Pacific · Netherlands, United States, Britain and Australia vs Japan
Dutch East Indies Campaign
16 December 1941 – 9 March 1942
Japan seized the oil and rubber of the Dutch East Indies in a series of leapfrogging landings down Borneo, Celebes and Sumatra, each covered by land-based aircraft from the last capture. The improvised ABDA command could not hold any of it. After the Allied fleet was destroyed in the Java Sea, Japanese troops landed on Java and the Dutch surrendered within a week.
Explore Dutch East Indies Campaign on the interactive map · Wikipedia
Day by day
— The oilfields
The Kawaguchi detachment lands at Miri in Sarawak eight days into the war and takes the oilfield and the Lutong refinery, both already fired by the demolition parties. Kuching follows on 24 December. The point of the whole campaign is fuel, and every step is taken within reach of the aircraft flown in at the last one.
— Two prongs
The eastern force lands at Tarakan for its oil and, the same day, at Manado in the northern Celebes behind a drop of naval paratroops. Kendari's airfield, the best in the Indies, follows on 24 January and Ambon on the 31st. The ABDA command formed on 15 January under Wavell has no aircraft to spare for any of them.
— Palembang
About 360 paratroops drop on the refineries and the airfield at Palembang, and the seaborne force comes up the Musi the next day; the wells are only partly destroyed. Four American destroyers had got in among the Balikpapan transports on 24 January and sunk four of them, the first US surface action since 1898, and it changed nothing. Bali and Timor are next.
— Timor and Darwin
Troops land at Kupang and at Dili in Portuguese Timor, cutting the ferry route by which aircraft reached Java from Australia. The day before, 188 aircraft from Nagumo's four carriers and from Kendari bombed Darwin, sank eight ships in the harbour and left the port unusable for weeks. Bali fell on the 19th and with it the airfield at Denpasar.
— Java
With Doorman's squadron destroyed in the Java Sea on 27 February, the Sixteenth Army lands before dawn at three points: Merak and Bantam Bay in the west, Eretan Wetan east of Batavia, and Kragan in the east. The Dutch and the small British and Australian contingents fall back into the hills toward Bandung. Batavia is abandoned on 5 March.
— Kalijati
Ter Poorten met Imamura at Kalijati on 8 March and agreed to surrender all forces on Java; the order is broadcast from Bandung on the 9th. Some 42,000 Dutch and 8,000 Allied troops go into captivity, and with them the oil, tin and rubber the war was fought for. The whole archipelago has taken twelve weeks.
