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By Root 1610 0

Exeter, Dispatch on Battle of the Java Sea, para. 19. “What possible bloody good can we do here?”: Captain Waller quoted in Parkin, Out of the Smoke, 218. Regarding damage to Japanese ships during the engagement: Judging claimed hits is difficult. However, most all Allied witnesses report seeing hits on a Japanese CA early in the engagement. Because no Japanese sources cite any damage, some historians have concluded that no Japanese ships were hit. See Prados, Combined Fleet Decoded, 261. However, numerous American and British observers reported hits on the enemy heavy. The abundance of simultaneous and specific Allied reports of damage to a Japanese heavy cruiser in this action cannot be negated by documentary silence on the other side. Capt. Oliver Gordon reported hitting a Sendai-class light cruiser after ten salvoes, forcing her to turn 180 degrees, and “she was last seen disappearing in a thick high column of smoke”: Exeter dispatch, para. 16. Prados, at p. 263, speculates that the smoke was of the Japanese ship’s own making, concealing in by-the-book fashion the countermarch following a torpedo launch. “I saw us hit this enemy cruiser one very good wallop indeed…”: Hamlin, “USS Houston in Battle of the Java Sea,” 1. N.B.: Hamlin also reported seeing a Japanese light cruiser “simply blow up and disappear in a tremendous column of smoke and spray and steam that must have gone up four or five hundred feet.” However, all evidence indicates that the Japanese light cruisers in this battle survived. “I whooped lustily and dashed for the voice tube…”: Hamlin, 2. The Japanese cruiser was “put on fire early in the engagement…”: Maher, “Jap Prison Experiences,” 6. “The target was aflame both forward and amidships…”: USS Houston, Action Report. “Clouds of black smoke poured out of her top…”: Parkin, Out of the Smoke, 224. Exeter’s hits on the “lower bridge structure”: Exeter, Dispatch, para. 18. “The range was perfect”: Charles D. Smith, narrative, 7. Premature explosions of Japanese torpedoes: Hara, Japanese Destroyer Captain, 80.

CHAPTER 11 (pp. 82 to 87)

“Salvo after salvo exploded into the sea around us…”: Winslow, The Ghost That Died at Sunda Strait, 116. “Throughout this madness…” and “We were appalled…”: Winslow, 117. Damage to Houston’s communications apparatus: Sholar quoted in Mullin, Another Six Hundred, 226; USS John D. Edwards action report. “I’ll never forget the Perth as she came by…”: Hamlin, “USS Houston in Battle of Java Sea,” 2. “The sea seemed alive with torpedoes…”: Winslow, 118. “It was not going at sufficient speed to detonate”: Charles D. Smith, narrative, 6. “There was only fifteen or twenty feet…”: Ibid. Loss of the Kortenaer: Her captain, Lt. Cdr. A. Kroese, and an officer from the Witte de With, Lt. Cdr. H. T. Koppen, believe Kortenaer was sunk by a submarine torpedo, but Japanese sources do not mention the presence of submarines in the Java Sea on February 27. See also British Admiralty, Battle of the Java Sea, 33; according to HIJMS Haguro, “Tabular Record of Movement,” Haguro fired eight torpedoes at 1622 and hit Kortenaer at 1640. “Passing close aboard…” and “No ship stopped to take on survivors…”: Winslow, 118; see also Quentin C. Madson, diary. “The crystal ball was our only method…”: John D. Edwards, action report, para. 9. From his perch on the Houston’s signal bridge, Walter Winslow, at p. 119, reported witnessing two startling events around this time. First, he saw the HMS Jupiter, returning from a torpedo run, breaking through the smoke screen near the Houston and launching a torpedo in the American cruiser’s general direction. The missile traveled some five hundred yards before exploding, launching into the air two large tubular chunks of metal. An oil slick and a spread of flotsam rose from the deep. It was, Winslow surmised, a Japanese submarine, sunk right in their midst. The John D. Edwards action report, in paragraph 8, mentions “a torpedo apparently hit a submarine about 1,500 yards broad on our port bow, for a column of water and debris went up about 100 feet.” Equally likely