Pacific · Netherlands, United States, Britain and Australia vs Japan
Battle of the Java Sea
27 February 1942 – 1 March 1942
Admiral Doorman's mixed Allied squadron sailed to intercept the Japanese invasion convoy bound for Java and was defeated in a seven-hour action by a Japanese cruiser force with better torpedoes and air reconnaissance. Doorman was lost with his flagship. The survivors were hunted down over the next two days as they tried to escape south.
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Day by day
— Doorman's action
Doorman takes five cruisers and nine destroyers out of Surabaya to find the invasion convoy and meets Takagi's covering force at 16:16 in clear weather. Exeter is hit in a boiler room and turns out of line, and in the confusion Kortenaer is torpedoed and Electra sunk; Jupiter mines herself after dark. At 23:30 Long Lance torpedoes hit De Ruyter and Java and Doorman goes down with his flagship, having signalled Houston and Perth not to stop for survivors.
— Sunda Strait
Houston and Perth reach Batavia, fuel what they can and sail for the Sunda Strait, running into the whole western invasion force anchored in Bantam Bay just before midnight. They fight for an hour against ten destroyers and three cruisers and sink nothing, though Japanese torpedoes aimed at them sink four of their own transports. Perth goes down at about 00:25 and Houston twenty minutes later.
— The last of them
Exeter, patched up at Surabaya, tries for the Sunda Strait with Encounter and the American destroyer Pope and is caught in daylight north-west of Bawean by four heavy cruisers. Exeter is shelled to a stop and torpedoed at about 11:40, Encounter goes with her, and Pope is finished off by dive-bombers in the afternoon. In four days the ABDA squadron has ceased to exist and Java is open.
