Qualla: Battle of Makassar Strait

Battle of Makassar Strait: Introduction

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. The element of surprise was gone before the battle even started. On the morning of February 3, 1942, while Rear Admiral Karel Doorman's Allied strike force was refueling from the oiler USS Pecos in Bounder Roads, seven Japanese bombers spotted the ships below. The bombers did not attack -- they had other orders, continuing on to strike Surabaya -- but the damage was done. Doorman, a Dutch rear admiral commanding a hastily assembled fleet of American, Dutch, and Australian warships, now faced a choice: press forward against a Japanese invasion convoy without fighter cover and without surprise, or abandon the mission. He pressed forward. What followed, in the waters south of the Kangean Islands on February 4, was a demonstration of what happens when warships operate under skies they do not control.

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Battle of Makassar Strait: A Coalition Built in Days

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. By the end of January 1942, the Japanese advance through the Dutch East Indies had been swift and merciless. Borneo's north and west coasts had fallen. The oil ports of Balikpapan and Tarakan were in Japanese hands. On Celebes, Menado and Kendari had been captured, giving the Jap...

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Battle of Makassar Strait: Sixty Bombers over the Bali Sea

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. At midnight on February 4, Doorman's force sailed east from Bounder Roads, swinging south of the Kangean Islands before turning north toward the Java Sea. The fleet consisted of four cruisers -- Doorman's flagship HNLMS De Ruyter, the Dutch HNLMS Tromp, and the American heavy cru...

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Battle of Makassar Strait: Houston and Marblehead Under Fire

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. At 10:27, six high-explosive bombs straddled USS Marblehead. The blasts killed fifteen sailors, wounded eighty-four, flooded compartments throughout the ship, destroyed the steering room, and jammed the rudder hard to port. Marblehead heeled ten degrees to starboard and began cir...

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Battle of Makassar Strait: The Long Way Home

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. Houston and Tromp limped into the port of Tjilatjap on Java's south coast on February 5. Marblehead arrived the following day, barely navigable. Repairs to Marblehead's hull took three days of emergency work, but with no rudder and limited steering, the ship could only limp onwar...

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