Battle of the Java Sea by Captain Rick Jacobs 

My wife is Dutch-Indonesian. Her father was Dutch. When all this happened she was a very little girl in Java with her mother and four siblings. Her father was captured and became a slave laborer building airfields for the Japanese. They all survived the war. We live in Houston, TX and there is a huge wooden model of the USS Houston in one of the downtown courthouses. It's a beautiful model, under glass.

An excellent book on the USS Houston and the Sunda Strait battle and the survivors, captured and forced to work on the Thai railroads: "Ship Of Ghosts" (James Hornfischer)...My Dad was a Marine, served on the 2nd USS Houston (CL-81)

This is a story that needs to be told , thank you kind sir. Greetings from a sailor of the current flagship of the dutch navy " Zr.Ms. Karel Doorman.

It's a very US-centric view on the story, but it seems to be the best video I can find of the engagement out there. Overall the speaker is giving a pretty thorough talk on this topic, even though he mispronounces most names and is clearly not up to speed on the pre-WWII Japanese history. The 1905 Battle of Tsushima Strait is one of the main sea battles of naval history. This whole thing seems to have been forgotten by most documentary makers, nobody seems to have made a documentary about these fights. With how much TV there has been made about WWII, I always find that surprising. Thanks for posting.

It is a little akward at first that he reads all the time from notes, but I guess that's the only way when there is so much informations like exact times and where shell fell. Great lecture, great illustrations.

Balikpapan (East Borneo) is where the Royal Dutch Shell oil refinery located, Tarakan is where most of the oil rigs operates. Cilacap (South Java), is also an oil refinery town. Palembang (East of Sumatra) is another oil production center. The order to bring the fleet down from the Philippines to those sites, particularly after Singapore (where Shell bunker located on the Sambu island, now part of Batam) surrender, was intended to protect fuel supply from falling on the Japanese command. In short, these "Battle of the Java Sea" is a fight between ABDA and Japan for oil. Noting much have change since 1941.

really enjoy the lecture.

Excellent summation. Best RU-vid video on the battle actually. Some of those survivors from Houston had to have realized it wasn't subs that launched those Long Lances but they spent the remainder of the war as POWs on the Thailand - Burma railway. We still didn't know much about the Type 93 torpedo at Tassafaronga in November '42. They didn't know until they possessed a captured one intact. Well I should clarify they didn't realize it's range. They obviously knew the damned thing actually worked whether they were ready to realize, or not, that ours usually didn't..

After learning of the disaster at Pearl. MacArthur stayed incommunicado in his penthouse apartment atop the Manila Hotel while his air commander unsuccessfully tried to get him to approve an air strike on the Japanese aircraft on Formosa that after about 9 hours turned the American B-17s at Clark AB to scrap. His defense plan envisioned about six days of gradual retreat toward the Bataan Peninsula. His forces instead fled toward the peninsula as soon as the Japanese landed, leaving at least a 6-month food supply that would have been welcomed on Corregidor for the enemy. Picking Lingayen Gulf as the place the enemy would land was the only thing MacArthur got right. The rest of it he screwed up horribly. For his exemplary conduct in the defense of the Philippines Roosevelt awarded him the Congressional Medal, an act that forever decreased the value of the medal.

For not having his air force ready to scramble, MacArthur should have been relieved of command and court martialed. He was 19th century general. He did not understand either air power or armored warfare. He was horrible. Plus, his attack on veterans seeking their rightful pensions in Washington DC in 1936(5?) was despicable.

Interestingly many men from Houston and Perth were sunk again when a US Submarine sunk the Japanese transport taking them to Japan, with very few survivors. When some of them were rescued by another US submarine they were able to tell the story of both Houston and Perth many years later.

Read John Toland's book: But Not in Shame. Thanks for posting.

Excellent presentation. The mention of Australian troops retaking parts of the (then) East Indies prompted some memories. Their two main targets were Tarakan and Balikpapan, using a reinforced brigade and reinforced division respectively. The operations were well run and successful, but often regarded as unnecessary. There was a plan for Australian forces to reform into new formations with experienced troops for the invasion of Japan, with all-US equipment and integrated into a US command structure. Some suggest the East Indies operations were rehearsals for this. After the war Australia supported Indonesia becoming independent at a political and UN level.

After learning of the debacle at Pearl, MacArthur ensconced himself into his penthouse on the top floor of the Manila Hotel while his air commander was seeking permission to launch a raid by the B-17s at Clark toward the Japanese AF on Formosa. Those Japanese planes though being delayed by wx got off on time to obliterate those B-17s and other aircraft at Clark before MacArthur came out of his nine-hour funk. Though the Japanese launched feints and false landings, MacArthur guessed correctly that they would land at Lingayen Gulf, about the only thing he got right. The plan was that the forces he supposedly trained, about 320,000 total, including more than 30,000 U.S. marines, would engage in one-day fights, retreating at night from each fight line to another line before ending up at the entrance to the Bataan Peninsula after six days of fighting. What actually happened was that the so-called MacArthur-trained forces headed in flight straight for Bataan, abandoning a six-month supply of foodstuffs to the Japanese, food that might have allowed those who made it to Corregidor to survive a long time. The Americans ran a code-breaking operation at Cavite and possessed a Purple machine used to decipher the Japanese diplomatic code. These people with their Purple machine departed with MacArthur and his family on the four PT boats for Mindinao where MacArthur refused the first B-17 sent to take him from Australia, saying it wasn't in good enough shape to carry his arrogant ass. Most of the crypto equipment was tossed into the sea before they boarded the PT boats. Just more information concerning the debacle in the Philippines.

Thaaat's right, Jay!

anyway this vid kind of blurred out any recollection of a former life and the defeat of the Dutch royal navy in the West Indies but I was there.. got torpedoed the Hrms Kortenaer sacrified itself

Great video. I enjoyed it very much. Admiral's Hart's "cover" was called a "fore and aft hat" because it was worn with the pointy ends facing forwards and backwards (not side-to-side as many British officers wore their covers, and Napoleon as well). When my father graduated from the Naval Academy in June, 1940, a fore-and-aft hat, as well as a cape (with red interior, technically referred to as a "boat-cloak") was part of his kit. I have a photograph of one of the Brigade of Midshipmen's battalions turned out to receive some visiting dignitary in full dress, which included fore-and-aft hats, boat cloaks (apparently, it was raining) and swords. Pretty impressive. FYI, subsequent to graduation, my father was ordered to the USS Phoenix (CL-46, a Brooklyn-class light cruiser), which was assigned to Admiral Hart's Asiatic Fleet. Around Thanksgiving, 1941, Admiral Kimmel (CinCPAC) was convinced that the Japanese were up to something in the Pacific and ordered Hart to send all his capital warships, which included the Houston, back to Pearl Harbor. Admiral Hart raised hell until they reached a compromise. Houston and Marblehead would stay in Asiatic waters, Phoenix (and I think one other cruiser, possibly Detroit) were sent back to Pearl. They were told to get back to Pearl ASAP; consequently, Phoenix didn't fly its scouting aircraft. She pulled into Pearl Harbor with the evening tide on Friday, December 5th and was moored over at Charlie 5, about 300 yards astern of the Arizona when the attack occurred. After the war, its was discovered in one of war's great coincidences that the Phoenix had paralleled the Japanese strike force across the Pacific, the two being separated from one another by only a few hundred miles. Had Phoenix flown her search planes, there's a reasonable certainty that they would have discovered the Japanese carrier force and events in the Pacific would have followed a decidedly different course.

Father was serving on HMS Encounter.pow but he survived RIP dad

What was Tommy Hart up to as MacArthur failed his nation and christendom?

RIP Captain Hec Waller DSO & Bar (HMAS Perth) and your crew. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hector_Waller

What is the point of having a speaker who is only going to read from a prepared text?

Bit disjointed with snippets of Atlantic naval battles in amidst the battles in South East Asia. 😵‍💫

The Japanese Aircraft carrier pilots and their torpedo bombing techniques were trained and equipped by the British Royal Navy

This presentation isn't completely "wrong" but it is very general and very high-level. Parts of it are completely inaccurate so be careful about what you repeat from this. For a comprehensive overview of the entire East Indies campaign, I would recommend "The Allied Defense of the Malay Barrier, 1941-1942." In the spirit of full disclosure, I am the author this text which published in December 2015.

check out the youtube clip "the fall of singapore the great betrayal"

Capt. Jacobs mispronounces most of the place names.

This dude be using RLM intro

when i found out that the two generals in the phillipenes had 8 hrs warning time that pearl harbor had been attack yet they let the one thing that would have held up the japaness and saved lives yes they failed to use thier air forse and got caught on the ground haveing the airmans lunch.i would have sacked both.

I am so sick of historians lauding MacArthur. He was a mediocre general, at best. And a disloyal patrician, who didn't mind killing veteran American soldiers in the Bonus Army issue in 1932. (I said 1936 in previous post. Wrong. 1932, and it was Hoover as president)

if the japaness had used thier brains and taken out the navel fuel at pearl . this would have kept all the carrires at bay with no hope of refuel because all they had todo was park 20 of thier front line subs around the island to take out any tankers trying to get new fuel to the ships what a win with mac arthur looseing his air power in one afternoon dec.8 and our poor u.s subs torpetos that war may have taken 8 years.

Dugout Doug. Martinet

The facts of the reaction of Gen. DMacArthur to the attack on Pearl Harbor and the destruction of the US Military under MacArthur should have destroyed his career utterly.

"vigorous arms" lol that was kinda cringy

35:47 It should be in 1941!

My apologies Singapore didn't fall, it surrendered. Percival didn't control his troops and he wasted a three to one numerical advantage in defense, fell to a feint and a bluff by Yamashita, whom was over extended and ahead of his line of supply. Yamashita feared an urban battle he couldn't win, Percival didn't have the acumen to call his bluff.

Exeter had radar.

I hope this guy got his facts sight about the battle. I say this because he has the wrong but popularist idea about the cause of the great depression. The facts are the stock market crash was not the cause of the depression and the evidence is the recovery of the rate of employment between 1929 and 1931 until the then president and later FDR did such measures as confiscated people's wealth by mandating they hand over their gold which the government paid some $20 per oz for and then sold it back a few years later at $36 an ounce. That was at a time when the US dollar was on a gold standard. As well FDR's government imposed huge import taxes of 40% or more thus stifling international trade. These and other restrictive measures resulted in unemployment rising from 8% in a the downward trend to 18% and the highest US long term continues unemployment on record.

Anyone can read verbatim from a paper, how boring of a delivery

Terrible speaker. I had to turn this off.

This guy butchers the pronunciation of just about every place name he mentions! What a yutz! It hurt my ears so much I had to stop listening.

Learn to pronounce the place names.

Seriously? 2 mentions of the courageous Perth, fighting till she was out of ammo, and hit multiple times? Typical American Bias

Sorry for the 8 year late comment, I just watched this today. I read about this battle in the book "Japanese Destroyer Captain," and one of the things that make me laugh is the fact that Adm. Takagi (the admiral that led his forces in this battle) was taken off command of surface ships after this battle, apparently because he ordered to open fire on extreme ranges and "wasted" so many torpedoes and ammo, among other things. This is despite the fact that, had Takagi not won this battle, the Army transports that he was tasked to escort would have been free for ABDACOM to intercept and the land battle would turn out vastly different. Good lecture by the way.

May 24, 1941 Hood was sunk, not 1940(at ~35:45)

Very nice lecture! Just one minor point for me at the end: The Dutch didnt fail to subdue their own colony. In fact they were starting to win it back. It were the United Nations and especially the US who forced the Dutch to stop their advance and give up their colony. Because the dutch got support under the Marshall plan from the Us to build up their country. And were threathened to get kicked out of it. For the independance and freedom of the indonesian people they said, but it was mainly for the cheap oil and preventing a strong european force in the region. As well as hating colonialism.

Indonesian commercial salvagers have been dredging the wreck of HMAS Perth for the scrap metal. The remains of over 300 sailors are still inside of her, but Indonesia has no problem with destroying their war grave.

It was really the Italians First exactly not the Germans..as Jacobs states..

37:55 is where the big critical mistake is made, because they cannot afford to continue that engagement without those destroyers that were low on fuel, at this point the engagement should be over and they could have followed those destroyers out and none of those subsequent terrible losses would have occurred.

F D Roosevelt was unable to walk without support. He had polio and was in a wheelchair unless he needed to be out of it for publicity reasons. This is the central reason for the publicity shots emphasising his physical strength.

Ilearned a lot. For one, I had always thought ABDA was a singing group.

listen up you.. you erent there and I am speaking as Lt Cmdr RuCrommelin 1st officer of HrMs Kortenaer Canonship of the Dutch Royal Navy in the Dutch colony's Netherlands Indies