Naval Base Borneo Explained

Borneo
Location:Southeast Asia
Archipelago:Greater Sunda Islands
Country1:Indonesia
Country2:Malaysia


Naval Base Borneo and Naval Base Dutch East Indies was a number of United States Navy Advance Bases and bases of the Australian Armed Forces in Borneo and Dutch East Indies during World War II. At the start of the war, the island was divided in two: British Borneo and Dutch East Indies. Both fell to the Empire of Japan, Japan occupied British Borneo and the Dutch East Indies in 1942 until 1945.[1] [2]

History

To the north, the US Naval Base Philippines fell to Japan before Borneo in 1941 and 1942, as such many US Navy ships and submarines escaped the Philippines and traveled south to ports in Borneo and the Dutch East Indies. On 25 November 1941 knowing that hostile Japan actions in the Pacific was coming, Admiral Hart, commander of the Asiatic Fleet, movef Destroyer Division (DesDiv) 57 (and Edsall) with the destroyer tender, to Balikpapan, Borneo, so the whole fleet would not be at Manila Bay in the Philippines. As Japan advanced south into Borneo these vessels fled further south to form the new US Naval Bases in Australia.[1] Some of the Royal Netherlands Navy vessels, like Netherlands submarines: HMAS K9 and HNLMS K VIII, also fled to bases in Australia.[3] With the American-British-Dutch-Australian Command (ABDACOM) the Allies tried to limit the advance of Japan. ABDACOM did not have enough troops or supplies to carry out the mission. Japan viewed the Dutch East Indies as a prize for its vast quantities of natural resources. In 1941, the Dutch East Indies was a major producer of: rubber, oil, quinine, coffee, tea, cacao, coconut, sugar, pepper, and tobacco. Due to Japan's aggression in China and other places, the US put an oil embargo on Japan.[4] [5]

During the Borneo campaign in 1944 and 1945 the Allies both built new bases and used captured Japan bases for staging advances in Borneo and the Philippines.[6] Many ports and cities held by Japan did not surrender until the end of the war.[1] [7] [8] As the Allies won more battles and moved in on Japan, Japan moved many of the 1942 Prisoners of war, mostly British and Australian in the 1945 Sandakan Death Marches. Like the Bataan Death March of 1942, many died in the Marches.[9] [10]

Dutch East Indies became independent from the Netherlands and Japan on 27 December and is now the nation of Indonesia.[11] British Borneo the northern parts of the island of Borneo, became the nation of Brunei on 1 January 1984 and parts became two states in Malaysia.[12] For current base since 1949 see Indonesian Navy.

Naval Bases

Dutch East Indies Fleet 1942

The Netherlands had a fleet of vessels in Dutch East Indies in 1942, many were lost in the war and some fled to Australia. The fleet included: Light cruisers: HNLMS De Ruyter HNLMS Java and HNLMS Tromp. Destroyers: HNLMS Piet Hein, HNLMS Van Nes, HNLMS Van Ghent, HNLMS Kortenaer, HNLMS Banckert,and HNLMS Witte de With. Eight minelayers and minesweepers. Light cruiser HNLMS Sumatra. K VIII-class submarine K-VII, K-VIII, K-IX, K-X, K-XI, K-XII, K-XIII, K-XIV, K-XVI, K XVIII and O-XIX. Gunboat: HNLMS Soerabaja and light cruiser: HNLMS Evertsen. Submarine tender Zuiderkruis.[30]
Major Dutch East Indies seaports included: Makassar, Tangerang, Batavia (Jakarta), Semarang Tegal and Surabaya.[31] [32]
The main base of the Dutch East Indies Fleet was at the Soerabaja Naval Base at Surabaya Java, supported by the Morokrembangan Seaplane Base with Dornier Do 24 seaplanes . Dutch Naval Base Tandjong Priok at Java was the main sub base.[33]
The major Islands of the Dutch East Indies were:

British Borneo

British Borneo bases lost in the war and occupied by Japan included: Port of Sandakan, Port of Muara and Temburon. The British Pacific Fleet's East Indies Fleet also porting in nearby Singapore Naval Base. The British South Pacific Fleet joined the 1942 ABDACOM and many of the British ships were lost in the war. Some ships retreated to British bases in the Indian Ocean and other free British Western Pacific Territories.[37] [38]

POWs

See also: Japanese war crimes and Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies. As in other theaters of war Japan's treatment of POWs and civilians was very poor. Many were exhausted from hunger and disease. Many deaths were caused by the diversion of food, such as rice, to Japanese troops from the Dutch East Indies population. Between 4 and 10 million Indonesians from the Dutch East Indies were turned into Japan's forced labourers, called romusha. Four million died in the Dutch East Indies as a result of famine and forced labour.[39] International Red Cross packages were not distributed to POWs.[40] [41] In the Dutch East Indies there were both massacres and executions of POWs:[42] [43]

See also

External links

Sources

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Pacific Wrecks – Borneo. pacificwrecks.com.
  2. Book: Long, Gavin. The Final Campaigns. Australia in the War of 1939–1945, Series 1 – Army, Volume VII. 1963. Australian War Memorial. Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. 1297619 .
  3. https://www.ozatwar.com/nei-nf/subkix.htm HMAS K9
  4. Web site: Klemen . L . General Sir Archibald Percival Wavell . 1999–2000. Dutch East Indies Campaign website.
  5. Book: Roberts, Andrew . Masters and Commanders: The Military Geniuses Who Led the West to Victory in World War II . 2009 . . 978-0-141-02926-9 . 1 . London . 66–68 . en . Archive Foundation.
  6. Book: Smith, Robert Ross . The Approach to the Philippines. 1996 . Center of Military History, U.S. Army . Washington D.C. . 53060474.
  7. Operation Borneo: The last, untold story of the War in the Pacific, 1945, by Gerard Case, 28 June 2004
  8. https://borneo.com.au/general/australians-at-war/ Australians in Borneo During WW II
  9. http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages-battles/ww2/sandakan.htm Sandakan Death Marches
  10. Web site: Dutch East Indies in World War II .
  11. https://www.cvce.eu/en/education/unit-content/-/unit/dd10d6bf-e14d-40b5-9ee6-37f978c87a01/55e2319f-95c8-43ae-934e-7dd86e9f243f Indonesia
  12. https://www.britishempire.co.uk/maproom/brunei.htm Brunei
  13. https://pacificwrecks.com/provinces/irian_morotai.html Morotai
  14. https://pacificwrecks.com/airfields/indonesia/wama/index.html Wama
  15. https://pacificwrecks.com/airfields/indonesia/pitu/index.html Pitu
  16. Web site: Pacific Wrecks – Sanga-Sanga (Sanga Sanga) Tawi-Tawi Island, ARMM, Philippines. pacificwrecks.com.
  17. Web site: Pacific Wrecks – Sanga-Sanga Airfield (Sanga Sanga, Tawi-Tawi) Tawi-Tawi Province, Philippines. pacificwrecks.com.
  18. Web site: Pacific Wrecks – Brunei (Sultanate of Brunei, Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace). pacificwrecks.com.
  19. Web site: Pacific Wrecks – Tarakan Island, North Kalimantan Province, Borneo, Indonesia. pacificwrecks.com.
  20. Web site: Pacific Wrecks – Balikpapan, East Kalimantan Province, Borneo, Indonesia. pacificwrecks.com.
  21. https://pacificwrecks.com/provinces/indonesia_jakarta.html Jakarta
  22. https://pacificwrecks.com/provinces/borneo_samarinda.html Samarinda
  23. https://pacificwrecks.com/airfields/indonesia/yogyakarta/index.html Yogyakarta Airfield
  24. https://pacificwrecks.com/provinces/indonesia_tjilatjap.html Tjilatjap
  25. https://pacificwrecks.com/airfields/indonesia/saumlaki_seaplane/index.html Saumlaki Seaplane Base
  26. https://pacificwrecks.com/provinces/borneo_sandakan.html Sandakan
  27. Web site: Pacific Wrecks Timbalai Airfield. pacificwrecks.com.
  28. Web site: Pacific Wrecks, Australian bases. pacificwrecks.com.
  29. Web site: Pacific Wrecks – Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste (East Timor). pacificwrecks.com.
  30. http://www.dutchsubmarines.com/tenders/tender_zuiderkruis.htm Submarine tender
  31. https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/28411/1/9789087282806.pdf The Operations of the Navy in the Dutch East Indies
  32. https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/wars-conflicts-and-operations/world-war-ii/1942/java-sunda.html Battles of Java Sea and Sunda Strait 1942
  33. https://pacificwrecks.com/provinces/indonesia_surabaja.html Soerabaja Naval Base
  34. https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/j/java-sea-campaign.html Battle of Java Sea
  35. https://pacificwrecks.com/airfields/indonesia/koepang_seaplane/index.html Koepang Seaplane Base
  36. https://pacificwrecks.com/airfields/indonesia/tondano/index.html Lake Tondano Seaplane Base
  37. Web site: Watson . Graham . Royal Navy Organisation in World War 2, 1939–1945: EASTERN FLEET 1.1942-EAST INDIES FLEET 11.44- . naval-history.net . Gordon Smith, 19 September 2015 . 11 July 2018.
  38. [Stephen Roskill]
  39. quoted in
  40. Marcel Junod, International Red Cross
  41. https://www.archives.gov/files/iwg/japanese-war-crimes/introductory-essays.pdf Researching Japanese War Crimes
  42. https://ecommons.cornell.edu/bitstream/handle/1813/57479/010.pdf An account of the Japanese occupation of Banjumas
  43. https://www.pacificatrocities.org/blog/japanese-occupation-of-the-dutch-east-indies-and-the-colijn-sisters Japanese Occupation of the Dutch East Indies and the Colijn Sisters
  44. https://www.cnooks.nl/Jubileum/2%20%20Other%20documents/2%20%20History/WW%20I%20&%20WWII/Augustina%201942.pdf Tanker Augustina massacre

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