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JAVA SEA BATTLE
DISPATCHES
ALLIED SQUADRONS
SUFFERED Í COMMUNICATION
DIFFICULTIES
LONDON, Juif-5 (A. A JP.).- -
The Admiralty dispatches of
the Ava Sea battle on Feb-'
roary 27, 1942, published aa
a supplement te the "London
Gaiette," show that throurh
ont the action the Allied
squadrons suffered front com-
munication difficulties. . Vital 1
. signals of the alfhtinc' of f
enemy ships were, not ac
knowledf ed. : -
The dispatches are quoted in
the report by Commodore J. A.
Collins, RJi., commanding th»
China force, to the Ciommander
in-Chief, Eastern Fleet, dated
March 17, 1942. Commodore Col-
lins said that visual signalling
had been restricted ío áimple sig-
nals in-Engliah -by a flaahlamp in "
Morse code. The force had never
acted before as a. tactical unit.
It was a combined Dutch, British,
American and Australian force,
with-the flagship De Ruyter, and
included the cruiser Perth. '
? This Allied force, under Admi-
ral Dorman, sailed on February
20, 1942, which was the day lt
was formed, and sighted an en-
emy force at ' 4.14 p.m. (local
time) next day. The enemy force
consisted of four cruisers and IS *
destroyers in two groups. The
enemy - eight-inch gun cruisers
opened extremely accurate fire.
The Perth hit one destroyer, and
the enemy flotilla retired behind
a smoke screen. One hour after
the attack had been joined, Jap-
anese torpedoes reached the Al-
lied battle line. One sank the
Dutch destroyer Kortanaer.
EFFECT OF TORPEDOES
The dispatch of Commodore
Collins said that the torpedo at-
tack threw the Allied line into
considerable confusion, and al-
most immediately the Exeter re-
ceived a hit in one boiler and
had to retire. The Britlüh de
strayer Electra got four hits on
a heavy enemy destroyer before
a shell struck her boiler room.
The Electra sank at 6 p.m. The
action continued with both forces '
screened ..by smoke, the Japanese
fire being very accurate and pre
sumaBlyfi radar controlled.
The Perth reported a hit on
the; rear Japanese cruiser, and
said that the*bow rose and the
«hip settled down. It - is not
known whether the enemy ship
sank, as the light failed. Japanese
planes shadowed the Allied force
until nightfall During a night
attack the British destroyer Jupi-
ter blew up, and sank two hours
later. At 11.30 pjn. the Perth re-
turned the enemy fire, and claim-
ed that two. or three salvoes had
hit an enemy ship.
FLAGSHIP BLOWS CP
An enemy shell hit the De
Ruyter,-which turned 90 degrees
away. The other cruisers con-
formed and half-way . round the
turn a terrific explosion occurred
in the cruiser Java, which stop-
ped and. heavily caught fire. The
De Ruyter completed the tum
and then blew up with an appal-
ling' explosion, and settled aft.
heavily afire.
The Perth just missed the blaz-
ing wreck of the De Ruyter by
using full, rudder and one engine.
Admiral . Dorrman's* orders had
been that "any ship disabled must
be left to the mercy 1 of thc
enemy," so the remaining Allied
destroyers turned away. Thc
commanding officer of the Perth
(Captain H. M. L. Waller), the
senior surviving officer, had. only
one undamaged . cruiser . (the
Perth) and the Houston was very
short of ammunition, and with no
serviceable guns aft x ?
RETREAT TO TANJONG PRIOR
/
Captain . Waller ordered . the
Houston to follow him to Tanjong
Priok, and his dispatch said the
Perth was lan "Aunt Sally" as she
could not' return the accurate
enemy fire. The enemy was out
of range of the Perth's guns most
of the action. "
Captain O. L. Gordon, RJM.,
commanding the Exeter, who be-
came a Japanese prisoner, pre-
served his dispatch in-a large ?
empty shaving cream tube. This
dispatch said the action demon-
strated in a marked manner the
difficulty of working a heterogen
ous squadron of ships of different
nationalities. Ships of different
nations had . different methods,
particularly in signalling fire dis-
tribution. There had been no
opportunity for even the briefest
discussion before sailing.
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