sunk but a Japanese minesweeper and a transport were sunk by friendly fire.

[edit] Consequences

A further two American destroyers were sunk as they attempted to escape to Australia. The main ABDA naval force had been almost totally destroyed: 10 ships and approximately 2,173 sailors had been lost. The Battle of the Java Sea ended significant Allied naval operations in south east Asia during 1942, and Japanese land forces invaded Java on February 28. The US and Royal Air Force then started to retreat to Australia. Dutch troops aided by British remnants fought fiercely for a week, many allied POWs being executed on the spot by Japanese, who were on a very tight schedule due to logistical problems. The decisive factors seemed to have been air power and luck. Eventually the Japanese won this battle of attrition and ABDA forces surrendered on March 9.

[edit] References

[edit] Books

  • Brown, David (1990). Warship Losses of World War Two. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-914-X.
  • D'Albas, Andrieu (1965). Death of a Navy: Japanese Naval Action in World War II. Devin-Adair Pub. ISBN 0-8159-5302-X.
  • Dull, Paul S. (1978). A Battle History of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1941-1945. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-097-1.
  • Hara, Tameichi (1961). Japanese Destroyer Captain. New York & Toronto: Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-345-27894-1.- Firsthand account of the battle by the captain of the Japanese destroyer Amatsukaze.
  • Hornfischer, James D. (2006). Ship of Ghosts: The Story of the USS Houston, FDR's Legendary Lost Cruiser, and the Epic Saga of Her Survivors. Bantam. ISBN 0-553-80390-5.
  • Lacroix, Eric, Linton Wells (1997). Japanese Cruisers of the Pacific War. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-311-3.
  • Morison, Samuel Eliot (1958 (reissue 2001)). The Rising Sun in the Pacific 1931 - April 1942, vol. 3 of History of United States Naval Operations in World War II. Castle Books. 0785813047.
  • Parkin, Robert Sinclair (1995). Blood on the Sea: American Destroyers Lost in World War II. Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-81069-7.
  • Schultz, Duane (1985). The Last Battle Station: The Story of the USS Houston. St Martins Press. ISBN 0-312-46973-X.
  • van Oosten, F. C. (1976). The Battle of the Java Sea (Sea battles in close-up; 15). Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-911-1.
  • Spector, Ronald (1985). “The Short, Unhappy Life of ABDACOM”, Eagle Against the Sun : The American War With Japan. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-394-74101-3.
  • Whiting, Brendan (1995). Ship of Courage: The Epic Story of HMAS Perth and Her Crew. Australia: Allen & Unwin Pty., Limited. ISBN 1-86373-653-0.
  • Winslow, Walter G. (1984). The Ghost that Died at Sunda Strait. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-218-4.- Firsthand account of the battle by a survivor from USS Houston
  • Winslow, Walter G. (1994). The Fleet the Gods Forgot: The U.S. Asiatic Fleet in World War II. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-928-X.

[edit] External links

[edit] Audio/visual media

  • Niek Koppen (Director). (1995) Slag in de Javazee, De (The Battle of the Java Sea) [Documentary film]. Netherlands: NFM/IAF. — 135 minute documentary of the battle. Won the "Golden Calf" award for "Best Long Documentary" at the 1996 Nederlands Film Festival.

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