Dutch East Indies campaign
The Dutch East Indies campaign of 1941–1942 was the conquest of the Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia) by forces of the Empire of Japan in the early days of the Pacific campaign of World War II. Allied forces attempted unsuccessfully to defend the islands. The East Indies were targeted by the Japanese for their rich oil resources which would become a vital asset during the war. The campaign and subsequent three-and-a-half-year Japanese occupation was also a major factor in the end of Dutch colonial rule in the region.
| Dutch East Indies campaign | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Pacific Theatre of World War II | |||||||||
Japanese forces land on Java. | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
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United Kingdom Portuguese Timor | Japan | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
|
Archibald Wavell A. T. van Starkenborgh Hein ter Poorten Thomas C. Hart Conrad Helfrich Karel Doorman † Richard Peirse George Brett |
Hisaichi Terauchi Kiyotake Kawaguchi Ibō Takahashi Hitoshi Imamura Shōji Nishimura Jisaburō Ozawa Takeo Takagi Nobutake Kondō | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
|
148,000
41 submarines 234 aircraft |
52 warships 18 submarines 107,800 personnel 193 tanks & tankettes 2,017 guns & mortars 5,898 motor vehicles 11,750 horses 609 aircraft | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
|
2,384 killed 1 seaplane tender 2 heavy cruisers 3 light cruisers 1 coastal defense ship 15 destroyers 1 oil tanker 1 gunboat 5,000–10,000 sailors and Marines killed on the sunken ships thousands of sailors and Marines captured | 671 killed | ||||||||
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