Two weeks ago, we covered the fall of the last key cities and airfields in Borneo,
the Celebes and the Moluccas. From the airfield of Kendari II alone, the Japanese had already
achieved their goal of having the necessary range to successfully conduct air operations over Java;
yet to be completely certain that their most important offensive was going to come into
fruition, the Japanese commanders had decided that they first wanted to take southern Sumatra
and the important airfield of Palembang. Last week, we also saw the Japanese pierce the Malay
Barrier for the first time with the capture of Singapore; and today, they turn to Burma
to start their advance on one of the most important British ports in Southeast Asia:
Rangoon. Join us as the Empire of the Rising Sun commences the invasions of Burma and Sumatra.
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As we’ve covered previously, General Imamura had appointed the 38th Division of Lieutenant-General
Sano Tadayoshi to conduct the invasion of Sumatra. After their successful capture of Hong Kong,
the division had advanced into Cam Ranh Bay by January 24; while the 3rd Air Force had been
executing air raids over Sumatra’s main airfields since late December.
Furthermore, Japanese forces had also occupied the Anambas Islands on January 26
to set-up air bases for conducting the Sumatra and Java operations. This was because the
invaders were planning to parachute a regiment of paratroopers over the key Palembang airfield,
while the bulk of the 38th Division landed at the Bangka Island and navigated up the Musi, Saleh and
Telang rivers to support the attack on Palembang. Once Palembang was finally under Japanese hands,
the invaders then planned to swiftly seize the Martapura and Tanjungkarang airfields as well
as the oil installations around Talang Abab and Limau. The first landings would be carried out
by a two battalion-strong advance party that departed Cam Rahn Bay on February 9, with the
rest of the division following them two days later to ascend the Musi River and join the battlefield.
The 38th’s landings were to be supported by a strong fleet commanded by Vice-Admiral Ozawa
Jisaburo, mainly consisting of six cruisers and eleven destroyers from the 2nd Fleet
and the Southern Expeditionary Fleet . On the other side, the Dutch counted with four
territorial commands on the island of Sumatra, under the overall control of Major-General
Roelof Overakker. In south Sumatra in particular, Lieutenant-Colonel Vogelesang had at his disposal
about 2000 men at Palembang, with a further two companies at Djambi, some 2000 British
reinforcements and the support of 15 Hurricanes, 35 Hudsons and 40 Blenheims from the RAF.
Although a parachuting operation was not expected, the Dutch, led by Admiral
Helfrich , were expecting a naval invasion, so Admiral Doorman’s ABDA Striking Force was ordered
to Oosthaven with the objective of intercepting the invasion fleet. On February 14, with reports
of Ozawa’s convoy approaching southern Sumatra, Helfrich ordered Doorman to depart Oosthaven
and carry out a decisive attack on the invaders. But at the same time, the Japanese paratroopers,
led by Colonel Kume Seiichi, finally started their droppings over the Palembang airfield,
covered by elements of the 3rd Air Division. Despite the slow speed of the Japanese Ki-56
transports and the vigilant patrols of the RAF , the invaders achieved complete surprise in their
paratrooper operation, aided by the dense smoke of the burned oilfields of Borneo and the Celebes.
By midday, 180 men had been dropped into the airfield, with a further 90 men coming down
on the oil refineries of Pladjoe. While strafing the Dutch anti-aircraft defenses, Japanese planes
also dropped weapons, ammunition and other equipment for the paratroopers to employ.
Benefitting from the close air support, Kume’s men quickly engaged and defeated waves of Dutch
soldiers, inflicting heavy casualties on them and successfully capturing Pladjoe’s oil refineries.
Yet the fighting was bitter nonetheless, with staunch resistance from the defenders that
tenaciously held on to the airfield. By midnight, however, the airfield would also fall into the
hands of the invaders, causing General Overakker to order a general retreat towards Oosthaven,
from where they would be evacuated. At this point,
the advance party of the 38th Division had also entered into the Mentok anchorage,
with one battalion heading towards Bangka Island and the rest of the party approaching the coast of
Sumatra. Meanwhile, in the early hours of February 15, bad luck struck Doorman’s Striking Force,
as the Dutch destroyer Van Ghent ran aground in the Stolze Strait and was lost due to the
damage suffered. A couple of hours later, Doorman also lost the element of surprise when they were
sighted by a Japanese floatplane from the carrier Chōkai. Air attacks soon followed,
with Doorman recalling the outcome of the Battle of the Makassar Strait and ordering his forces to
pull back. While they retreated, Japanese bombers continued to drop bombs over the Allied fleet;
but at the end of the day, only minor damage would be inflicted on the Allied vessels.
This was, however, Doorman’s second defeat at the hands of the Japanese air power,
leaving the Japanese invasion fleet unimpeded to proceed with its plans.
In the meantime, 60 more paratroopers were dropped over Palembang to reinforce the Japanese forces,
which were conducting mopping-up operations and were consolidating their gains;
while the advance party successfully seized Mentok and its airfield and, under a rain of fire and
bombs dropped upon them by the RAF aircraft, then started to ascend the Musi, Telang and
Saleh rivers en route to its objectives. Thus, the invaders rapidly got to Palembang and successfully
made contact with the paratrooper force. At this point, Kume and his men had advanced
into the city of Palembang, and by nightfall, the 38th’s soldiers would help him secure the city.
On the next day, contact would also be made with Pladjoe’s oil refineries and the main strength
of the 38th Division would finally arrive at the mouth of the Musi River . But meanwhile, General
Sano ordered the Tanaka Detachment of the advance party to advance south towards Tanjungkarang.
Departing on February 17, the Japanese quickly seized the Talang Jimar oil field,
but their advance was bogged down by the swamp forests of the region. By February 19,
units of the Tanaka Detachment managed to capture the Martapura airfield after a minor engagement,
then continuing their advance with haste. That same day, the Japanese had also completed their
conquest of Bangka Island , while Sano sent the Kanki Detachment to capture Lahat and Bengkulu,
and one infantry company to advance against Jambi.
By dawn on February 20, the Japanese had crossed the Mandah River and had gotten to Tanjungkarang.
But despite their efforts, most of the Dutch defenders had been evacuated from Oosthaven on
February 17; the invaders could only catch with their eyes the rearguard of the defenders as they
sailed away on two gunboats. The Tanjungkarang airfield would be captured on February 21 at
long last, then being quickly put to work for air operations against Java. On this day, the Kanki
Detachment also departed Palembang and captured Lahat on the 22nd, Lubuklinggau on the 23d
and, after crossing a mountain range, Bengkulu on the west coast on the 24th. Jambi would finally
fall into Japanese hands on March 4, concluding the invasion of southern Sumatra. The operation
had been a huge success for the Japanese Empire, capturing several airfields and oil refineries
that could further aid the war machine of the Rising Sun. Although most of these were in a
pretty bad state, the invaders would quickly set out to repair them so that they could put them to
use for the Empire. With the loss of Sumatra, Java was now surrounded and the decision was made to
essentially dissolve the ABDACOM, since the island could be better defended by General ter Poorten’s
command. In the meantime, the Japanese were also planning the invasions of Bali and Timor,
the last of Java’s dehors before the main operation of the Dutch East Indies campaign.
Although we’ll cover Timor more in detail next week, the capture of Bali was assigned to the
Kanemura Detachment, consisting of a battalion of the 48th Division under Commander Kanemura Matabe.
They had traveled to Makassar by February 15, from where they would finally depart three days later,
escorted by a support fleet consisting of the cruiser Nagara and some seven destroyers.
Concurrently, when Admiral Helfrich discovered that the objective of the invaders was Bali,
he quickly met with Doorman on February 18 and devised a very flawed plan for a counterattack.
Since the vessels at the disposition of the Dutch admirals were scattered
and coming from different bases , the plan was for the attack to develop in three stages
with each group attacking separately against what they believed was a large Japanese force.
In all fairness, instead of a counterattack, this plan looked more like a raid. But despite their
hasteness to stop the invasion, the Japanese had already entered the Sanur anchorage by midnight,
successfully landing on Bali in the early hours of February 19 and jeopardizing the entire point of
the Allied attack. Upon landing, the Kanemura Detachment headed westward under heavy rain
and quickly seized the Denpasar barracks and the Kuta airfield almost without resistance. This
effectively neutralized the Allied presence in Bali, and the key town of Singaraja would finally
fall a week later. But on that day, while the main naval force stood by for support on the sea
east of Sepanjang Island, four Japanese destroyers of the 8th Destroyer Division
and the troop transports got attacked by a relentless aerial bombardment that hindered
their efforts and damaged one of the transports. In fear of losing it, the destroyers Arashio and
Michishio escorted it back to Makassar, while the destroyers Asashio and Oshio remained in
the Sanur anchorage until disembarkation was completed and finally departed after dark.
These two destroyers were about to face the first group of the ABDA Striking Force.
Shortly before midnight, Doorman deployed his two cruisers and four destroyers on the Badung Strait,
ordering the cruisers to engage with gunfire and the destroyers to then attack with torpedoes.
This was a poor plan and it was also poorly executed due to the slowness to fire of the Dutch
cruisers, with one of them not even opening fire. In the ensuing firefight, the Asashio was hit on
her searchlight, but she also quickly scored a hit on the cruiser Java, causing some minor damage.
This prompted the Dutch cruisers to race off to the north and break contact. Afterwards, the
Japanese were engaged by the Allied destroyers, which caused heavy damage on the troop transport.
But the Asashio yet again saved the day, isolating the Dutch destroyer Piet Hein with great technique
and mercilessly sinking her enemy. After the demise of the Piet Hein, the firefight continued,
but neither side hit the other again and, in the end, the Allied destroyers escaped to
the southeast. Now it was the turn of the second group, but the Japanese were to be reinforced by
the Arashio and Michishio returning from Makassar. Four destroyers and one cruiser entered the Badung
Strait and started to fire torpedoes against the anchorage, where they believed the enemy would be.
At this point, the main Japanese naval force had also been alerted and the Nagara was steaming to
the area. But meanwhile, the Asashio and Oshio spotted the American destroyers and quickly
engaged them in an intense firefight which saw the Stewart getting severely hit and damaged.
The result was pandemonium. Parrott nearly plowed into Stewart which was leading the destroyers,
while John D. Edwards avoided Parrot only by making a hard turn to Starboard.
The Japanese destroyers then shifted the attention to the cruiser Tromp,
pounding the Dutch vessel and causing extensive fires. In return, Tromp scored a hit on the bridge
of the Oshio and also inflicted heavy damage on her. The Asashio took a single hit forward on
her bridge that killed seven of her crew. As a result all three ships then broke contact.
And to the north, the Arashio and Michishio were caught by surprise by the American destroyers,
suffering a deadly crossfire that caused huge damage on the Michishio. The Tromp also turned
to her and scored a tremendous hit on her engine room, which caused her to stop. But
before finishing the Michishio off, the Allied promptly disengaged and escaped to the northeast.
Eight torpedo boats of the third group then entered the scene, but they could
never get into attack position and would have to return to Soerabaja without achieving anything.
All in all, the small Japanese destroyer division had fended off Doorman’s attack admirably and had
even inflicted more casualties than the attackers, sinking one destroyer and severely damaging the
Tromp and the Stewart, which would later have to be scuttled after an accident in a repairing dock.
Yet again, Doorman had failed to score a local victory against the IJN due to his poor planning
and ineffectiveness. Now, we turn to Burma, where we had left off Brigadier Smyth on the
Bilin River , unable to further retreat to some better defensive position behind the Sittang River
due to the refusal of General Hutton. Brigadier Smyth would call it a disastrous decision.
Back on February 6, while General Wavell visited Burma and encouraged the defenders
to take back all the lost territory, the Japanese 33rd Division of Lieutenant-General Sakurai Shozo
had crossed into Burma to the north of Moulmein to cover the flanks of the 55th Division.
With his flanks now secured, General Iida decided to continue his invasion of Burma on February 7.
From Moulmein, he first set out to cut off the two Indian battalions that still resisted at Martaban;
in response, the defenders attempted a bayonet charge against the roadblock
and subsequently marched through difficult terrain for two days.
Then, from February 10 onwards, Iida sent his forces on several night assaults against Indian
forces at the Kuzeik-Pa’an area. Despite the brave resistance of the Indians, by the morning of
February 12, the invaders began to get the upper hand and successfully pushed back the defenders.
This left Smyth’s position at the Bilin river extremely vulnerable, and the Japanese general
quickly set out to exploit this. On February 13 , the 214th Regiment advanced rapidly across the
Bilin river some 10km north of Bilin town, while the 215th Regiment outflanked the Indian positions
at Duyinzeik to cross the river at Yinon. Although reinforced by the 48th Indian Brigade,
Smyth’s forces were in bad shape and were widely outnumbered by the two Japanese divisions.
A series of confused skirmishes and fierce jungle fighting ensued in the following days,
with the 214th trying to break through the Indian defenses; but to no avail, as Smyth’s men would
successfully hold their ground by February 18. On that same day though, the British commander
discovered that enemy forces were threatening to outflank him, so he commited his last reserves to
contain the invaders while Hutton himself traveled to the frontlines to assess the situation.
The next day, seeing that the enemy had advanced in full strength, Hutton reluctantly gave
permission to withdraw to the Sittang River. Under the cover of darkness, Smyth rapidly began moving
his forces towards the Sittang Bridge, with the 16th and 48th Indian Brigades marching to Kyaikto,
the first step of the 48km difficult retreat through thick jungle. Just as
Hutton’s decision to stay at the Bilin River, this retreat would turn out to be a disaster.
Next week, we will cover the Battle of the Sittang Bridge in Burma and the continuation of
the Dutch East Indies campaign with the invasion of Timor and the crucial Battle of the Java Sea,
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