Java Sea, battle of

Java Sea, battle of, series of naval encounters fought off this Netherlands East Indies island between Japanese and Allied warships. The initial battle, on the afternoon and night of 27 February 1942, was the first fleet action of the Pacific war and one of the last that was not fought totally at night until the battle of Leyte Gulf in October 1944.

The Japanese, who called the first encounter the Naval Battle off Surabaya, had already captured much of the Netherlands East Indies and had isolated Java before launching, under the overall command of Vice-Admiral Ibo Takahashi, two invasion forces against the island. The 41 transports of the eastern force, bound for Surabaya, were covered by Vice-Admiral Takagi Takeo's four cruisers and fourteen destroyers. They were opposed by a mixed ABDA Command force of five American, British, Dutch, and Australian cruisers and nine destroyers commanded tactically by a Dutchman, Rear-Admiral Karel Doorman. In theory the two forces were evenly balanced, but the Allied force was a makeshift one and Tagaki's ships had more fire-power and the superior Long Lance torpedoes. Communications between the Allied ships were poor or non-existent, there was no common system of fire control, and Doorman had never previously fought a fleet action. Anticipating a night action he had left his ships' reconnaissance aircraft ashore. This badly hampered them, and the lack of air cover generally was a crucial factor in their defeat. The British cruiser, Exeter, was damaged and forced to withdraw to Surabaya, two Dutch cruisers and three destroyers were sunk, and Doorman was killed. Tagaki, whose caution throughout the action later earned him much criticism, had one destroyer damaged.

The next night the two surviving Allied cruisers from the battle, the Australian Perth and the US Houston, while withdrawing from the area through the Sunda Strait, found the other Japanese invasion fleet at anchor 65 km. (40 mi.) west of Batavia. They sank two ships and damaged three others before the Japanese covering force of three cruisers and nine destroyers arrived and sank them. The same evening Exeter and two destroyers left Surabaya in an attempt to escape to Ceylon. But the next morning, 1 March, soon after the Japanese began their landings on Java, they were spotted by air reconnaissance, intercepted, and sunk.

The only Allied warships to survive these actions were four US destroyers which had withdrawn early and which subsequently managed to slip through the Bali Straits and reach Australia.

Bibliography

Van Oosten, F. C. , The Battle of the Java Sea (Annapolis, Md., 1976).