US Destroyers Raid Japanese Invasion Fleet - Battle of Balikpapan Documentary

at 3:00 a.m. on January 24th 1942 four American destroyers launched a surprise raid on a Japanese invasion Fleet at balikpapan in Borneo for an hour they rampaged across an unsuspecting Fleet of transports winning the US Navy's first victory in the Pacific War this is how they did it as the United States Navy's Pacific Fleet reeled from the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th 1941 thousands of miles to the West the Asiatic fleet was under immediate threat commanded by Admiral Thomas Hart the

Asiatic fleet was in theory one of the Navy's three main formations along with the Pacific and Atlantic fleets in reality it was a small and outdated Force consisting of only the Heavy Cruiser Houston Light Cruisers Boise and marle head 13 old Clemson class destroyers and 29 submarines within days as the Japanese invasion of the Philippines unfolded disastrously for the US it became clear that the fleet could not stay based out of Manila Admiral Hart was forced to move his ship South to the Dutc

h controlled Port of suraya from there he was given the task of trying to prevent or at least delay the Japanese invasion of the Netherlands East Indies working together with with British Australian and Dutch forces this was a daunting task as heading straight for this part of the world was vice admiral IBO takahashi's Eastern force with the carrier ryuo four mioko class heavy Cruisers the light Cruiser NAA and 19 destroyers on top of this were powerful landbased aircraft fillers which held grow

ing air superiority after assisting with the occupation of mindo in the Philippines vice admiral takahashi's ship proceeded South Landing troops at Jolo on December 25th and manada on January 11th the following day a destroyer division under rear Abal nishamura completed the capture of tarakan in northeastern Borneo yielding the Japanese an important airbase and staging area to push further south to bikan Admiral Hart was Keen to use his ship to prevent further Japanese Advance here despite bein

g outgunned knowing that if the enemy got a hold of air bases at balikpapan and kandari then their base at suraya would be within range of Air Attack on January 20th Dutch intelligence reported a Japanese Convoy moving south in the massar strait hard assembled a task force to sauty and confront this Force but was frustrated when Marvel head developed engine trouble and Boise ran into a coral reef gouging a massive hole in its side and forcing the withdrawal of the cruiser to India for repairs th

is was a huge blow to the American Naval presence since Boise had been not only the most powerful ship in Hart's Fleet arguably but also the only one equipped with radar something which would be sorely missed at the disastrous Battle of the Java sea in late February 1942 as two destroyers were detached to escort the Cruisers away this left just four destroyers in the American striking Force heading northwards on January 22nd reports came in from a Catalina reconnaissance aircraft and from the su

bmarine USS Pike of large numbers of Japanese transport and escort vessels heading for pikan despite knowing they'd probably be heavily outnumbered Admiral Hart was determined that the four destroyers under Commander Paul Talbert should take the opportunity to engage The Invasion for tillers at 12:05 p.m. on January 23rd Hart signaled Talbert attack enemy off bikan Talbert was informed that his Force ships could be facing two Cruisers and at least eight destroyers a huge mismatch to even the odd

s he would count on a high-speed attack made at night with the element of surprise through the afternoon he kept his ships heading Northeast drifting towards the coastline of cbes in the hopes of deceiving any Japanese aircraft as to his true destination as it was no hostile planes appeared and at 7:30 p.m. safely under the cover of Darkness he swung the Destroyers around and headed in a straight line at top speed for bik pan as they steamed across the straight Commander Talbert signaled his shi

ps to order them to avoid firing their guns initially so as not to give their position away and only open fire once all Torpedoes have been expended he urged his ships to use own discretion in attacking independently when targets located use initiative and determination by midnight the failla was approaching the coast and the Western sky began to glow orange lit by oil wells set a blaze by the Dutch defenders in the face of Japanese Landings The American destroyers could also see a fire that was

much much closer to their North this was the transport Nana Maru which had been struck by a bomb from a Dutch air raid some hours before and been abandoned while still afloat a Dutch submarine was also operating in the area that night and at 12:45 a.m. it managed to talk torpedo and damage the transport suruga Maru closer to the Shoreline this attack triggered a huge response on the Japanese escorts under rear Admiral shoi nishamura aboard the light Cruiser Naka who ordered his 11 destroyers to

join in the hunt for the submarine to the South nishamura had no idea that by doing so he was clearing the way for Talbert's incoming destroyers which actually made visual contact with some of nishamura ships just after 2:30 a.m. in the darkness the Japanese ships initially thought they had encountered some of their own and The Last Ship in the line signaled the US Flagship John D Ford to inquire as to their identity Commander Talbert ignored this and kept on his course and the enemy destroyers

soon faded away into the night without turning to investigate the unknown vessels a few minutes later at 2:45 a.m. the Japanese transports began to come into view they were arranged in two kn lines stationary and silhouetted against the fires raging ashore it was the perfect setup for torpedo attacks USS par the third ship in the line was the first to engage launching three Torpedoes from its port side as an anchored ship its crew counted down the time until impact but were rewarded only with s

ilence they tried again this time spotting the Japanese M sweeper w15 to their starboard side and firing five torpedoes but again no hits it was the same story for the others the John D Ford and Paul Jones both engaged hostiles and neither scored a hit the Destroyer Crews had heard that their submarin colleagues had been struggling with defective Torpedoes but hoped the same flaws did not apply to their own they were to be disappointed by now it was 3:00 a.m. and the American ships had passed by

the line of transports Commander tber ordered a sharp turn to starboard to sweep his Force around for a second attack run just as it was turning parrat loosed three Torpedoes at another transport the sumur Maru this time there was a large explosion that cheered the Destroyer Crews and alerted the Japanese to their presence W5 signaled rear Abal nishamura to report the explosion and sightings of potentially hostile destroyers but nishamura did not believe that enemy ships could have entered the

Anchorage undetected and continued to believe that he was only dealing with an Allied Submarine by now talber ships had completed their turn to the South and were ready to engage the transports again they were in a strong position right in the middle of the Japanese ships meaning their opponents could not safely engage them for fear of hitting friendly ships in the darkness the ammunition ship satakam Maru was the first in the firing line targeted from 30:6 a.m. by Pope parrot and Paul Jones res

ulting in one hit and an enormous explosion the Destroyers swept southwards as Torpedoes were reloaded and talber then decided to force the issue at 3:14 a.m. he swung the ships to starboard pressing closer to the Japanese ships 5 minutes later Pope and parrot swatted the patrol boat PB 37 to their South five Torpedoes were fired in quick succession three were hits and PB 37 sank quickly ahead of them the John D Ford loose a torpedo at the freight to curake Maru but this Japanese ship had manage

d to get underway and was able to avoid it Talbert was undeterred looping around to the South now to line up a shot at the curak from Ford's Port tubes but before they could fire another torpedo Paul Jones did so and scored a devastating hit after these engagements Paul Jones joined parrot and Pope in having used up all of their Torpedoes tabber ordered them to open up with their guns as the line pushed North again and targets to the West were pepper shelves as they passed by at 3:35 a.m. the Jo

hn D Ford again turned to the West heading straight for the line of transports closest to the Shoreline but unwittingly tet's line was now on a collision course with the burnt out Hulk of the nanaru the fire on this ship had reduced enough to make it almost invisible until the last second Ford's Captain Lieutenant Commander Jacob Cooper swung his ship hard to port to avoid a collision cutting speed as he did so the USS pope did the same but was surprised by the Ford's Southern drop in speed and

was forced to turn even harder to the west to go around its now near stationary leader parrot and Paul Jones turned the other way hauling around to starboard finding themselves suddenly out of contact with Ford and Pope these two ships could not now resume firing for fear of hitting their own side so they continued the turn until they were heading south and disengaged from the fight the USS pope did the same looping around to follow the others South the John D Ford and Commander Talbert were not

finished though still with some Torpedoes to fire the Destroyer got going again pressing West towards the Inner Line of transports at 3:46 a.m. it loosed three Torpedoes on its port side of the suruga Maru the ship that had earlier been damaged by the Dutch submarine one hit was scored and suruga Maru was finished off with its Torpedoes now now expended Ford turned the attention of its guns to the Asahi Maru to its North only to find out to its surprise that this particular transport could fire

back at 347 Asahi Maru scored a hit on the American Destroyer starting a fire that was quickly suppressed and wounding four crewman four retaliated with a hail of gunfire it steamed by wounding 50 Sailors on board the Japanese ship next in the firing line was tamagawa Maru which was equally battered but Commander talber could now see the shoreline rapidly approaching and judged it might be time to turn around or risk getting grounded he swung forward around to Port charting a course back throug

h the lines of Japanese ships and out towards where his other destroyers had gone talber asked for maximum speed and the Ford a more than 20-year-old Destroyer don't forget reached 32 knots as it haired its way back to the southeast the American Commander was concerned about Japanese escort ships catching up to him but he need not have worried R Abu nishamura was still off to the Southwest hunting for a Dutch submarine that had long since dived to the seabed to wait out the action the Americans

got clean away in just over an hour of Carnage the four destroyers had sunk four out of the 14 Japanese transports present at bik pan for the cost of only a few Sailors wounded it was an embarrassing poke in the eye for the Japanese and the first victory for the US Navy in the war against Japan in some ways though it was disappointing only four sinkings on the American ship that encountered no meaningful resistance for over an hour was poor resulting from ships occasionally targeting the same tr

ansport as each other and thus wasting Torpedoes and from the faulty Torpedoes themselves failing to explode this was an issue affecting mark1 14 Torpedoes across the Navy severely impacting the effectiveness of us submarines for the first 2 years of the Pacific War in the short term it meant that the Japanese Advance was only delayed for a day or two due to the events at bapan and it quickly resumed the Allied Naval forces in the East Indies will continue to resist valiantly but against impossi

ble odds culminating in the battle of the Java Sea and the destruction of the Allied presence in Southeast [Music] Asia