1941 1942 1942 The Battle of the Java Sea (Indonesian: Pertempuran Laut Jawa, Japanese: スラバヤ沖海戦, romanized: Surabaya oki kaisen, lit.

Allied navies suffered a disastrous defeat at the hand of the Imperial Japanese Navy on 27 February 1942 and in secondary actions over successive days, starting when the main ABDA fleet strike force of 2 heavy cruisers, 3 light cruisers, and 9 destroyers, led by ABDA fleet's main commander, Admiral Karel Doorman, attempted to intercept a Japanese troop convoy in the Java Sea, only to be intercepted by the convoy's better equipped escort force.

A gunfight between allied and Japanese destroyers then resulted in the sinking of HMS Electra, before Doorman's force made a false retreat, ending the daylight engagement.

However, under the cover of night, Admiral Doorman's ships attempted another attack, during which the destroyer HMS Jupiter accidentally hit a Dutch mine and sank, but the Japanese immediately caught on to their plan, prompting the Haguro and her sistership Nachi to ambush the allied fleet with a stealthy long range torpedo attack.

One of Haguro's torpedoes then hit the allied flagship, the Dutch light cruiser De Ruyter, which sank to progressive flooding over several hours, killing Admiral Doorman.

[1] On 23 January 1942 a force of four American destroyers attacked a Japanese invasion convoy in Makassar Strait as it approached Balikpapan in Borneo.

The main Japanese group consisted of the heavy cruisers Haguro and Nachi (the latter, Takagi's flagship, having launched the floatplane), and the destroyers Kawakaze, Yamakaze, Ushio, and Sazanami.

This was supported by second group led by Rear Admiral Shoji Nishimura, consisting of the light cruisers Naka and Jintsū and the destroyers Yūdachi, Samidare, Murasame, Harusame, Minegumo, and Asagumo.

While underway, Nishimura's group was joined by the nearby destroyers Yukikaze, Amatsukaze, Hatsukaze, and Tokitsukaze, before being attacked by land based Dutch aircraft and B-17 bombers, but avoided damage due to the planes' poor marksmanship.

[5] The next day, Doorman's force was tracked by Nachi's floatplane while the Japanese fleet rigorously practiced in preparation for the coming engagement.

Captain Hara watched through his binoculars, clearly recognizing De Ruyter's masts as the fleet quickly became visible to the other ships.

[5][6] By 16:00, spotters on the Electra noticed Jintsū, leading Yukikaze, Amatsukaze, Hatsukaze, Tokitsukaze, at 16,000 yards, and her 4.7-inch (12 cm) guns fired the first shots of the battle, closely followed by all the cruisers and several destroyers.

Haguro focused her gunfire on De Ruyter, striking her with an 8-inch (203 mm) shell that blasted apart her auxillary motor room, starting a fire that killed one crewman and injured six others.

Meanwhile, Admiral Takagi's flagship focused her fire on Houston, which Nachi succeeded in hitting with two 8-inch (203 mm) shells, one punching through her bow and the other holing her stern, which managed to rupture an oil tank.

[6][7][8][9] A cluster of Japanese destroyers, Yukikaze, Tokitsukaze, Amatsukaze, Hatsukaze, Yamakaze, Kawakaze, and Ushio closed the range by Takagi's order, in the hope of enabling more accurate torpedoing.

One of Electra's 4.7-inch (12 cm) shells hit Tokitsukaze, causing thick white smoke to burst out of the ship, blinding Amatsukaze behind her.

The British destroyers Jupiter, Encounter, and Electra came to assist the crippled Exeter as Doorman's cruisers began to turn away, laying a smokescreen in an attempt to hide the disorganized formation.

In an ironic twist, the only Japanese torpedo to make its mark during the course of the afternoon battle was one of Haguro's launched at extreme range and hitting home 15 minutes after firing, striking the Dutch destroyer Kortenaer.

Minegumo stayed at a longer range and took part in a 1v2 against Jupiter and Encounter, lightly damaging them near with misses, but failed to score any direct hits.

Asagumo's crew conducted temporary repairs following her gunfight with Electra, getting the engine back up and running as she regained speed, retiring from the engagement and taking Minegumo to escort her.

All power was destroyed as the De Ruyter stopped dead in the water with significant flooding, and a massive fire broke out and enveloped the cruiser.

[5] With almost all of their ships sunk or damaged, the remaining allied warships halted all offensive actions and attempted to flee the vicinity, leaving the Dutch East Indies to the invaders.

After their victory, the Japanese fleet while returning to the invasion convoy stumbled upon the Dutch hospital ship SS Op Ten Noort as she was sailed to the battle scene to rescue survivors.

[27][28][29] While traversing the Java Sea, Witte De With was damaged by land based Japanese aircraft and forced to retire for Surabaya.

Departing at 19:00 on 28 February for the Sunda Strait, by chance they encountered the main Japanese invasion fleet for West Java in Bantam Bay.

After emergency repairs the badly-damaged Exeter left Surabaya for Ceylon; she departed at dusk on 28 February and limped toward Sunda Strait, escorted by the destroyers HMS Encounter and USS Pope.

The four U.S. destroyers of DesDiv 58—John D. Edwards, John D. Ford, Alden, and Paul Jones—were also at Surabaya; they left for Australia via the harbor's shallow eastern entrance at nightfall on 28 February.

As of 2002 the location of the wreck of only one of the eight ships sunk during the two so-called Java Sea Battles, HMS Jupiter, was known and plotted on an Admiralty chart.

[32] In late 2008, Empress discovered remnants of the last wreck, USS Pope, which had already been largely removed by illegal salvage diving operations.

[33] Although the MV Empress team kept the locations of their discoveries secret, by 2017 all eight ships had been reduced to remnants or even entirely removed by illegal commercial salvage operations.