In December 1941, the same month as Japanese planes infamously attacked Pearl Harbour,
the Imperial Japanese navy and army was beginning a lightning campaign in south east asia and the
east Indies. Over the course of just three months, they would overrun almost the entire region
in a remarkable string of victories. -
The campaigns for South East Asia and the Dutch East Indies were triggered in July 1941,
when the US, UK and Netherlands placed an oil embargo on Japan. Oil was vital to Japan’s war
economy, and the country had very small amounts of domestic production. In 1939 the Empire of
Japan had imported 19.4 million barrels of oil from the US and 14.1 from the Dutch East Indies-
compared to just 3.1 million barrels that were extracted domestically. The oil embargo would soon
cripple Japan’s economy. As Marc Lohnstein puts it – “For Japan… only two choices remained open:
to yield to US demands, or to acquire the necessary raw materials by force.” As you
might be able to guess, Japan chose war, and preparations began for a grand strike south.
As Japan did not have enough shipping to launch simultaneous invasions across the entire region,
their planners devised a plan to take the East Indies sequentially.
First to be attacked would be Malaya, Borneo and the Philippines, with a subsequent island-hopping
campaign concluding with the invasion of the capital of the Dutch East Indies, Java.
Key to this plan was a relentless pace and overwhelming firepower from both the air and sea.
As such, a large portion of the Japanese fleet was assigned to the ‘Southern Expeditionary Force’-
1 light aircraft carrier, 2 Battleships, 12 heavy cruisers, 4 light cruisers and 52 destroyers.
Under the overall command of Vice Admiral Nobutake Kondo,
the navy would provide close escort and support the invasion convoys as they progressed south.
As for a relentless pace, the Japanese wasted no time. By Christmas 1941 large parts of Malaya had
fallen, as well as both Kuching and Miri in British Borneo. When the island of Jolo west
of the Phillipines was seized, Japan had the required airbases to cover the first phase of
attacks on the Dutch East Indies. As Japan’s fleet carriers were busy elsewhere, capturing
airbases suitable for land based aircraft to use was vital for covering the advance.
The Japanese force was large, manned powerful modern ships and was extensively trained,
with the support of a very powerful aviation arm, highly skilled in attacking maritime targets.
All things that the opposing Allied force was
not and did not have. -
The Allied naval forces in South East Asia in December 1941 were a disparate bunch, representing
the differing pre-war priorities and dispositions of three navies and four nations. After the
British capital ships Prince of Wales and Repulse were sunk off the coast of Malaya barely two days
into the campaign, the largest allied force in the region was Admiral Thomas Hart’s US Asiatic Fleet.
The Asiatic fleet was a small and neglected force, consisting only of the heavy cruisers Houston and
Boise, the old light cruiser Marblehead, and 13 clemson-class destroyers that were commissioned
during the first world war. It did have a force of 29 submarines- albeit old ones- which were useful,
but its only planes were 28 catalina flying boats- good for reconnaissance,
but not much use against Japanese fighters. The lack of aviation was a theme in the Royal
Navy force in the region too. The aircraft carrier Indomitable had originally been
intended to accompany Prince of Wales and Repulse, but had been delayed after striking
a coral reef in the west indies. When it did arrive in January 1942 it, and virtually all
of Britain’s air assets, were funnelled into Malaya, as the campaign there deteriorated.
Britain did not have much else in the far east. Their most powerful remaining ship
was the York-class heavy cruiser Exeter. Exeter was supported by the perth-class light cruisers
Perth and Hobart and two old world war 1 vintage Danae class light cruisers.
The cruisers were joined by a handful of modern destroyers, as well as occasionally
a variety of older destroyers and sloops when deployed to escort convoys to Singapore.
The third Allied naval power in the far east was the Royal Netherlands Navy,
which mustered three cruisers: Tromp, Java and the most modern, De Ruyter. De Ruyter was a capable
ship, but it was outclassed by equivalent Japanese light cruisers. 7 Dutch destroyers
were present along with 15 submarines, all of which dated from the mid 1920s.
Logistics and resupply were a nightmare for the Dutch as their homeland was occupied by Germany,
making obtaining fresh manpower or spares virtually impossible.
The situation was so bad that one of the destroyers had no crew, and had to wait for one
to be sunk so that its crew could be transferred. This rag-tag multinational force would be based
mostly on Java, variously mainly at Soerabaja or Tandjong Priok. Neither of these ports had
sufficient anti-air protection, which would become a problem before too long.
In so far as the Allied forces had a plan going into 1942,
it was to defend the so-called malay barrier and keep the Japanese out of the Indian ocean,
and to try and disrupt Japanese landings in the Dutch East Indies where possible.
Despite the large number of Japanese ships deployed they did not have enough to escort
all the invasion convoys, so it might be possible to pick an undefended one off, even with the
meagre forces provided to the Allied commanders. On January 1st 1942 Admiral Thomas Hart arrived
at Java, with his fleet having been relocated in the face of the enemy invasion of the Phillipines.
On arrival he was informed that he’d been appointed as the overall commander of Allied
naval forces in South East Asia, as part of the newly-formed American-British-Dutch-Australian
Command – a single unified Allied command structure for the entire region.
Admiral Hart soon had his work cut out for him trying to halt the Japanese advance.
On January 10th, a Japanese force under Major General Shizuo Sakaguchi landed at Tarakan
in Dutch Borneo, and quickly broke through the single Dutch battalion defending the area.
On the same day, Japan landed at Menado further east, launching the first airborne assault in
Asia to take the airfield there. With a second line of airbases captured. missions
could now be flown further south, lining up attacks on Makassar, Kendari, and Balikpapan.
Meanwhile, the Allies were doing their best to respond to the myriad Japanese landings.
Substantial air attacks were launched on the newly-captured airbases by US, Dutch and
Australian aircraft, and a naval forces prepared to try and disrupt further Japanese landings.
Under American Rear Admiral William Glassford, ‘Task Force 5’ twice went
to sea in mid-january on the basis of faulty intelligence,
searching in vain for Japanese invasion convoys near southern borneo.
On January 20th the cruiser Boise hit an uncharted reef and suffered a hundred foot
gouge in her side, forcing the cruiser to be withdrawn from South East Asia entirely
and Glassford’s ships to return to port. Two days later, a Catalina flying boat
spotted a Japanese invasion convoy heading south to Balikpapan.
Admiral Hart ordered Task Force 5 to engage, but in the intervening days Houston and two destroyers
had been reassigned to escort a convoy and Marblehead had developed engine trouble.
This left just the four destroyers of Commander Paul Talbot’s 5th destroyer division available,
and these ships set off north on January 23rd, covered by poor weather. Marblehead and another
destroyer followed behind, intending to be on station to cover Talbot’s retreat.
In the early hours of January 24th, the four destroyers steamed into Balikpapan bay
at high speed. They could spot 14 transports anchored in the bay, silhouetted against the
shoreline by oil wells that the retreating Dutch had set ablaze. There were supposed to be 15,
but shortly after midnight the Dutch submarine K-18 had sunk the transport Tsuruga Maru,
on the south-western edge of the invasion convoy. Another transport, the Nana Maru,
had been bombed by Dutch aircraft and was ablaze, helpfully illuminating the ships around her.
The local Japanese commander, Rear Admiral Shoji Nishimura,
had taken his flagship Naka and destroyers to the west of the convoy to hunt for K-18. This
left the eastern approach to the convoy unguarded when Talbot’s destroyers arrived on the scene.
They quickly got stuck in, sinking four Japanese transports over the next hour
and damaging others for the cost of just a single shell hit sustained on the USS John D. Ford.
It was a victory for the Allies, one of their first at sea against the Empire of Japan.
It was though a victory which didn’t change very much. The Japanese advance pressed on regardless,
with Balikpapan secured by January 25th and the airfield at Kendari captured on January 24th.
This put the main allied naval base at Soerabaja within range of Japanese bombers,
heralding the start of near-daily air attacks.
Things soon got worse for the Allies when on February 4th Japanese bombers attacked
the Allied Striking force while it was attempting to hinder landings at Makassar,
damaging Houston and forcing Marblehead to be sent back to the US for repairs. The Japanese
march southwards continued unabated. Makassar fell on February 9th and Singapore on February 15th.
This marked the final collapse of British Malaya, and opened up Sumatra to Japanese attack.
No time was wasted. Before Singapore had even officially surrendered,
airborne troops were being dropped over Palembang, the southernmost part of Sumatra
and home to two key allied airbases and several important oil refineries.
The allied defence held initially, but the following day there was a large supporting
amphibious invasion, which overran the remaining Allied troops by February 16th.
With the loss of southern Sumatra the net around Java had closed from the west, and just days
later the same happened on the eastern side. In mid-february four Japanese fleet carriers arrived
in the Java Sea, launching a devastating air raid against Port Darwin on February 19th. 188 planes
attacked the Australian port, sinking 9 ships in the harbour and destroying many of the facilities,
crippling the Allied ability to bring supplies into the Dutch East Indies.
On the same day Japanese troops landed on the island of Bali, seeking to wrest control of the
airfield at Denpasar from the Dutch authorities. The allies hurled what naval and air force they
had available at the landings, but it was to no avail. Bali was soon controlled by Japan,
and two Allied ships were taken out of action. The next day it was Timor’s turn, as Japanese troops
under Colonel Doi Sadashichi overran the island – both the dutch and Portuguese controlled parts.
Amidst this maelstrom on February 12th the Allies appointed a new naval commander,
Vice Admiral Conrad Helfrich, who was determined to mount whatever resistance he could to defend
the last bastion of the Dutch East Indies – Java. Join me in the next episode for the
Battle of the Java Sea- make sure you subscribe and enable notifications so you don’t miss it.