No Margin Cruiser Fight
15-28 February 1942
Rear Admiral Glassford sat in his chair on the bridge of his flagship, USS Houston and wiped the sweat from his brow with the fresh handkerchief his steward had just brought him. He had gone through two already. It had not seemed that warm this morning until the Japanese LBA had shown up around 1000 hours and then it had heated up considerably. But time had passed, it now being noon and Task Force 5 had come through the bomb splashes without a scratch this time.
Things were looking up and good news was a rarity in the latter half of February. Singapore and Batavia had fallen last week, and the Japanese were on the march, seemingly everywhere. It had come time to determine who was boss in the Java Sea and the smart money was on those Sons of Nippon (His mother had taught him not to curse and he had always been a good boy).
The wind was a Force 3 Northwesterly at 10 knots and would not assist his making smoke. The sky was brilliant and clear and had certainly made things easy for the Japanese LBA. Just whose side was God on any way? Nevertheless, there were squalls ahead, he could see a small one and it walked with the wind. Otherwise, visibility was to the horizon, some 30,000 yards. Just what IJN 8-inch cruisers would like, but it did not do much to favor his advantage in 6-inch.
Glassford had divided Task Force 5’s cruisers into a heavy (Houston & HMS Exeter) and light (HMS Mauritius flag, USS Marblehead, Boise & Phoenix under Rear Admiral Palliser RN) divisions. There were three destroyer divisions (2 Dutch & 1 Brit). It was polyglot force speaking two languages (if the English speaking were lumped together) and using three sets of different signals. There had been no time to train together as the RN and RNN ships had just joined from Singapore and Batavia respectively fleeing the triumphant Japanese.
They were not the only ABDA force at sea. Rear Admiral Dormann was behind them with the remainder of the Dutch cruisers and every old destroyer that could put to sea looking for a night fight against what was hoped to be a depleted Japanese defense of the invasion convoy ahead.
1200 hours
Task Force 5 was steaming North in line ahead, cruisers (heavy then light) led the destroyer flotilla (Brit then Dutch).
The masthead reported “Enemy in sight, off the starboard bow.” Now it would get hot again, soon.
Glassford ordered the task force from 25 knots to flank and turned in succession 45 degrees to port to a heading of 315 degrees to open his firing arcs. The combined closing speed after both sides had accelerated must have been close to 60 knots and the range closed accordingly. Both sides launched their FP.
Houston opened on the leading IJN heavy cruiser (later identified as Chokai) at just over 20,000 yards (did I say the range was closing rapidly?) and the enemy returned fire. Houston and Chokai missed each other. Then it was the next pairs’ turn (Exeter & Maya). They too missed each other. Now Mauritius and Haguro fired at one another. Haguro missed but Mauritius hit once (God save the King) and knocked out a SB (OK, we need a bit more saving than that). Boise and Myoko were next. They missed. Then it was Phoenix and Nachi. They also missed. “Bloody bad shooting” came over the wireless from Mauritius. An unnecessary observation thought Glassford.
1206 hours
Houston turned two points to starboard to close the range a bit and the task force followed. Imitation being the sincerest form of flattery and Vice Admiral Ozawa being a flatterer also turned two points to port and doubled the closure rate but the range remained above 18,000 yards for now.
Both sides engaged as before and missed as before.
1212 hours
The wind had freshened to Force 4 and backed to the North. Squalls now trotting along at 15 knots were appearing behind the IJN one after the other. Visibility had come down about 5,000 yards but had no present effect.
The range was now just under 18,000 yards as both sides made another two-point turn towards each other and were making 32 (Allies) and 33 (IJN) knots respectively.
Both sides engaged as before. Houston hit Chokai twice, knocking out her fore turret and bouncing off her belt. Chokai returned the favor by knocking out Houston’s fore turret. Exeter with her small MB missed but Maya hit her once in her engines. Mauritius missed as did Haguro. Boise hit Myoko once, knocking out a PS TT. Myoko returned the favor causing minor hull damage. Phoenix hit Nachi once, bouncing off her belt. Nachi returned the favor bouncing of Phoenix’s fore turret.
1218 hours
Exeter fixed her engine hit and maintained her place in line. The range fell to 15,000 yards. Both sides engaged as before except that Marblehead now opened on Naka leading the IJN destroyer flotilla. This of course emphasized that this was a cruiser fight and destroyers were bystanders for the moment.
Houston hit Chokai thrice causing an EDR fire (while wishing for nightfall), damaging her FP facilities, starting a minor fire, knocking out another fore turret and a PS TT that started a major fire. Chokai hit Houston thrice also, damaging her hull and slowing her to 29 knots while knocking out her two remaining turrets. Exeter missed again as did Maya. Mauritius went to rapid fire and hit Haguro 10 times causing 3 EDR fires! Haguro took damage to her FP facilities that started a minor fire, lost all her SB, 2 fore turrets, 3 hull hits that slowed her to 21 knots and jammed her rudder to port. Haguro’s return fire hit Mauritius thrice causing an EDR fire, knocking out her SS TT, damaging her engine and her FC and limiting her to 21 knots. Boise firing rapidly hit Myoko once (3’s didn’t count) and caused minor hull damage. Myoko hit Boise thrice causing an EDR fire, damaging her FP facilities, starting a minor fire, damaging her hull and jamming her rudder to starboard. Phoenix firing rapidly hit Nachi 5 times, knocking out a PS TT, starting a major fire, loss of a fore turret and minor damage to her hull as well as a pair of bounces off her belt. Nachi’s return fire hit Phoenix 6 times, knocking out her FC, SL, damaging her hull twice, a bulkhead and her engines limiting her to 21 knots. Marblehead hit Naka once, damaging a bulkhead. Naka returned fire and hit Marblehead’s FP facilities starting a minor fire.
Houston checked morale (all MB gone) and failed. Task Force 5 fixed their rudder jams (lucky skunks) and withdrew under smoke. The ABDA Force under Dormann would fare no better that night, the ANZACs out of Darwin whiffed making contact and Surabaya fell shortly thereafter. There had been no margin for failure.
WMC
