Java Sea, 1942: The Allied Last Stand in the Dutch East Indies (Documentary)

In 1942, the Japanese surged through the Dutch East Indies, conquering territory at an incredible pace. By February, Japanese troop convoys advanced towards Java, as they were met by a small Allied fleet under Dutch Rear Admiral Karel Doorman. The Battle of the Java Sea was the Allies' last stand in the East Indies.
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🧾 Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
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Written by House of History
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🖼 Photos, paintings and imagery: Public Domain, Wikicommons
🧾Machinima: Total War, Creative Assembly
#HouseofHistory #History

[@HoH]

⚔ This video is not sponsored. If you want to help me make more videos and gain early access, consider supporting House of History at www.patreon.com/HouseofHistory!

[@danielsantiagourtado3430]

Love your content man! You're the Best 😊😊😊❤❤❤❤❤

[@MetalRodent]

I feel Electra's effort is a bit undersold here, she basically burst out of the smoke to find herself facing the entire Japanese force on her own, and boy she went down fighting: Hitting Jintsuu, several other destroyers and managing to temporarily disable the Asagumo before going down guns blazing. The only allied ship to inflict any damage during the battle.

[@augustusgloop6858]

Massively undersold. He states Electra scored only a single hit, which is patently untrue. She literally went balls to the wall. She landed several hits on the Light Cruiser Jintsu, disabled the Destroyer Asagumo, and scored hits on the Destroyers Minegumo and Tokitsukaze.

[@TankerBricks]

@@augustusgloop6858 Indeed. The real MVP Destroyer was Electra.

[@sjonnieplayfull5859]

​@@TankerBricks please don't undersell the Kortenaer, catching a torpedo for the team

[@TankerBricks]

@@sjonnieplayfull5859 um. I don't think she intended to catch one for the team. Pure chance that one torpedo unfortunately found it's mark.

[@sjonnieplayfull5859]

@@TankerBricks eye witness on the cruiser said they spotted a torpedo heading their way, too close to evade, then Kortenaer went to full speed, and when they were alongside the cruiser went into reverse so they came to a full stop when they were hit by the torpedo That's something destroyers do all the time?

[@420JackG]

My grandfather survived this battle and somehow got to Australia. He was on a hospital ship at Guadalcanal. He was on the cruiser Tromp for a while. He was a master steam engineer and electrician, and he spoke a bunch of different languages, so they moved him around a lot because I guess he was always in demand somewhere. He worked on or helped repair vessels of all the principal allied nations, including the Soviets.

[@wilsontheconqueror8101]

Wow! Those casualties for the Allies at the end were brutal. It's interesting the early struggles of the Allies against the Japanese. And the torpedoes while quite deadly were difficult to range at distance. I can see the launching of multiple to increase chances of a hit. The Japanese Navy was quite impressive early with their ability to engage & inflict significant damage & casualties. Well done covering this battle!

[@Arphalia]

I can't speak for the other nations, but another large part for why the Americans faired so poorly early on as far as I'm aware, was due to an incredible amount of peace time complacency that had built up, staggering level of arrogance and superiority complex of some (not all) of the officers in command and BUORD having their heads rammed so far up their back sides as they refused to believe that 1. The Japanese had developed a highly advanced and deadlier torpedo that outclassed just about any other type in the entirety of the Allied Navies arsenals, and 2. Their adamant refusal to acknowledge their Mk. 14 Torpedoes were absolutely fucking trash. It took the intervention of Admiral King himself for them to reluctantly and grudgingly admit that there was a problem.

[@zurgesmiecal]

the allied propaganda ministry kept that racism to the extreme@@Arphalia

[@hia5235]

@@Arphalia there would be no reason to acknowledge it, only to develop a counter. Which was to use aircraft to destroy these ships before they ever entered range at all.

[@PSPaaskynen]

I recently saw an interview wih the last Dutch survivor of the Battle of the Java Sea, 103 years old. He was aboard the only Dutch ship that was not sunk in the battle (HNLMS Witte de With) and vivdly remembered the fate of HNLMS Kortenaer.

[@robbabcock_]

Man, the Allies really took a pounding in the opening months of the war! Thanks for a great video covering this terrible struggle.

[@user-kr9jq7yz5o]

Great video! The Battle of the Java Sea has always interested me. Hope you cover the battles that occurred immediately after this, Sunda Strait and 2nd Java Sea, as the allies attempted to escape. Great work!

[@HoH]

It's available on patreon already, should be on YT soon!

[@KHK001]

Always great to see more naval battles! thanks HOH!

[@brokenbridge6316]

Fun Fact: Had Admiral Doorman survived he would've been blamed for this disaster much the same way as Kimmel was blamed for Pearl Harbor and Percival for Singapore. But he wasn't because he went down with his ship. And I'm the last person you should try to correct. Those that would blame him are the ones that should be corrected.

[@mrfun177]

He was also doomed to begin with, poor communication due to ships of different navies and all were less modern then the japanese ships. By the time they were in combat with the japanese there was no running either cus the japanese ships were faster then the allied ships.

[@davidpeterson6176]

He was heavily outgunned and outnumbered. Would be interesting if you could provide alternate tactics based on what they had at the moment

[@brokenbridge6316]

@@davidpeterson6176---Tell that to the people would've blamed him for the disaster. Not me.

[@brokenbridge6316]

Tell this to the people who would've blamed him for the disaster and not me. I personally don't. But someone in his home country would've blamed him for this regardless of the alternative circumstances.

[@dcross6360]

Incorrect post by me

[@Mr_Anybody_Prime]

Another great video! Really enjoying these naval encounters and I love the schematic in the background of the Japanese battle report at the end.

[@babelman1]

My father was a Royal Marine on the Exeter, told about this. I went to many reunions with him, iirc the Exeter was sunk at the battle of Sunda straights on 1st March, he spent 3.5 years as a pow near Macassar, at a camp called Maros. Would be great to see your documentary of that battle.

[@mohammedsaysrashid3587]

It was informative and wonderful historical coverage work about Naval Java battle between allies and Japanese fleets

[@kyleallenalcantara2364]

Amazing work again!!!! But it would be perfect if you put the actual ship into the Profile, like in this time @5:37 it says Nachi but the profile show the Yamato Class @ 5:52 the IJN Light Cruisers Jintsu and Naka shows the same profile as the one in Nachi.

[@henriknielsen9173]

And something funny when you mention profile. At 16:33 when they show japanse losses it is the "space battleship yamato" that is displayed in profile.

[@danielsantiagourtado3430]

Love your content! Naval battles are EPIC🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@scottiestarcher409]

7:22 with a turret failing they loaded 64 salvos to keep up with the rest of the ships and fleets salvos, and they did this BY HAND!? Very impressive and very brave.

[@antred11]

You really need to add scale indicators to your maps. At 14:28 you mention they opened fire at each other "at extreme range", but the visualization fails to coney ANY sense of scale at all.

[@NR-rv8rz]

It still seems insane to me that some ships lost over 90% of their crew. I get it that those deep below decks could be cut off by structural damage and water flooding, and that some on decks can be killed by explosions, but ships take a while to sink, how can one ship lose 500 men?

[@davidpeterson6176]

Night time. Smoke, fire, some dead officers and people shooting at you...what could be confusing in that scenario.

[@NR-rv8rz]

Nobody questioned the chaos of the situation. The topic is why such a high percentage of WW2 ship crews seemed to lose their lives when it sinks. @@davidpeterson6176

[@Koshiro2k3]

If there is no rescue effort and the ship sinks at sea (i.e. not within easy swimming distance of land), all survivors of the initial sinking usually die within hours or days; of hypothermia, dehydration or because they exhaust their strength and drown. At that time, enclosed, self-deploying life boats like on modern vessels were just being developed. I am quite certain none of the ships involved had them. The only life boats would have been conventional open boats, which after a torpedo hit and power loss would have been difficult to deploy; other than that, only lifejackets, which are good only for a few hours of survival at best.

[@hia5235]

how long can you tread water? thats your lifespan in this situation.

[@martinrosenkranz-mj6ci]

Depending on the damage sustained a lot of ships sunk in under 3 minutes. Additionally exploding ammunition creates shockwaves that kill a lot of sailors. Also the sinking ship creates a strong downward current, dragging survivors with it to the bottom.

[@gerhardris]

Excellent video! It must have taken much painstaking work to compile! I always wonderd the value of combining fleets when no prior training and procedures were sufficiently exercised beforehand. The battle of the Java sea was lost on several counts before it had begon. 17:57

[@boomdoomgyt]

YESS THANK YOU FOR POSTING LESSER KNOWN NAVAL BATTLES!! ❤❤❤

[@ryanthuranira6036]

Nice video guys I respect your work

[@Raphael-pt7rx]

the animations are great ^^

[@alexanderleach3365]

Awesome video.

[@IWS107]

Great video! I still hope you will do the Franco/Prussian War at some point to finish the German Wars of Unification.

[@gregorylumban-gaol3889]

You should do the Battle of Jutland next But if you wanna do a more challenging and more less known one, do Operation Seroja, Indonesia’s Invasion of East Timor.

[@watch-Dominion-2018]

will you do a video about the battle of Rorke's Drift?

[@franksposato6072]

There is a new update to the Nov 13th battle by Robert Lundgren, the man who identified how many shells hit the Kirishima. He wrote an article called The Naval Battle for Henderson Airfield and was able to discover that it was the Japanese who killed Norman Scott, then USN cruisers that fired more rounds into Atlanta causing further friendly fire.

[@juanpablosuarez4910]

Watching the regia marina convoy to libya video, i thought that it could be nice to see the retreat of the italian fleet to malta after the armisties and the sinking of the battleship rome. Just giving an idea 😅

[@plantsngames4923]

Nice video. Quick question; what is the name of the track you are using at 7:31?

[@TankerBricks]

Apparently, Doorman and Lacomble (captain of De Rutyer) were last seen talking in a passageway, where they retired to the Cabin and it's said they shot themselves to avoid the shame.

[@zurgesmiecal]

cowards

[@TankerBricks]

@@zurgesmiecal I think you are ignorant of some facts, Admiral Karel Doorman despite issuing orders that survivors of sunken ships were to be left to the mercy of the Japanese, time after time he went back and helped the crews of those ships that were sunk. I see you have commented quite a lot on this channel with a lot of hate towards Europeans. I suppose you might not be from Europe hmm?

[@agnyr]

According all accounts I can found, the Doorman's squadron was in fact sailing from east to west along northers shore of Java when Jupiter hit the mine - not north as suggested here... Also in the night action Nachi and Haguro were sailing north when firing torpedoes, not south. The daytime part is depicted quite accurately but the night time not as much :(

[@TankerBricks]

And Admiral Doorman reformed the column, Java was hit first, they as they turned De Rutyer was struck.

[@filipzietek5146]

04:57 What battleships?

[@claywindscreenspeterjones7984]

In reference to General Percival gaining a VC...He did not, but he had won MC in the Great War.

[@roybennett9284]

I know I had to tell some novice..if only they did some research before posting!

[@PaulinAsia_]

i like these naval battle videos. HMAS Perth and USS Houston later tried to escape through the Sunda Strait, but were sunk by an overwhelming Japanese force. I could not understand, how in the heat of a battle, all the American destroyers disengaged without orders.

[@HoH]

The story of Perth and Houston is on patreon now, and will be on YT soon!

[@dariusghodsi2570]

RIP classical era

[@YARROWS9]

It's fascinating how the Germans and Japanese were well prepaired for war, when it started. But amazing how quickly the Allies were able to mobilise in a few short years. To take the initiative.

[@abcdef-cs1jj]

It's a numbers game for the allies. The IJN may be able to take out a force slightly bigger than themselves - but being a much larger country with tons more ressources, factories and manpower, the US and its' allies (the colonial powers that pretty much ruled the entire world) could replace their losses many times over and swamp the Japanese with their forces until the tiny country gave out. Same tactic against Germany. The Polish couldn't handle the Wehrmacht, the French couldn't, the British couldn't but together with the US and the USSR after years and years of attrition - they finally could.

[@pierredecine1936]

The Type 93 is incorrectly referred to as the Long Lance by most modern English-language naval historians, a nickname given to it AFTER the war by Samuel Eliot Morison .

[@robertcharles8664]

My Grandad was on HMS Jupiter and he told me all about the battle. I have he's Diaries of the ships they thought it was a Torpedo sunk the ship but it was a mine. He was in the water 3 nights and 3 Days. And Eventually got picked up by a Japanese ship. And was taken to Japanese War Camp and and the things he told me what happened in the camp 😢..

[@lightravenn]

So I guess no court martial for the US destroyers who abandoned the fleet??

[@zetectic7968]

No co-ordination between the ships of different navies. Totally unprepared as no plan & very poor communication because the radios on different nations ships operated on different frequencies. The Japanese were much better organised & as other battles will show they had practised night fighting.

[@oliverhughes610]

I'd have wanted to court martial Commander Binford for withdrawing his destroyers without permission. Wouldn't have changed the course of the battle necessarily but may have prevented the successful attacks on the cruisers.

[@certainthings2000]

I thought (and we all know what thought did!) I was going to enjoy this......BUT....at @ 4:58 after saying earlier Takagi had Heavy and Light Cruisers plus Destroyers, you proceed to call them 'BATTLESHIPS' they are WARSHIPS not BATTLESHIPS!

[@WarhammerWings]

Don't forget how the wrecks were and still are being desecrated to this day.

[@harryshriver6223]

Here in the South we call that an ass whooping

[@Turaga]

The AI voiceover is very good but still off in some cases. A bit more fine tuning might be needed! See for example 10:38 - 10:46, very unnatural

[@thebenco21]

20 8 inch guns combined on a light cruiser and a bunch of destroyers....are you sure about that?

[@clevtrog]

People seem to really forget the entire Pacific War, They touched the American boats and got nuked is what most people imagine, though they touched a lot more boats.

[@Fliegerabwehrkanone-re1ty]

Allies seemed completely unready in every theater

[@zurgesmiecal]

nice to see a volunteer for the eastern front! When are you leaving for Ukraine?@@skullsaintdead

[@zurgesmiecal]

ok cowardly hypocrite@@skullsaintdead

[@filipzietek5146]

Myoko not Mayoko

[@leexingha]

takagi pronounced wrong but doesnt matter much

[@tombogan03884]

Today we think of these as "NATO" forces , but this was before that and these Navies had never worked before, let alone the ships.

[@DaHuuudge]

Jeez. The Allies shoot like imperial stormtroopers in these engagements. 🤦🏻‍♂️

[@tigransuqiasyan4839]

✨✨✨

[@poop10I]

Americans famous for leaving their friends in the ditch😂 those destroyers could have made a significant difference with torps against the battleships.

[@PSPaaskynen]

They had fired all their torpedoes.

[@cameronmcconnachie7794]

Also there wasn’t no battleships in that engagement. They were heavy cruisers. Big difference between the two

[@zintosion]

Damn what a clusterfuck

[@beowulf1312]

Say lon is how you say Ceylon.

[@birdie3189]

why ally fight each other in my world? what is the point of this war?

[@RayyMusik]

Dramatic music, nice graphics, but countless errors. Let someone write the script who has knowledge of WW2 naval warfare!

[@lorenzogiuliani9144]

Balikpapan not Balikapan

[@TauvicRitter]

Americans led by Binfort left the battle on their own initiative. Why?

[@paulfri1569]

The Dutch navy got smashed 😮

[@sharylpoole6724]

👍 promo sm

[@zurgesmiecal]

Great to see Indonesia liberated from dutch oppression! Was there a tribunal to judge the dutch crimes or were those cowards able to run in time

[@kockcende]

3 million indonesians died under japanese rule

[@donchichivagabond1578]

Our navies in the beginning were led by sheep. So grateful true warriors took the helm not long after.

[@MCorpReview]

Japan rocks. 😂

[@user-ug4dx4fp4p]

"ADA INDONESIA COY"

[@geoffburrill9850]

Doorman lost Java, same old mistakes thinking that he could take on the Japanese navy without air support.

[@kockcende]

he asked for air support in the form of bombers but he didnt receive any

[@totesbotes4660]

Allies were incompetent and unmotivated at the beginning if the war. If we had a major war today we would be in the exact same situation. Armies built on nepotism instead of competence.

[@danielskrobot4910]

Dutch navy incompetence

[@TauvicRitter]

And American cowards

[@besteffortint]

Using a 2D image of a Yamato Class Battleship for every single ship bigger than a Destroyer? How lazy... Dislike Button

[@karmsnigguh]

get rid of the sparkles and i will sub.