Battle of the Java Sea (The War That Came Early)

The Battle of the Java Sea was the only major naval engagement between the Allies and the Imperial Japanese Navy during 1941. An allies fleet consisting of British, American and Dutch ships attacked Japanese transport ships of the coast of Borneo and were defeated. After this, the Allied Navies withdrew from all ports in the Dutch East Indies.

Background
When war began in January of 1941, the US Pacific Fleet based at Pearl Harbor managed to defeat a Japanese attempt to put them out of action with a sneak attack on their main base in Hawaii. However, the US fleet in the Philippines wasn't so lucky. What was left, was forced to flee and they headed south to Java, making using Surabaya as their port of operations.

Ships from the US and the UK also gathered at the port creating an allied fleet. By mid February, the fleet was called into action when a Japanese forces landed on eastern Borneo, in order to capture the military bases there.

The Battle
The Allied fleet consisting of US and Dutch destroyers with a US and British light cruiser, all sailed for Borneo. Air cover was primarily the job of the Military Aviation of the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army. However, laack of coperation between the higher ups meant that thier planes were inefective at providing any air support.

Before night fell, the destroyers of the fleet all left to engage the Japanese transports and ships at their beach head with long range torpedos, leaving the two light cruisers on their own. Later during the night, the destroyers engaged the enemy, but no more news was broadcasted, leaving many to ponder a dire fate for them.

As dawn rose, the two cruisers were spoted by a Japanese float plane. Unable to shoot it down, the plane reported their locatoin and flew away. This promted what was left of the fleet to withdraw back to Surabaya.

Aftermath
Although the dead US sailors were remembered as heroes in the US press, it was of little consolation as the allies fleets broke up and were pushed further south. USS Boise the only surviving US ship of the battle was forced to flee Surabaya for Darwin in Australia, but even there found little safe haven. Although a gallant effort, the attempts to stop the Japanese were thwarted by lack of coordination between various allied powers.



