Battle of the Java Sea 1942
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 27 February 1942 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1942 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | World War II era (1939–1945) | derived from year |
| Nearest landmass | At sea (nearest continent: Asia) | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Asia | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Dutch East Indies campaign | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | Australia, Empire of Japan, Netherlands, United States | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | -5.0000, 111.0000 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of the Java Sea (Indonesian: Pertempuran Laut Jawa, Japanese: スラバヤ沖海戦, romanized: Surabaya oki kaisen, lit. 'Sea Battle off Surabaya') was a decisive naval battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II.
Allied naval forces suffered a decisive defeat at the hands of the Imperial Japanese Navy on 27 February 1942. In secondary actions over successive days, starting when the main Combined Striking Force (CSF) of two heavy cruisers, three light cruisers, and nine destroyers, led by the Striking Force commander (EC, Eskadercommandant or Squadron Commander), Rear-Admiral Karel Doorman of the Royal Netherlands Navy, attempted to intercept a Japanese troop convoy in the Java Sea, only to be intercepted by the convoy's larger escort forces. The battle started as a stalemate, but the heavy cruiser Haguro changed the course of the battle when she crippled the heavy cruiser HMS Exeter with gunfire, then torpedoed and sank the Dutch destroyer Kortenaer, sending Doorman's fleet into temporary disorder as the damaged Exeter withdrew. A gunfight between Allied and Japanese destroyers then resulted in the sinking of HMS Electra and shell damage to her opponent Asagumo before Doorman's force turned away, ending the daylight engagement as dusk fell.
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…
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of the Java Sea (revision 1380496563), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
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Browse more: battles at sea · Asia · World War II era battles