The end of the winter of 1941-42 for the Americans and their allies was no better than the beginning. On February 27, the united allied squadron was defeated by the Japanese in the Java Sea, and on the night of February 28 to March 1, the Japanese drowned in the Sunda Strait the remnants of this squadron - the American heavy cruiser Houston and the Australian cruiser Perth.
On the evening of the last winter day, the cruisers, passing through the strait, unexpectedly stumbled upon a large accumulation of transport ships from which the Japanese were landing troops on the island of Java. Of the enemy warships, only one destroyer was looming nearby. Obviously, Americans and Australians took this as a gift of fate. In any case, they did not miss the opportunity to hunt unarmed game. Having opened fire, the cruisers managed to sink (or rather, sink in shallow water) two transports. But soon the main forces of the 5th and 7th Japanese flotillas, covering the landing convoy, approached the place of the "hunt". Nine more destroyers and the light cruiser "Natori" entered the battle, and a little later they were joined by the heavy cruisers "Mikuma" and "Mogami".
This dramatically changed the balance of power and made the position of the Allies hopeless. They could not get away from the fast destroyers. The battle began at 23.06 and lasted 99 minutes, during which the Japanese fired 87 torpedoes at the enemy. Most of them missed their targets, but the rest were enough to send Perth to the bottom at 0.25, and Houston after another 20 minutes. Interestingly, the Japanese drowned two of their own transports and a minelayer with torpedoes that missed, and Lieutenant General Hitoshi Imamura, commander of the landing force, almost died on one of these transports.
The Americans and Australians tried to shoot back, but without much success. They managed to hit the cruiser Mikuma, destroyers Shirayuki and Harikadze once, inflicting non-fatal damage to them and killing 10 Japanese sailors in total. The Allies' own losses were incomparable. 696 people from "Houston" and 375 from "Perth", including both captains of the deceased cruisers, did not see the first spring dawn, and another 675 officers and sailors were captured.
The next morning, in the same strait, the Japanese intercepted and shot down the Dutch destroyer Evertsen. The burning ship washed ashore, becoming the last victim of the battle, and the surviving members of its crew were captured. The splash screen features a painting by a contemporary American artist depicting the last minutes of Houston.
Schematic map of the battle in the Sunda Strait.
Heavy cruiser Houston.
The last photograph of the Houston taken at the Australian port of Darwin in February 1942.
Cruiser "Perth" in original camouflage. Pay attention to the overhead shields that distort the shape of the chimneys.
Perth is firing.
Heavy cruiser "Mikuma".
Colorized photograph of "Mikuma" or the cruiser "Mogami" of the same type.
Japanese destroyers Hatsuyuki and Shirakumo - participants in the battle in the Sunda Strait.
The Japanese steamship Horai-Maru is one of four transports sunk on the night of February 28 to March 1 off Java. Subsequently, the Japanese managed to lift two of them, repair them and re-enter them.
Dutch destroyer Evertsen.
