the Celebes and the Moluccas. From the airfield  of Kendari II alone, the Japanese had already  

achieved their goal of having the necessary range  to successfully conduct air operations over Java;  

yet to be completely certain that their most  important offensive was going to come into  

fruition, the Japanese commanders had decided  that they first wanted to take southern Sumatra  

and the important airfield of Palembang. Last  week, we also saw the Japanese pierce the Malay  

Barrier for the first time with the capture  of Singapore; and today, they turn to Burma  

to start their advance on one of the most  important British ports in Southeast Asia:  

Rangoon. Join us as the Empire of the Rising Sun  commences the invasions of Burma and Sumatra.

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As we've covered previously, General Imamura had  appointed the 38th Division of Lieutenant-General  

Sano Tadayoshi to conduct the invasion of Sumatra.  After their successful capture of Hong Kong,  

the division had advanced into Cam Ranh Bay by  January 24; while the 3rd Air Force had been  

executing air raids over Sumatra's  main airfields since late December.  

Furthermore, Japanese forces had also  occupied the Anambas Islands on January 26  

to set-up air bases for conducting the Sumatra  and Java operations. This was because the  

invaders were planning to parachute a regiment  of paratroopers over the key Palembang airfield,  

while the bulk of the 38th Division landed at the  Bangka Island and navigated up the Musi, Saleh and  

Telang rivers to support the attack on Palembang.  Once Palembang was finally under Japanese hands,  

the invaders then planned to swiftly seize the  Martapura and Tanjungkarang airfields as well  

as the oil installations around Talang Abab and  Limau. The first landings would be carried out  

by a two battalion-strong advance party that  departed Cam Rahn Bay on February 9, with the  

rest of the division following them two days later  to ascend the Musi River and join the battlefield.  

The 38th's landings were to be supported by a  strong fleet commanded by Vice-Admiral Ozawa  

Jisaburo, mainly consisting of six cruisers  and eleven destroyers from the 2nd Fleet  

and the Southern Expeditionary Fleet . On the other side, the Dutch counted with four  

territorial commands on the island of Sumatra,  under the overall control of Major-General  

Roelof Overakker. In south Sumatra in particular,  Lieutenant-Colonel Vogelesang had at his disposal  

about 2000 men at Palembang, with a further  two companies at Djambi, some 2000 British  

reinforcements and the support of 15 Hurricanes,  35 Hudsons and 40 Blenheims from the RAF.  

Although a parachuting operation was  not expected, the Dutch, led by Admiral  

Helfrich , were expecting a naval invasion, so  Admiral Doorman's ABDA Striking Force was ordered  

to Oosthaven with the objective of intercepting  the invasion fleet. On February 14, with reports  

of Ozawa's convoy approaching southern Sumatra,  Helfrich ordered Doorman to depart Oosthaven  

and carry out a decisive attack on the invaders.  But at the same time, the Japanese paratroopers,  

led by Colonel Kume Seiichi, finally started  their droppings over the Palembang airfield,  

covered by elements of the 3rd Air Division.  Despite the slow speed of the Japanese Ki-56  

transports and the vigilant patrols of the RAF ,  the invaders achieved complete surprise in their  

paratrooper operation, aided by the dense smoke  of the burned oilfields of Borneo and the Celebes.  

By midday, 180 men had been dropped into the  airfield, with a further 90 men coming down  

on the oil refineries of Pladjoe. While strafing  the Dutch anti-aircraft defenses, Japanese planes  

also dropped weapons, ammunition and other  equipment for the paratroopers to employ. 

Benefitting from the close air support, Kume's  men quickly engaged and defeated waves of Dutch  

soldiers, inflicting heavy casualties on them and  successfully capturing Pladjoe's oil refineries.  

Yet the fighting was bitter nonetheless, with  staunch resistance from the defenders that  

tenaciously held on to the airfield. By midnight,  however, the airfield would also fall into the  

hands of the invaders, causing General Overakker  to order a general retreat towards Oosthaven,  

from where they would be evacuated. At this point,  

the advance party of the 38th Division had  also entered into the Mentok anchorage,  

with one battalion heading towards Bangka Island  and the rest of the party approaching the coast of  

Sumatra. Meanwhile, in the early hours of February  15, bad luck struck Doorman's Striking Force,  

as the Dutch destroyer Van Ghent ran aground  in the Stolze Strait and was lost due to the  

damage suffered. A couple of hours later, Doorman  also lost the element of surprise when they were  

sighted by a Japanese floatplane from the  carrier Chōkai. Air attacks soon followed,  

with Doorman recalling the outcome of the Battle  of the Makassar Strait and ordering his forces to  

pull back. While they retreated, Japanese bombers  continued to drop bombs over the Allied fleet;  

but at the end of the day, only minor damage  would be inflicted on the Allied vessels.  

This was, however, Doorman's second defeat  at the hands of the Japanese air power,  

leaving the Japanese invasion fleet  unimpeded to proceed with its plans. 

In the meantime, 60 more paratroopers were dropped  over Palembang to reinforce the Japanese forces,  

which were conducting mopping-up operations  and were consolidating their gains;  

while the advance party successfully seized Mentok  and its airfield and, under a rain of fire and  

bombs dropped upon them by the RAF aircraft,  then started to ascend the Musi, Telang and  

Saleh rivers en route to its objectives. Thus, the  invaders rapidly got to Palembang and successfully  

made contact with the paratrooper force. At  this point, Kume and his men had advanced  

into the city of Palembang, and by nightfall, the  38th's soldiers would help him secure the city.  

On the next day, contact would also be made with  Pladjoe's oil refineries and the main strength  

of the 38th Division would finally arrive at the  mouth of the Musi River . But meanwhile, General  

Sano ordered the Tanaka Detachment of the advance  party to advance south towards Tanjungkarang.  

Departing on February 17, the Japanese  quickly seized the Talang Jimar oil field,  

but their advance was bogged down by the  swamp forests of the region. By February 19,  

units of the Tanaka Detachment managed to capture  the Martapura airfield after a minor engagement,  

then continuing their advance with haste. That  same day, the Japanese had also completed their  

conquest of Bangka Island , while Sano sent the  Kanki Detachment to capture Lahat and Bengkulu,  

and one infantry company to advance against Jambi. 

By dawn on February 20, the Japanese had crossed  the Mandah River and had gotten to Tanjungkarang.  

But despite their efforts, most of the Dutch  defenders had been evacuated from Oosthaven on  

February 17; the invaders could only catch with  their eyes the rearguard of the defenders as they  

sailed away on two gunboats. The Tanjungkarang  airfield would be captured on February 21 at  

long last, then being quickly put to work for air  operations against Java. On this day, the Kanki  

Detachment also departed Palembang and captured  Lahat on the 22nd, Lubuklinggau on the 23d  

and, after crossing a mountain range, Bengkulu on  the west coast on the 24th. Jambi would finally  

fall into Japanese hands on March 4, concluding  the invasion of southern Sumatra. The operation  

had been a huge success for the Japanese Empire,  capturing several airfields and oil refineries  

that could further aid the war machine of the  Rising Sun. Although most of these were in a  

pretty bad state, the invaders would quickly set  out to repair them so that they could put them to  

use for the Empire. With the loss of Sumatra, Java  was now surrounded and the decision was made to  

essentially dissolve the ABDACOM, since the island  could be better defended by General ter Poorten's  

command. In the meantime, the Japanese were  also planning the invasions of Bali and Timor,  

the last of Java's dehors before the main  operation of the Dutch East Indies campaign.  

Although we'll cover Timor more in detail next  week, the capture of Bali was assigned to the  

Kanemura Detachment, consisting of a battalion of  the 48th Division under Commander Kanemura Matabe.  

They had traveled to Makassar by February 15, from  where they would finally depart three days later,  

escorted by a support fleet consisting of  the cruiser Nagara and some seven destroyers. 

Concurrently, when Admiral Helfrich discovered  that the objective of the invaders was Bali,  

he quickly met with Doorman on February 18 and  devised a very flawed plan for a counterattack.  

Since the vessels at the disposition  of the Dutch admirals were scattered  

and coming from different bases , the plan  was for the attack to develop in three stages  

with each group attacking separately against  what they believed was a large Japanese force.  

In all fairness, instead of a counterattack, this  plan looked more like a raid. But despite their  

hasteness to stop the invasion, the Japanese had  already entered the Sanur anchorage by midnight,  

successfully landing on Bali in the early hours of  February 19 and jeopardizing the entire point of  

the Allied attack. Upon landing, the Kanemura  Detachment headed westward under heavy rain  

and quickly seized the Denpasar barracks and the  Kuta airfield almost without resistance. This  

effectively neutralized the Allied presence in  Bali, and the key town of Singaraja would finally  

fall a week later. But on that day, while the  main naval force stood by for support on the sea  

east of Sepanjang Island, four Japanese  destroyers of the 8th Destroyer Division  

and the troop transports got attacked by a  relentless aerial bombardment that hindered  

their efforts and damaged one of the transports.  In fear of losing it, the destroyers Arashio and  

Michishio escorted it back to Makassar, while  the destroyers Asashio and Oshio remained in  

the Sanur anchorage until disembarkation was  completed and finally departed after dark.  

These two destroyers were about to face  the first group of the ABDA Striking Force. 

Shortly before midnight, Doorman deployed his two  cruisers and four destroyers on the Badung Strait,  

ordering the cruisers to engage with gunfire and  the destroyers to then attack with torpedoes.  

This was a poor plan and it was also poorly  executed due to the slowness to fire of the Dutch  

cruisers, with one of them not even opening fire.  In the ensuing firefight, the Asashio was hit on  

her searchlight, but she also quickly scored a hit  on the cruiser Java, causing some minor damage.  

This prompted the Dutch cruisers to race off  to the north and break contact. Afterwards, the  

Japanese were engaged by the Allied destroyers,  which caused heavy damage on the troop transport.  

But the Asashio yet again saved the day, isolating  the Dutch destroyer Piet Hein with great technique  

and mercilessly sinking her enemy. After the  demise of the Piet Hein, the firefight continued,  

but neither side hit the other again and,  in the end, the Allied destroyers escaped to  

the southeast. Now it was the turn of the second  group, but the Japanese were to be reinforced by  

the Arashio and Michishio returning from Makassar.  Four destroyers and one cruiser entered the Badung  

Strait and started to fire torpedoes against the  anchorage, where they believed the enemy would be.  

At this point, the main Japanese naval force had  also been alerted and the Nagara was steaming to  

the area. But meanwhile, the Asashio and Oshio  spotted the American destroyers and quickly  

engaged them in an intense firefight which saw  the Stewart getting severely hit and damaged.  

The result was pandemonium. Parrott nearly plowed  into Stewart which was leading the destroyers,  

while John D. Edwards avoided Parrot  only by making a hard turn to Starboard. 

The Japanese destroyers then shifted  the attention to the cruiser Tromp,  

pounding the Dutch vessel and causing extensive  fires. In return, Tromp scored a hit on the bridge  

of the Oshio and also inflicted heavy damage on  her. The Asashio took a single hit forward on  

her bridge that killed seven of her crew. As  a result all three ships then broke contact.  

And to the north, the Arashio and Michishio were  caught by surprise by the American destroyers,  

suffering a deadly crossfire that caused huge  damage on the Michishio. The Tromp also turned  

to her and scored a tremendous hit on her  engine room, which caused her to stop. But  

before finishing the Michishio off, the Allied  promptly disengaged and escaped to the northeast.  

Eight torpedo boats of the third group  then entered the scene, but they could  

never get into attack position and would have to  return to Soerabaja without achieving anything.  

All in all, the small Japanese destroyer division  had fended off Doorman's attack admirably and had  

even inflicted more casualties than the attackers,  sinking one destroyer and severely damaging the  

Tromp and the Stewart, which would later have to  be scuttled after an accident in a repairing dock.  

Yet again, Doorman had failed to score a local  victory against the IJN due to his poor planning  

and ineffectiveness. Now, we turn to Burma,  where we had left off Brigadier Smyth on the  

Bilin River , unable to further retreat to some  better defensive position behind the Sittang River  

due to the refusal of General Hutton. Brigadier  Smyth would call it a disastrous decision. 

Back on February 6, while General Wavell  visited Burma and encouraged the defenders  

to take back all the lost territory, the Japanese  33rd Division of Lieutenant-General Sakurai Shozo  

had crossed into Burma to the north of Moulmein  to cover the flanks of the 55th Division.  

With his flanks now secured, General Iida decided  to continue his invasion of Burma on February 7.  

From Moulmein, he first set out to cut off the two  Indian battalions that still resisted at Martaban;  

in response, the defenders attempted  a bayonet charge against the roadblock  

and subsequently marched through  difficult terrain for two days.