Battle of the Java Sea
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| Battle of the Java Sea | |||||||
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| Part of World War II, Pacific War | |||||||
 HMS Exeter under attack during the Battle of the Java Sea. |
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| Combatants | |||||||
 Netherlands United States United Kingdom Australia |
 Japan |
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| Commanders | |||||||
| Karel Doorman† Conrad Helfrich |
Takeo Takagi | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 2 heavy cruisers 3 light cruisers 12 destroyers |
2 heavy cruisers 2 light cruisers 14 destroyers 10 transports |
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| Casualties | |||||||
| 5 cruisers sunk 5 destroyers sunk 2,300 sailors killed |
4 loaded troop transports sunk | ||||||
| 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 – Manado – 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 navies suffered a series of disastrous defeats at the hand of the Imperial Japanese Navy, in actions over several days in February-March 1942. The American-British-Dutch-Australian Command (ABDA) commander, Admiral Karel Doorman was killed. 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.
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[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 Allies fought unsuccessfully, in the Battle of Palembang, 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 Allied forces. They were disunited (ships came from four separate navies) and demoralized by constant air attacks and the impending fear of doom. In addition, the coordination between Allied navies and air forces was poor.
[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.
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, as Japanese air power could not reach the fleet due to bad weather. The bad weather also hindered communications, making cooperation between the many Allied parties involved — in reconnaissance, air cover and fleet headquarters — even worse than it already was. Japanese jamming of radio frequencies didn't help either. Exeter was the only ship in the battle to have been equipped with radar, an emerging technology at the time.
Both sides exhibited poor gunnery and torpedo skills during the battle. The only notable example of gunnery was Exeter being critically damaged by a hit in the boiler room from an 8-inch shell. The ship then limped away, escorted by Witte de With. Kortenaer broke in two and sank rapidly after a torpedo hit. Electra, covering Exeter, engaged in a duel with Jintsu and Asagumo, scoring several hits but suffering severe damage to its superstructure. After a serious fire started on Electra and its remaining turret ran out of ammunition, abandon ship was ordered. On the Japanese side, only Asagumo was forced to retire due to damage. The vast majority of torpedoes fired by both sides missed, until De Ruyter, Java and Jupiter were sunk, by one devastating long lance salvo. 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 towards Sunda Strait, escorted by Encounter and Pope, but all three ships were intercepted and sunk by the Japanese heavy cruisers Nachi and Haguro on the morning of 1 March.
The other four U.S. destroyers had left the battle early, on their own initiative.
[edit] 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. Material was running short in Java, and neither was abled to be re-armed or fully re-fueled. By chance, on the night of March 1, 1942, they encountered near Batavia the main Japanese invasion fleet for West Java. The Allied ships were engaged by at least three cruisers and several destroyers. In a ferocious night action that ended after midnight of March 1, Perth and Houston were sunk. A Japanese minesweeper and a troop 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 in 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 were executed on the spot by the 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
- CombinedFleet.com: Tabular history of Japanese ships involved in the battle. Retrieved on May 17, 2006.
- Battle of the Java Sea: 27 February 1942 by Vincent P. O'Hara. Retrieved on May 17, 2006.
- Battle of Sunda Strait: 28 February-March 1 1942 by Vincent P. O'Hara. Retrieved on May 31, 2006.
- Details on the battle and sunken ships from a diving site. Retrieved on May 17, 2006.
- Details on the battle and the report from the captain of HMS Exeter. Retrieved on May 17, 2006.
- US Navy report of the battle from 1943.. Retrieved on May 17, 2006.
- The Java Sea Battle. Retrieved on May 17, 2006.- Short synopsis of the battle but has some good pictures.
- Navweaps.com order of battle.. Retrieved on May 17, 2006.
- Australian War Memorial description of the battle with some pictures.. Retrieved on May 17, 2006.
- Gill, G. Hermon (1957). Chapter 15-16 (PDF). Official Histories – Second World War; Volume I – Royal Australian Navy, 1939–1942. Australian War Memorial. Retrieved on May 17, 2006.
- Fall of the Dutch East Indies (HTML, Flash). Animated histories of Pacific battles of World War II.
- United States Strategic Bombing Survey (Pacific) - Naval Analysis Division (1946). Chapter 3: The Japanese Invasion of the Philippines, the Dutch East Indies, and Southeast Asia. The Campaigns of the Pacific War. United States Government Printing Office. Retrieved on November 20, 2006.
[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.
