The battle began as a large Japanese invasion convoy approached the east end of Java and Surabaja. Thereupon ABDA mustered every warship available to them and sortied to intercept the transports. They were met by a large Japanese force, including two heavy cruisers who hustled in at the last minute (leading to questions afterwards as to what might have been if the Allies had reacted a little sooner). In the fight that followed, the Allies again suffered from both a lack of modern warships and (even more so) from a lack of training time together as unit. The Japanese immediately used their 24" torpedoes to effect (sinking a destroyer) and their gunfire was accurate as well (damaging the HMS Exeter). The Allies thereupon began to withdraw to cover the crippled Exeter, but were continually harried by Japanese long-range gunfire and torpedo attacks which gradually whittled away at their destroyer force. Further, they were forced to detach four of the older American destroyers to return to port to refuel.

In the failing light conditions of the late afternoon and evening, the ABDA force's Dutch commander, Admiral Doorman, tried on several occasions to double back and attack the Japanese transports. But he was intercepted each time, and lost another destroyer to an uncharted minefield. Finally, in a devastating torpedo attack from the Japanese heavy cruisers, both Dutch light cruisers were hit and sunk in a matter of minutes, taking Admiral Doorman to his death. At this point the remaining two Allied ships, the cruisers Perth and Houston, fled westward towards Batavia.

The final grim phase of this battle was played out a day later, as the damaged Exeter and two destroyers tried to exit Surabaja to the north on the 28th and make a run for it. They were surrounded by several groups of patrolling Japanese cruisers and destroyers and summarily dispatched. Amazingly, the four older American destroyers who had exited the battle early on also departed Surabaja on the 28th. These refugees headed south through the Bali Strait and managed to give the Japanese squadron there the slip, and thereupon escaped to Australia.

The final result of this large and rather untidy action was the virtual elimination of ABDA as a naval threat to the Japanese advance. The invasion of western Java was delayed a mere twenty-four hours by the heroic sacrifices of the Allied forces.

Battle of the Java Sea	Japan	Allied
Starting Forces	x2 x2 x14	x1, x1 x3 x4, x5
Losses	x1 moderately damaged	x1 sunk (Exeter) x2 sunk (Java, DeRuyter) x1 sunk (Kortenaer, Electra, Jupiter, Encounter, Pope)