The Battle of the Java Sea?

Question

What was the Battle about and what ships were involved and sunk during it. The only ship I know is Northhampton-Class Heavy Cruiser USS Houston. It sank in the battle

Answer 1

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.

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.

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.
HNLMS de Ruyter (bron: Koninklijke Marine)
HNLMS de Ruyter (bron: Koninklijke Marine)

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.

Answer 2

Well you could go to Wiki, and read Saca's account in full (that's not to critize, Wiki has a good wrap on it..). Essentially the battle involved a rag-tag collection of Dutch, US, and UK ships trying to stop the Japanese invasion of Java and the Dutch East Indies (modern Indonesia). They failed partly because of problems co-ordinating their activities (they were brought together in a hurry), and partly because the Japanese naval forces at that time were 'on a roll' - much better co-ordinated and able to use their forces effectively. While not much can be said to be heroic about the battle of the Java Sea (except that individuals are always heroic in such affairs, even if they do no more than 'survive them'), the subsequent Battle of the Sunda Strait was essentially and classically heroic - a hopeless battle agains overwhelming odds that the the two allied ships could have avoided and saved themselves, but chose not to.

Those ships were the Houston and the Perth (from Australia). While heading back to Australia after the battle of the Java Sea, they passed through the Sunda Strait, at the western end of Java, and in the middle of the night stumbled across what everyone up until then had been looking for - the Japanese invasion fleet. Rather than continuing under cover of darkness they positioned themselves virtually in the centre of the Japanese fleet and despite the overwhelming odds against them, started firing. A few - a very few - of the crews of the two ships survived, were captured, and only released - telling their story for the first time - at the end of the war.

Answer 3

dutch ship De Ruyter was sunk on feb 27, 1942. Four hundred and thirty seven lost there lives.Also the light cruiser Java was destroyed with 512 out of a crew of 528. The Japenese convoys were intercepted apparently heading to invade Java itself, hope this helps.