Sea battle off Balikpapan

Sea battle off Balikpapan

Part of: World War II , Pacific War

date	January 24, 1942
place	Southeast of Balikpapan on Borneo
output	US tactical victory at sea Japanese victory on land

Parties to the conflict
Netherlands United Kingdom United States	Japan
Commander
William A. Glassford	Shōji Nishimura
Troop strength
4 destroyers 1 submarine (Dutch) 9 B-10 bombers (Dutch)	1 light cruiser 10 destroyer 15 troop transports 4 mine layers 4 submarine hunters 3 patrol boats
losses
no	4 transport ships sunk 1 patrol boat sunk 2 transport ships damaged

Overview - Pacific War

William A. Glassford when younger in the uniform of a United States Navy commander .

The sea ​​battle off Balikpapan was fought on January 24, 1942 during the Second World War in the Pacific War between American and Japanese ships. It took place off the east coast of Borneo , southeast of the city of Balikpapan and ended with a tactical victory for the Americans at sea. However, the landing of Japanese troops in Balikpapan on the same day and the capture of the Balikpapan oil fields were not delayed.

prehistory

After the successful capture of the island of Tarakan further north by the Japanese in mid-January 1942, the important rich oil fields near Balikpapan were to be conquered. The landing units of the Japanese army under Major General Sakaguchi Shizuo left Tarakan for this action on January 14th and started moving south. At sea they met with their escort fleet under Rear Admiral Shōji Nishimura .

On January 23, an Allied reconnaissance aircraft sighted the approaching Japanese fleet. It consisted of 15 troop carriers, a light cruiser and 10 destroyers of the latest design. Admiral Thomas C. Hart , commander of the Asian fleet and the allied ABDA fleet , gave orders to stop this invasion force. He ordered the American light cruisers USS Boise and USS Marblehead with six destroyers, which were stationed in Kupang , Timor , into the area. The flagship of the Asian fleet, the heavy cruiser USS Houston, was not available as it accompanied a transport from Port Darwin to Singapore with two other destroyers .

On the way to Balikpapan, the USS Boise rammed an unmapped obstacle in the Strait of Sapeh, where they pulled a hole in the lower part of the hull. She was forced to return to Java . The destroyer USS Barker accompanied them. Shortly afterwards, severe turbine damage forced the USS Marblehead to abort the mission. She ran back to Java at a speed reduced to 15 knots and the USS Bulmer as escort. These mishaps reduced the Defense Fleet under Rear Admiral Glassford to the destroyers USS John D. Ford , USS Pope , USS Parrot and the USS Paul Jones , the flagship of Destroyer Division 57.

The battle

Although half of the American ships and thus most of the firepower were lost, Glassford let the remaining four destroyers, which were also of an even older design, run towards the Japanese fleet. Luck was on the American side when they arrived in the area of ​​operations shortly after midnight. Suddenly the 4th Japanese destroyer flotilla emerged from the darkness and ran past them on a reverse course , led by its flagship, the light cruiser Naka . Although the Japanese ships passed the American destroyers at a short distance, they did not begin to fire or even to pursue them. As it turned out later, the order to escape was issued by the Japanese commander Nishimura because of the surprise attack by the Dutch submarine K-XVII on the transporter Tsuruga Maru , which was damaged in the process. While fleeing from the submarine, the Japanese mistakenly saw the approaching Americans as their own ships in the dark.

The Japanese invasion fleet was exposed to multiple Allied attacks on its way to the anchorage off Balikpapan. On the afternoon of January 23, she was attacked by nine Dutch B-10 bombers . The planes that took off north of Samarinda sank the transport ship Nana Maru and severely damaged another. After the convoy had reached the designated anchorage at around 8:45 p.m., the Japanese transporters lay in a row of two off the coast of Balikpapan. There were eight ships in the front row and five behind them. About an hour later the first troops went ashore. At around 12:45 a.m. in the early morning of January 24, the Dutch submarine K-XVII torpedoed a transporter. Just before the American ships reached the scene, the K-XVII made another attack and was damaged by the Japanese submarine hunter No. 12 .

At 2:45 a.m., the Americans sighted the transporters, which were guarded by three patrol boats (former destroyers from World War I), four mine-layers and four submarine hunters. They immediately launched an attack on the front row of the transporters. Ten torpedoes were shot down in four volleys against the Japanese ships, but they were all passing by or were duds.

At around 3:00 a.m., the Americans were north of the Japanese transports and turned south again via starboard to launch another attack. During the turn, the USS Parrot , the third ship in line, located a target and shot three torpedoes. At least one hit the Sumanoura Maru , a transporter with 3,519 t.

The explosion made the Japanese aware that they were being attacked again. In the dark, however, they could not tell whether they were ships or submarines. Then there was the smoke of burning oil barrels drifting from land to sea on the beach, which provided the Americans with additional cover. Nishimura believed in another submarine attack and allowed his cruiser and destroyers to continue patrolling at sea to protect against it.

John D. Ford

Pope

On its now southerly course past the outer line of the transporters, the USS Pope sighted the silhouette of a ship and fired five torpedoes to starboard. The USS Parrot and USS Paul Jones followed suit with their own volleys. The torpedoes hit the Tatsukami Maru ammunition transporter , which sank shortly afterwards with its more than 7,000 t. After changing course to starboard, the Americans attacked the transporters lying south. Patrol boat No. 37 was sunk with three hits . Although it was later lifted out of the shallow water by the Japanese, the damage turned out to be too great for repair.

At 3:22 a.m. the USS John D. Ford and the USS Paul Jones each fired a torpedo at the 5,175 t Kuretake Maru . The Americans circled the transport, and while on an easterly course, the USS Paul Jones shot down another torpedo. This sank the Kuretake Maru .

Then the US units went north. Except for the USS John D. Ford , none of the ships had any more torpedoes on board. So they opened fire from their guns on the Japanese according to plan. When the lead USS John D. Ford turned north-west at around 3:35 a.m. to pass through the front row of Japanese transports, the following ships missed the order given with flags. The USS John D. Ford drove alone through the Japanese transport phalanx, fired with all guns and shot the remaining torpedoes. She met the Asahi Maru and another transporter, which were slightly damaged. The Tsuruga Maru was sunk with two of the last torpedoes. At around 3:47 a.m., the Japanese managed to hit the USS John D. Ford on the quarterdeck from one of the transporters , with four crew members being slightly wounded. But this was the only damage that occurred on an American ship during the entire battle.

When all American destroyers then went south, the battle was over. In the meantime, the Naka , Minegumo and Natsugumo of the Japanese escort fleet had recognized the exact cause of the attack and began to hunt the Americans. However, they were unsuccessful and gave up shortly afterwards.

Consequences of the battle

The tactical success of the Americans was later heavily criticized, as only six of 48 torpedoes shot down hit their target. This was all the more serious since they had been shot down at anchored ships. On the one hand, this was due to the hastily executed attack and, on the other hand, the large number of duds - defective torpedoes that did not explode when hit.

On the part of the Japanese Navy , this Allied victory was favored by the hasty withdrawal of the escort, who had expected submarine attacks, but not the appearance of units of the ABDA fleet. But there was also the fact that no Japanese transport ship had torpedoes on board.

The victory did not delay the Japanese invasion of Borneo at all. On the same day, the Balikpapan oil fields were taken by the Japanese.

Web links

• Detailed Description battle (English)