OBSERVATIONS

Throughout the Java Sea Campaign the Allied navies faced an enemy of greatly superior strength. This superiority enabled the Japanese to maintain the initiative-and in one sense the entire campaign is a comment on the value of the initiative. The Japanese exploited their advantage with skill. They repeatedly brought in large numbers of transports with only small losses, in spite of the efforts of our submarines and surface forces. By building up what was often only a local superiority they took with rather small forces positions which should have been highly defensible-if we had only had the means to defend them.

As a result of the enemy's superiority we were forced to withdraw from one base to another, from one headquarters to another. The problem of reorganizing headquarters with each move and of establishing proper communications was tremendous. Although our officers met it with great resourcefulness, it still distinctly handicapped our operations.

Similarly, we seldom enjoyed a secure base of operations. Enemy bombers drove us from one base to another, and we never had the fighter strength to oppose them. This circumstance deprived our crews of opportunity for proper rest and greatly handicapped us in the maintenance and repair of our ships. Our ships deteriorated appreciably during the campaign because of the pressure of constant duties and inadequate repair facilities. The Boise was eliminated from the campaign by the necessity of going all the way to India for repairs. In the later stages of the campaign "a damaged ship was a lost ship." We lost Stewart and the Dutch lost Banckert through bomb damage received in dock, and Witte de With was lost because of lack of opportunity for repairs.

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Even with the best will on all sides, the practical difficulties of international cooperation are tremendous. That we succeeded as well as we did is a tribute to the men involved. It has been pointed out that we did not achieve a unified command in the strict sense of the word, although we achieved a high degree of cooperation. Neither were the various services completely coordinated. It was never possible to plan a combined air and naval operation.

The circumstances attending the Battle of Java Sea gave little opportunity for planning and the polyglot character of our striking force made inapplicable the sort of tactical doctrines which would have prevailed had only a single navy been represented. The inadequacy of communications was a formidable handicap, and their breakdown in the midst of the battle condemned us to "follow-the-leader" tactics. It seems evident that the information which reached Admiral Doorman was inadequate (through no fault of our reconnaissance planes) or arrived only after so great a delay as to be almost useless. Had our planes been able to communicate directly with our striking force our chances of reaching the convoy would have been improved.

The careful coordination of Japanese surface vessels with planes and submarines in the battle will not escape notice. Their effective use of torpeodes will also be remarked. Only the Electra was sunk by gunfire. The De Ruyter, Java, Kortenaer, and probably the Jupiter were victims of torpedoes fired by either cruisers, destroyers, or submarines.

Whether or not it was part of the enemy's plan, the battle resulted in the splitting of our forces and their destruction in detail.

This narrative has done considerably less than justice to our submarines. It has not been practicable to trace their individual movements and successes. But the courage and skill with which they were handled enabled them to inflict probably greater damage on the enemy than any other element of our forces.

One of the noteworthy aspects of the campaign was the manner in which our men stood up to constant activity and the strain of repeated engagements and bombings. The final battle was fought after Admiral Doorman considered that the men had passed the limits of physical endurance. In spite of these handicaps Admiral Glassford says,". . . the fighting spirit and morale of the personnel of my force continued to be of the highest order. Our deficiencies in material strength, as compared to the force brought to bear by the enemy, were offset in a larger measure

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than is perhaps realized by the steadfast spirit and morale of our officers and men, who, in general, maintained the highest traditions of the United States Navy."

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Last updated: June 14, 2002

Transcribed and formatted by Jerry Holden for the HyperWar Foundation