Evening star., 1942-03-19

: and throat.
Thirty-seven others OF the Korte-
naers crew perished when a Jap
torpedo, fired probably from a sub
marine. hit her near the engine
room, destroying No. boiler room
at the munition magazines. The
Kortenaer split amidship and sep
arated fore and stern. sinking per-
pendicularly, like stakes driven
into the sea-" within two minutes.
Counted on Darkness, Weather.
The Allied and Jap fleets were i'll
met by the moonlight. Knowing
weeks before that the battle odds
made a clean-cut victory impos-
sible, Vice Admiral c. E. L. Helfrich
Of the Indies fleet based his strategy
on the hope of using dark nights
and bad weather, striking when
visual communications among the
Jap units were upset. But the Japs
elected to invade when the sky was
blue and unclouded and the sea
smooth, followed by star-hung
night with the moon barely past full.
Under such conditions the in
equality of forces was heightened
by the brilliant moonlight, fully re-
vealing the Allied moves. The dis
advantage was heightened by the
fact that the Jap cruiser force was
fully supplied fifth an attached air
reconnaissance-two seaplanes per
cruiser-while the Allied cruisers
lacked any.
Four or five Jap spotter planes
hovered over the daytime phase Of
the battle. Allied preliminary re-
connaissance was even more serious
ly impaired through several weeks
of attacks by Jap Navy Zero planes
on American and Dutch flying boats
which diminished the extent OF
coastal patrols, causing an under
estimate of the Jap forces by the
Allies before the battle was engaged.
Segments of the invasion conveys
were seen gathering in Macassar
Strait two days before Being a
defensive force, the Allies, under the
immediate command of Rear Ad-
miral Karel w. F. M. Deoorman
and the remote command of Ad-
miral Helfrich, from Bandoeng, had
to accept battle under whatever
conditions the Japs imposed-and
the conditions proved most disad-
vantageous.
Destroyers Around Cruisers.
The Allied fleet, including the de-
stroyers Electra, Jupiter, Witte de
With, Encounter and certain num-
Der of American destroyers, deployed
around the cruisers De Ruyter, Ex-
eter, Houston, Perth and Java, had
left Soerabaja on Thursday night
for an eastward sweep along the
northern coast of the island OF
Madura, thence westward beyond
Rembang, seeking to intercept the
convoy.
The crews were tired to the point
of exhaustion. having spent We'd
nesday night February 25 at battle
stations on a similar sweep. About
10 o'clock Friday morning Febru-
ay 30, about 20 miles of the
headland west of Rembang - of
which Mount Moeriah is the most
prominent landmark the Allied
fleet was attacked from height
of approximately 10000 feet by
three Jap bombers which probably
had been originally destined for
Java coast objectives.
None of the bombs took effect
but Immediately afterward Jap
seaplane appeared astern and
thereafter continuously trailed Ad-
miral Deoorman's fleet, keeping
barely beyond gunshot. After 81
hours of continuous battle stations,
Admiral Deoorman wirelessed Ad-
miral Helfrich at Bandoeng. "Ex-
haustion point far exceeded and
proposed to break of the sweep and
return to Soerabaja.
The fleet had turned and was
Continued on Page A-3. Column H.