The Battle of Badung Strait was a naval battle of the Pacific campaign of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, fought on the night of 19/20 February 1942 in Badung Strait (not to be confused with the West Java city of Bandung) between the

American-British-Dutch-Australian Command The American-British-Dutch-Australian (ABDA) Command, or ABDACOM, was a short-lived, supreme command for all Allies of World War II, Allied forces in South East Asia in early 1942, during the Pacific War in World War II. The command consists of ...

(ABDA) and the

Imperial Japan The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent forma ...

ese

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It in ...

. In the engagement, the four Japanese destroyers defeated an Allied force that outnumbered and outgunned them, sinking the

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

destroyer and escorting two

transport Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land ( rail and road), water, cable, pipelin ...

s to safety. The battle demonstrated the Japanese Navy's considerable superiority over the Allies in night fighting which lasted until the Battle of Cape St. George.

Background

A battalion of the 48th Infantry Division of the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

landed on Bali on 18 February 1942. Dutch Admiral

Karel Doorman Karel Willem Frederik Marie Doorman (23 April 1889 – 28 February 1942) was a Dutch naval officer who during World War II commanded remnants of the short-lived American-British-Dutch-Australian Command naval strike forces in the Battle ...

's naval forces were scattered around Indonesia, but the invasion of Bali could not be ignored – it would give the Japanese an airbase within range of the ABDA naval base at Surabaya – so he sent in all available ships. The short notice gave no time to concentrate his ships; accordingly, several Allied forces were to attack the Japanese.

Battle

The first Allied vessels to engage were the submarines and . Both attacked the Japanese convoy on 18 February, but did no damage and were driven off by depth charges from Japanese destroyers. Later that day, 20 planes of the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

attacked the convoy but succeeded only in damaging the transport ''Sagami Maru''. The Japanese were aware that their invasion convoy was likely to be attacked again, so they retreated north as soon as possible. The cruiser and the destroyers , and were well away and took no part in the action. The last ships to leave were the transports, each escorted by two destroyers. ''Sasago Maru'' was escorted by and ; the heavily damaged ''Sagami Maru'' was escorted by and . The first Allied group—consisting of the cruisers and and the destroyers , , and —sighted the Japanese in Badung Strait at about 22:00 and opened fire at 22:25 on 19 February. No damage was done in this exchange of fire, and the two Dutch cruisers continued through the strait to the northeast, to give the destroyers a free hand to engage with torpedoes. Then ''Piet Hein'', ''Pope'' and ''John D. Ford'' came into range. At 22:40, a

Long Lance torpedo The was a -diameter torpedo of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN), launched from surface ships. It is commonly referred to as the Long Lance by most modern English-language naval historians, a nickname given to it after the war by Samuel Eliot Mori ...

from ''Asashio'' hit ''Piet Hein'', sinking the Dutch destroyer immediately. ''Asashio'' and ''Oshio'' then exchanged gunfire with ''Pope'' and ''John D. Ford'', forcing the two American destroyers to retire to the southeast instead of following the cruisers to the northeast. In the darkness, ''Asashio'' and ''Oshio'' mistook each other for enemy ships and fired on each other for several minutes, without any damage. About three hours later, the second group of ABDA ships—the cruiser and the destroyers , , , and —reached Badung Strait. At 01:36, ''Stewart'', ''Pillsbury'' and ''Parrott'' launched torpedoes but did no damage. Then ''Oshio'' and ''Asashio'' sortied again and there was another exchange of gunfire. ''Tromp'' was hit by eleven shells from ''Asashio'', severely damaging her and hit both Japanese destroyers, killing four men on ''Asashio'' and seven on ''Oshio''. ''Tromp'' later had to return to Australia for repairs. ''Arashio'' and ''Michishio'' had been ordered by Admiral Kubo to turn back, and at about 02:20 they joined the battle. ''Michishio'' was hit by shells from ''Pillsbury'', ''John D. Edwards'' and ''Tromp'', killing 13 of her crew and wounding 83. She lost speed and had to be towed after the battle. During these exchanges, ''Stewart'' was also damaged topside and one shell hit opened seams below the waterline aft and flooded the steering engine room. Both groups of ships turned away, and the engagement was over.

Aftermath

The third ABDA group—seven

torpedo boat A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs were steam-powered craft dedicated to ramming enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes. Later evolutions launched variants of ...

s—arrived in Badung Strait at about 06:00 but did not encounter any Japanese ships. The battle was a significant victory for the Japanese. Lieutenant Commander Gorō Yoshii of ''Asashio'' and Commander Kiyoshi Kikkawa of ''Oshio'' had shown great bravery and skill. They had driven off a much larger Allied force, sunk the destroyer ''Piet Hein'', damaged the destroyer ''Stewart'' and severely damaged the cruiser ''Tromp''. Meanwhile, the Japanese had sustained little damage themselves, and had protected their transport ships. Bali's garrison of 600 Indonesian

militia A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...

offered no resistance to the Japanese, and its airfield was captured intact. The Japanese continued their conquest of the Dutch East Indies with the capture of Timor from 20–23 February. The ABDA forces engaged at Badung Strait were decisively defeated in the

Battle of the Java Sea The Battle of the Java Sea ( id, Pertempuran Laut Jawa, ja, スラバヤ沖海戦, Surabaya oki kaisen, Surabaya open-sea battle, Javanese : ꦥꦼꦫꦁꦱꦼꦒꦫꦗꦮ, romanized: ''Perang Segara Jawa'') was a decisive naval battle o ...

on 27 February 1942, in which the Dutch cruisers ''Java'' and ''De Ruyter'' were sunk and Admiral Doorman was killed. ''Tromp'' evaded this fate, for she was withdrawn to Australia to repair damage suffered at Badung Strait. The US destroyer ''Stewart'' was sufficiently damaged that she had to be placed in dry-dock for repairs in

Soerabaia Surabaya ( jv, ꦱꦸꦫꦧꦪ or jv, ꦯꦹꦫꦨꦪ; ; ) is the capital city of the Indonesian province of East Java and the second-largest city in Indonesia, after Jakarta. Located on the northeastern border of Java island, on the Madur ...

, where she was scuttled to avoid capture by the rapidly advancing Japanese. She was raised, repaired and put into Japanese service a year later as the patrol vessel ''P-102''.

Background

Battle

Aftermath

Notes

References

Further reading