page_title: Air warfare of World War II
section_title: 1942
hierarchical_section_title: Air warfare of World War II / Pacific air war / 1942
caption_attribution_description: English: Original caption: Bombs from a Japanese aircraft falling around the Netherlands Cruiser Java during the Battle of the Java Sea.Note: Java was bombed by Japanese B5N aircraft on 15 February 1942 without sustaining damage. On 27 February during the Battle of the Java Sea, she was struck by a torpedo fired from a Japanese warship and sank 15 minutes later, just before midnight.
context_page_description: The air warfare of World War II was a major component in all theaters of the war and, together with anti-aircraft warfare, consumed a large fraction of the industrial output of the major powers. Germany and Japan depended on air forces that were closely integrated with land and naval forces; the Axis powers downplayed the advantage of fleets of strategic bombers, and were late in appreciating the need to defend against Allied strategic bombing. By contrast, Britain and the United States took an approach that greatly emphasised strategic bombing, and tactical control of the battlefield by air, as well as adequate air defences. Both Britain and the U.S. built a substantially larger strategic forces of large, long-range bombers. Simultaneously, they built tactical air forces that could win air superiority over the battlefields, thereby giving vital assistance to ground troops. The U.S. and Royal Navy also built a powerful naval-air component based on aircraft carriers, as did the Japanese; these played the central role in the war at sea.
context_section_description: At the Battle of the Java Sea, February 27, 1942, the Japanese Navy destroyed the main ABDA (American, British, Dutch, and Australian) naval force. The Netherlands East Indies campaign resulted in the surrender of Allied forces on Java. Meanwhile, Japanese aircraft had all but eliminated Allied air power in South-East Asia and began attacking Australia, with a major raid on Darwin, February 19. A raid by a powerful Japanese Navy aircraft carrier force into the Indian Ocean resulted in the Battle of Ceylon and sinking of the only British carrier in the theatre, HMS Hermes, as well as two cruisers and other ships, effectively driving the British fleet out of the Indian Ocean and paving the way for Japanese conquest of Burma and a drive towards India.
  The Japanese seemed unstoppable. However, the Doolittle Raid caused an uproar in the Japanese Army and Navy commands—they had both lost face in letting the Emperor be threatened. As a consequence, the Army relocated overseas fighter groups to Japan, groups needed elsewhere. Even more significantly, the Naval command believed it had to extend its eastern defence perimeter, and they focused on Midway as the next base.
caption: Japanese warplanes bombing the Dutch light cruiser HNLMS Java during the Battle of Java Sea
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