Battle for Yuma

The fighting along the California-Jefferson border proved to be the only bright spot in the entire Confederate war effort. Even a month after the battle of Gettysburg and weeks after the disaster at Cairo, the Confederate western hook reached its apex. The advance across Jefferson was slow, not even reaching within a hundred kilometers of California by the time of Gettysburg. Battle was too strong a word to describe the conflict out west. Since the start of the war, the State of Jefferson has been nothing but a four-month long running battle, skirmishes between small units. The battles were mobile, but consisted of mechanized infantry and artillery. Only a few tanks were seen on either side of the battle. With a large portion of the aerospace industry in California, Americans had a decisive advantage in air power.

The start of August found the Confederate Army surrounding the city of Yuma. In the morning of August 5, Confederate forces stormed the town. For all day and night, both sides battled in street-to-street, and even house-to-house combat. By August 6, the Confederates had a firm toe-hold on the city. With more time, they likely would have crossed the Colorado River within a week. The battle ended that same day. It was not the fault of the local commander, Brigadier General Howard Wellington III, but the disasters back east forced Birmingham to recall all units out west.

The assault was abandoned after a day, and Confederate forces retreated across Jefferson. With American forces taking full advantage of the retreat, Wellington ordered a scorched Earth policy in his retreat. Railroads and highways were destroyed, any factories in the path of the Confederates were destroyed. Marginal farmlands were destroyed, along with the irrigation network built up by both American and Confederate settlers over the past sixty years. Wellington later stood trial at Charleston for his actions in the retreat. Unlike most Confederates at the Charleston Trials, Wellington was not sentenced to death. Instead, he faced ten years in a federal prison, and upon release he left the restored Union to become an advisor to the rebel government in Mexico.

Cuba in World War II

On April 2, 1940, some forty thousand Confederate Marines, under the command of Brigadier General Holland Smith (an ironic name for a Confederate), serged across the Florida Strait. Landing at and around Havana was largely unopposed, save by a few irregular militia. The city fell without a fight, and a supply line was established between Havana and Confederate ports along the Gulf Coast. The lone U.S. Naval squadron in the city found itself victim of the Confederate Air Force. In one of the few clear-cut Confederate victories of the short war, the American squadron was sent to the bottom, with most of its crew.

The victory was short-lived, as Smith failed to carry up his attack and completely subjugate the entire island. Opposing him was but a small U.S. Marine garrison of ten thousand under the overall command of Colonel Marion “Duke” Morrison. Instead of fighting them straight on, and since a USMC unit has never surrendered, Morrison gave the order to break up his unit and take to the hills. The guerilla war lasted until badly needed reinforcements could come in from the north. In response to these attacks, the Confederates enacted harsh reprisals against the civilian populations under their control, including taking of hostages for each attack.

After a month of fighting, and slowly being bled, Smith ceased patrols in the countryside under platoon strength, and fortified his own positions within the cities. As the war entered its second month, the United States Navy began to take control of the waters around Cuba, severing supplies with the mainland. With the landing of the U.S. Army, under the command of Eisenhower, Smith soon found himself outnumbered and now the hunted. He fought a delaying action as Eisenhower slugged his way north and west from Guantanamo (which the Confederates failed to take).

Trapped in Havana and under siege, it was Smith who was forced to surrender along with his surviving Marines, thus ending the existence of the C.S.M.C. in October of 1940. His defeat paved the way for Operation Overlord, and the end days of the Confederate States themselves. For his own actions on the island, Morrison found himself promoted to Brigadier General, and put in command of a Marine Division in the Pacific.

Confederate Disaster

Battle of Cairo

Even more so than the events at Gettysburg, a couple weeks earlier, the events on July 17, 1940, sounded on of the death nails of the Confederate States of America. What occurred on that day was the most disastrous attempt at a river crossing in modern warfare. Lacking air support– in fact, the United States had its own Air Superiority over the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers– the Army of the Tennessee attempted a crossing of the Ohio east of Cairo, Illinois. American General Omar Bradley had his own 2nd Army dug into and around the city.

Confederate crossing of the Ohio was but a repeat of the American crossing of the Ohio at the start of the Great War, in 1913, up to the point of using the same technology. Open barges, riverboats, and anything that could float, were brought together by the Army of the Tennessee. Armor faced a more difficult challenge. Confederate riverboats were all the army had to escort it across the river. The gunboats were the first targets destroyed by American dive-bombers. After the gunboats were sunk, American air, river and artillery units chewed to pieces the Army of the Tennessee.

On that single day, Bradley succeeded in doing what Arnold failed to; he destroyed the enemy army. Not since the days of Rome had a single army lost so many soldiers in a matter of hours. More than a few companies within the Confederate Army faced casualty rates upwards to 70%. By night fall, what remained of the Army of Tennessee was in full retreat, in some cases unit discipline all but gone. Bradley faced disorganized resistance in his own invasion of Tennessee, mostly from dissolved units of Confederate who have fell back on bush-whacking and other irregular tactics.

P-58 Firebat

Type: Pursuit Plane

Crew: 1

Length: 13.6 meters

Wingspan: 11.1 meters

Max speed: 790 kph

Range: 3,000 km

Ceiling: 13.5 km

Armament: 4, 20mm cannon

up to 2,000 kg payload

First flight: 1942

Introduced: 1944

Manufacturer: Convair

Built: 2,500

The Firebat was the United States Army Air Corps’ premier fighter during the later years of World War II. It is one of the few swept-winged piston engine fighters to ever be built. The airplanes saw nearly exclusive combat in the skies over Europe. The aircraft was designed to serve as escorts to the B-23s and B-27s that bombed targets within Fuhrer Germany. Its role as an air superiority fighter was only surpassed with the advent of jet-powered aircraft developed in Fuhrer Germany to shoot down the bombers. Even then, against the primitive jet fighters, the Firebat still held its own. For every 10 P-58s shot down, 7 jets were downed. It is fortunate that the Fuhrer did not order the development of jet fighters in 1942 instead of 1944.

Along with escort duty, the P-58 saw action in close-air support. In the ground attack role, P-58s shot up rail and other infrastructure targets with unguided rockets. It helped smash the Wesser Pocket in early 1946. The aircraft was phased out following the war, and none remained in service by 1950. The P-58 was highly maneuverable and very able fighter; however, with the advent of jet technology, a piston-engine fighter could no longer compete on the world stage.

Air War over Pennsylvania

In the first months of World War II in North America, a fierce battle took place over the skies of Pennsylvania. Both the U.S. and C.S. battle for dominance, though both sides took different approaches. The Confederates, with limited industry of their own, relied upon imported German fighters, and what was built in the south was often licenced from other companies. The Confederate Air Force was predominately a fighter and tactical bomber force. Fast Messerschmidt and Dixie-Martin fighters escorted dive-bombers and twin-engine bombers. Both were used to destroy U.S. Army targets and fortifications. The Confederates put only a token effort into destroying American industry. Those bombers that were not used by Patton on his march north, were often seen terrorizing Philadelphia. A few strategic raids were attempted early in the war; bombing runs on factories in Pittsburgh as well as docks and shipyards in Baltimore and New Amsterdam.

The U.S. Army Air Corp took a different approach. Fighters were used largely as interceptors, shooting down what few bombers the Confederates threw at American cities. Daily, over rural Pennsylvania and Maryland, fighters on both side circled in a deadly serious dance. Hundreds of fighters on both sides were downed in those first three months. The C.S.A.F.’s biggest disadvantage was that of numbers. They simply ran out of skilled pilots before the Army Air Corps. More Confederate bomber pilots were downed by ground fire than American interceptors. The same was said about the American Strategic Air Command. Four-engine bombers produced by Boeing and Convair targeted the industrial heartland of the Confederacy. Though losses were great, the bombers hit cities like Atlanta and Birmingham in daylight hours to great effect. Unlike night-time raids, the daytime bombers could zero in on industrial targets and destroy them, slowly eroding what little industrial capacity the Confederate States possessed.

In the end, the Air War over the Mid-Atlantic States was one of attrition, where the United States had far more pilots and aircraft.

Battle of Gettysburg

At dawn, on April 1, 1940, the Army of Virginia forced a crossing of the Rappahanock river, thus beginning World War II in North America. General George Patton personally lead the Right Hook of his three-pronged war plan, aiming his army at Philadelphia. His original projections was to storm across Lincoln and Maryland, being in the U.S. Capital within a month. His plans relied too much upon the effectiveness of modern armor, most of which he commanded being imported Panzers. What he failed to calculate was the resolve of American militia and the long-term planning of U.S. General Clive Arnold. Patton drove relentlessly north, battling Lincoln and Maryland National Guard units the whole way. It was no straight-up fight, but rather a prolonged guerilla campaign. Arnold used these units to slow down his enemy, whose only real advantages were speed and surprise. Without either, war would bog down like it did during the previous war.

Arnold moved the 1st Army into place in southern Virginia, at a rail and road junction in the little-known town of Gettysburg. To take Philly, Patton would have to pass through this town. Both the railroad and highways passed through the little valley the town rested upon. Arnold fortified the hills and ridges around the town with bunkers and artillery. Tank traps and trenches were dug at the southern entrance to town, between Cemetery and Seminary Ridges, which in turn were dug in with anti-tank gun. Arnold had the traps camouflaged and relied upon Patton’s aggression to have the Confederate General trap himself. He was not disappointed.

On July 1, more than two months behind schedule, the spearhead of the Army of Virginia ran smack into the traps. Stuck tanks were quickly killed by anti-tank guns. The blunted spearhead upon State Route 76, caused a bottleneck of Confederate armor, a perfect target for the M-18 Badgers. Arnold used the tank destroyers to great effect, and Patton would later say it was those very tank destroyers that cost him the battle. Gettysburg was, at the time, surrounded by orchards, making armored movement precarious and unit cohesion difficult. Patton had little choice but to send in infantry, supported afar by tank guns, to storm each of the hills and ridges around Gettysburg.

Some of the bloodiest fighting was seen on July 2, when an entire regiment of Confederate soldiers was chewed to pieces storming the southern most hill, Round Top, where American artillery gnawed away at Patton’s flanks. Patton was a genius on the offense, but his defensive doctrine left much to desire. Confederate soldiers did take Little Round Top, only to be ejected by a costly American counterattack near dusk. At nightfall, both sides remained in stalemate. Night time attacks by Confederate commandos succeeded in capturing land between Cemetery Ridge and the Round Tops, cutting off the defenders there.

At dawn, Patton ordered the Round Tops suppressed by Confederate artillery and dive-bombers, while a full scale charge on Cemetery Ridge commenced. At the time and in his mind, his choices were limited between withdrawing south or charging forward. Never a man to back down, Patton gave the order to charge. For five hours, Confederate and American units slugged it out for Cemetery Ridge, with Confederates achieving limited gains. Had he another day, Patton may have taken the ridge, even after suffering 20% losses in his armor. That was not to be.

Arnold moved the bulk of his own armor, both tanks and tank destroyers, south. The flanking move took most of July 2, moving nearly thirty miles around Gettysburg. While Patton struggled to take Cemetery Ridge, Arnold’s own armor slammed into Confederate supply lines on the highway south. Arnold’s intent was not just to destroy Patton’s supply lines, but to encircle the Army of Virginia and either force it to surrender or to destroy it. With his supplies threatened, and encirclement imminent, Patton reluctantly gave the order to fall back– he never once uttered the word retreat.

The Army of Virginia’s retreat was less than orderly, with damaged vehicles and weapons forming a wake of litter than American fighters followed. It was the high-water mark of the Confederate invasion, and the beginning of the end of the Confederate States as an independent entity. Patton’s own aggression, inability to advance as fast as he planned, and inability to achieve air superiority over the battlefield that cost him the war at Gettysburg. It was Arnold’s own inability to achieve the same air superiority that failed to end the war then and there. Neither side utilized aircraft to their full effectiveness, but both sides did prove the value of armor and anti-armor weapons at Gettysburg.

Confederate War Aims

Upon taking power, the Confederate Bund began planning to take back what it lost. The Confederate States were broken after the Great War, and were far from an industrial giant to begin with. Factories continued to function in the northern halves of Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia, but beyond these regions the country was still largely agrarian. They were heavily dependant upon imported weapons from friendly regimes, especially the fascists in Germany that drove the Kaiser and his government into temporarily exile in Germany’s River Platte colony. With their own delusions of grandeur, the Bund, as well as the Confederate President, plotted their revenge upon the United States.

The Greater Confederate States of America.

1) To regain all lands and states lost to the Untied States in 1916.

2) To bring all the former slave states into the Confederacy, including Missouri, Maryland and Delaware.

3) For good measure, to bring Costa Rica into the Confederacy, along with the Costa Rican canal.

4) To evict enemies and former allies alike from the Caribbean Sea and Central America, turning it into a Confederate Lake.

5) To disarm the United States.

It was all but impossible to defeat an opponent with more than twice the population and as much as ten times the industrial capacity, even with aid from Fuhrer Germany. Most generals told Bedford that it simply could not be done. These senior generals were dismissed from their positions, making way for more ambitious generals. The foremost of the Confederate War Effort being one Brigadier General Patton from Georgia. He could only promise a quick victory; if the war lasted for more than six months, the odds rapidly turned against the C.S.A. His plan was simple.

Right Hook: A swift drive on the U.S. capital in Philadelphia, decapitating the American leadership.

Upper Cut: A drive to take Chicago and the railroad hub there, cutting the U.S. in half.

Left Hook: A drive into California to either capture or destroy the major naval base at San Diego.

Short Biography #2

Marion ‘Duke’ Morrison

Born Marion Morrison in Winerset, Iowa, on May 26, 1907, Duke Morrison was to become the hardest fighting Marine Corps General to come out of World War II. The nickname Duke came from his childhood in California with a dog named Duke. When walking his dog, Morrison often passed a firehouse, were the firefighters called the dog Little Duke, and Morrison Big Duke. Given the lack of manliness attributed to Marion, Duke Morrison seldom used his given name. Morrison was an athletic youth, spending his years in High School playing football. He applied and was accepted to the United States Naval Academy in Baltimore in 1925. He spent his years at the Academy playing football as well, on the winning team in three out of four Army-Navy games. Morrison graduated and was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the Marine Corps.

Morrison made Captain in 1933 during his tour of duty in Grand Colombia. He received the Bronze Star for his actions in a skirmish between a Marine patrol and Venezuelan Rebels, where he braved machine gun fire to drag a wounded comrade to safety. He served two more tours during 1934 and 1936. Morrison was a Lieutenant Colonel in 1940. He was based on Cuba and was the XO for the 4th Marine (Brigade) of the 2nd Marine Division. Rapid promotion during the 1930s came through his natural leadership skill and personal courage during combat. With war looming, a shortage of high ranking personnel prompted his promotion.

Through most of 1940, Morrison and the 4th Marines fought the Confederate invaders in a guerilla war across the interior of the State of Cuba. They managed to delay and frustrate Confederate Marine General Holland ‘Howling Mad’ Smith until reinforcements under Brigadier General Eisenhower reached the island. Months after Holland surrendered, on March 20, 1941, Morrison, and the whole 2nd Marine Division took part in Operation Overlord, the invasion of the Confederate Gulf Coast.

Upon the Confederate Surrender, Morrison was promoted to Colonel and given command of the 9th Marines. He and his unit were transferred to the Pacific and took part in the Hawaiian Island campaign. The 9th fought on Oahu, Maui and took part in the invasion of Hawaii, assisting the Mauians and Kauaians in taking Kona. Following the Hawaiian Islands, the 9th took part in liberating Wake. The Battle of Wake was a four day slugfest where virtually the entire 3,000 man garrison was wiped out at the cost of five thousand Marine casualties. Among them was Morrison, who received a Purple Heart for the shrapnel wound his received in the shoulder.

Morrison spent several weeks recovering. He was promoted to Brigadier General in 1944, and given command of the 5th Marine Division in time for the invasion of Formosa. The 5th Marine Division took 40% casualties trying to pry the Japanese out of a network of caves and bunkers the Japanese built to hold the island. Morrison was nearly killed when a sniper’s bullet grazed his helmet. Following the Liberation of Formosa, Morrison began training his division for the upcoming invasion of Japan. Given the loses on Formosa, Morrison was no optimistic about the invasion, or living to see victory. That was rendered mute in August of 1945 when Japan surrendered.

Morrison continued to command the 5th Marine Division during its tour of occupation on Kyushu. In 1948, he was pointed commandant of the new USMC base on Hilton Head, South Carolina. Hilton Head was home to a CSMC base, taken over by the United States after the Confederacy surrendered. Morrison fought hard against the decision by Truman to integrate the militaries of the United States and the former Confederacy. His quest to keep Southerners out of “his Corps” nearly cost him his career.

When Eisenhower was elected in 1952, he named Morrison to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. There, Morrison served as advisor to Ike for most of his presidency. Morrison retired from the Corps in 1959, after thirty years of service to his country. He retired to his childhood home in California, living out the remainder of his days, occasionally acting as a consultant to Hollywood studios on various war movies produced during the early 1960s. Morrison died on July 1, 1964, after a year long struggle against lung cancer. Morrison was an avid smoker, and even during treatment he refused to kick the habit.

WWII in North America

The joke known as the Confederate Bund and its short, sharp blunder called WWII. The premise is that Fuhrer Germany (as opposed to the Kaiser's government-in-exile) uses the CSA and the Bund's delusions of grandeur, to keep the Kaiser's only solid ally from interfering in Europe. As you can see, it lasted about a year.

231st Iroquois Regiment

The 231st Regiment, National Guard was formed when the state militia took on the official title of National Guard. The Iroquois militia was split into two regiments, the 231st and 171st. During the Great War, the 231st was called up to fight against the British in Canada. They participated in the liberation of northern Maine, and spent the duration of the war in trenches in New Brunswick. The regiment returned to inactive duty in 1917. It was mobilized again in 1940, following Japanese and Confederate attacks on American installations. During World War II, when the Army was seeking volunteers for new airborne units, the entire 231st Regiment stepped forward an volunteered. It is still questionable if it truly happened as stated, but what is not in doubt it that the 231st became one of the four regiments in the 101st Airborne Division. They saw action during Operation Overlord, and in campaigns in Europe. Following the end of World War II, the 231st stayed on active duty as part of the 101st Airborne. In the following decades, they saw action during the Mexican Intervention. The entire regiment is known for their love of hand-to-hand combat, and preference to using the tomahawk over the bayonet. This practice is not unique among Indians, for many American Army and Marine units are armed with tomahawks instead of combat knives.

Operation: Overlord

Operation Overlord

On March 20, 1941, Operation Overlord was initiated, when one hundred thousand soldiers, under the command of General Eisenhower, landed on the Gulf Coast between Mobile and Tallahassee. The primary objective of Overlord was to secure the ports of Pensacola and Mobile, to allow addition forces to land. After the cities fell, a week into the fight, a rapid advance on Confederate Highway 10 to Jacksonville succeeded in cutting Florida off from the rest of the nation. The genesis of Operation Overlord came at the very start of the war, when Confederate General George Patton was tearing up the Maryland countryside. To turn the tide, the Joint Chiefs believed that a second front must be established far to the south of Patton.

The choice for the Gulf Coast was not the most obvious choice. Hitting the Carolinas from bases in the Bahamas would have had the same effect. However, such an attack was obvious, and defenses were far more formidable. The option to strike at the ‘Soft Underbelly of the Confederacy’ was made in June of 1940, and planning the invasion would fall to a Brigadier General named Dwight Eisenhower. At the time, Ike, as he is affectionately known, was rushing to Cuba to bolster defenses there and to defeat Holland Smith’s invasion force. Once Cuba was freed from Confederate occupation, addition American forces were funneled down south.

At first, it was not known if such an invasion would be needed. After the Battle of Gettysburg, Patton’s army was in a slow but steady retreat. The Americans would win the war, it was only a matter of time. But with war raging in Europe and the Pacific, President Roosevelt demanded the Confederates be beaten for good, and as expediently as possible. By January of 1941, the 101st Airborne Division (the famous Warbling Turkeys) along with 17th, 21st, and 8th Infantry Divisions had already joined the 2nd Marine Division in training for the amphibious invasion. Ike chose Pensacola as a primary objective because of its port facilities, as well as Mobile because of the Confederate Navy’s remaining assets holed up there. Southern Florida was out of the question, since it was mostly uninhabited, and New Orleans was too far of a stretch to risk a cut supply line.

The invasion port departed from Havana on March 17. With one hundred thousand soldiers and their transports came seven battleships, three carriers, sixteen cruisers and thirty destroyers, plus hundreds of frigates, corvettes, mind sweepers and other auxiliary craft. On the night of March 19, the 101st took off from airbases in Cuba and were dropped behind the invasion beaches in southern Florida and Alabama. Their goal was to secure several key points on Confederate Highway 10, and to prevent Confederate reinforcements from hampering the landings.

Reaching the coast was the easy part, and the transports had total surprise on their side. Blackouts were only imposed in the two cities and all along the coast. Twenty kilometers in land, and there might as well not even be a war waging. Confederate AAA was slow in catching on, but fifteen minutes after the first paratroopers had landed, the sky was aflame with flak and tracers. Many transports were too badly damaged to return to Cuba, and a few even managed to land on the highway.

The invasion struck the Confederacy as a total surprise. No Confederate plans ever existed to battle an invasion of their Gulf Coast. Apparently the Bund believed their navy would thwart any such attempt. When the fleet came within range of the coast at 0300 on March 20, they let loose a bombardment that lasted for three hours. The three carriers, Valcour Bay, Lexington and Yorktown provided sufficient combat air patrols to thwart the few Confederate bombers that tried to hamper the invasion. Battleships California, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Utah, Idaho, Lakoda and Indiana ceased firing at 0600. They would remain with the rest of the fleet to provide artillery support for the invasion.

At 0600, three division set out to their respective beaches. The 21st Division landed on the western most beach, code-named Coffee, and began their drive towards Mobile with minimal resistance. On the middle beach, code-named Cocoa, the 17th Division met serious resistance along the beaches from a few Confederate Marine units, as well as local wielding hunting rifles. Various local private militias went out to meet the 17th on Cocoa Beach. Out of the five thousand that did, only seven survived. The eastern most beach, code-named Sugar, was taken by the 2nd Marine Division and secured after an hour of fighting local militia. The Marines marched largely unopposed towards Pensacola. The 8th Division was held in reserved, and released at 1100 to Cocoa Beach.

By the next day, all three beaches were secure, and the infantry were moving towards their objectives. The 8th gave aid to the Marines in taking Pensacola, which fell on March 26. The 101st and 17th pushed towards Mobile, which fell a day earlier than Pensacola, but at a much higher cost in men. The USN moved its fleet towards Mobile once the beaches were secure, leaving behind a screening force to defend the beachheads. The battleships of the USN pounded the city, the harbor and what remained of the Confederate Navy from March 22 to 24. Units of the Iroquois Regiment of the 101st captured the Confederate Naval Academy in the late morning hours of March 23, tearing down the Confederate flag and raising Old Glory over the academy. The students put up a valiant effort to defend, but after two hours of fierce fighting, the Commandant decided to spare his students and surrendered the academy.

On March 30, reinforcements over Infantry, Armored and Artillery began disembarking at the two ports. This second front hastened the fall of the Confederacy, but more over taught the Americans about how to operate an amphibious invasion. These same lessons would be used again by Eisenhower during the invasion of North Africa, Spain and of Fortress Europe. Marine Corps landings would be used as template for their amphibious operations against the Japanese. In the eyes of the Marines, the Japanese would put up far fiercer resistance than did the Confederates on March 20, 1941.

Overlord Diversion

Operation Undertaker, the diversionary plan for Overlord, was stationed in the Bahamas. During the winter of 1940-41, the United States Navy and Marine Corp built up a large force in the Bahamas in plain sight of the Confederates. Confederate President Bedford believed that this invasion force would strike somewhere in Georgia or the Carolinas. So well was this deception that critical units were moved to Georgia and South Carolina that could have been in the Florida panhandle to thwart Eisenhower and Overlord. Carrier raids from the Bahamas added to the deception. Both carrier-borne and land-based bombers began to strike at Savannah, Georgia starting on February 28, 1941, almost a month before Overlord. The systematic destruction of Savannah’s defenses made some in the American War Department wonder if they could land there. However, nearly one hundred thousand Confederate soldiers based around the city for fifty kilometers north and south, was a prime reason why not. American loses in Undertaker were high, but it is believed these deaths saved more lives and made Overlord such a smashing success. Even after Overlord’s invasion force hit the Gulf Coast, Bedford was hesitant to move forces from the Georgian Coast, and did not do so until March 24.

Battle of the Java Sea

Battle of the Java Sea

By March of 1941, the Dutch Commonwealth was facing defeat in the East Indies. The Japanese were already in control of the ports on Sumatra and Borneo, and sought to add Java to their Empire, along with the oil fields of the East Indies. The Japanese had spent the previous month pounding away at airfields on Java, and managed to destroy the dry dock facilities in Jakarta. The Commonwealth Navy in that part of the world was not as high as in the Atlantic, where the bulk of the Commonwealth Navy was massed in Brazil, participating in the Battle of the Atlantic. Limited Commonwealth Naval forces were divided between Ceylon and Jakarta, the forces on Formosa being destroyed in 1940.

The Commonwealth fleet, under the command of Admiral Karl Doorman, with his flag on the DCS William IV. Accompanying him, the battlecruiser Tanhausen, the carrier Delft, along with cruisers Java, Delphi, and Flores and five destroyers. Commonwealth carrier doctrine stress air cover over the fleet to allow the big guns to enter range of the enemy. As such, the Delft carried fighters and scout planes, and had no ability to project its power beyond the horizon. This tactic proved effective against Fuhrer Germany, but only because their navy was shriveled since the bulk of the German Imperial Navy supports the Kaiser.

The Japanese Navy, on the other hand, utilized air power in ways that European and American navies had not considered. The Japanese used carrier-based air craft in the Hawaiian Campaign, along with attacks on Formosa and British Luzon. The British Far East fleet was destroyed in Manilla Bay by the Japanese Navy. The Japanese fleet, under the command of Admiral Takeo Takagi, from his flagship the Hiryu. Hiryu was accompanied by the carrier Soryu, along with battleship Yamashiro, cruisers Tone and Takeo along with five destroyers. Behind this fleet was the invasion force of one carrier, four battleships, seven cruisers and a mess of destroyers, along with twelve thousand soldiers.

The Commonwealth fleet maneuvered along the north shore of Java, never moving one hundred kilometers away from the shore, and its additional air cover. The Japanese fleet moved down the Makassar Strait, into attack range on March 16, 1941. At 0500, both Japanese carriers launched a risky night-time attack against the Commonwealth fleet. The fighters and bombers would have returned long after sunrise. Accompanying the attack, two hundred Japanese medium bombers took off from bases on Borneo, and struck diversionary attacks at airbases surrounding Jakarta, cratering the runways. Additional air strikes severely damaged the port, making it virtually impossible, or at the very least impractical for the fleet to make call. It is not known precisely, but is believed that Doorman considered this the main attack of the day, and he ordered half of his fighters to intercept the Betty bombers.

At 0820, the first wave of 10 Japanese torpedo bombers struck at the Commonwealth fleet. Three were downed by anti-aircraft fire, and four more by the remaining air cover. However, the torpedo bombers drew the too few fighters down low, while Japanese dive bombers struck at the fleet. At 0826, the first of the Vals struck the Delft. Minutes later, bombs struck the DCS Tanhausen, knocking out its forward turret. A second attack from above hit the Delft at 0831. This strike knocked out the carrier’s elevators and destroyed the bridge superstructure. A second wave of torpedo bombers homed in on the carrier at 0837, destroying its rudder and rupturing its bow. The end of the Delft did not occur until 0903, after the first Japanese attack had departed, when fires raging through the carrier engulfed an armory, setting off numerous one hundred millimeter anti-aircraft artillery. At 0910, the surviving senior officer ordered abandon ship. A destroyer running along side the carrier during the battle also sunk, as result of taking two torpedoes intended for the Delft.

Doorman now had no choice but to retreat closer to Java, and hope that it had enough fighters to provide air cover. Two destroyers broke from his fleet to rescue survivors of the doomed carrier, while the rest of the fleet steamed towards the southwest. The few fighters that Java managed to get airborne, were outclassed by the Zeros when the second attack arrived at 1411. While the Commonwealth fighters were picked off by the zeros, Kate torpedo bomber homed in on the King William IV, while Vals attacked the battlecruiser. The damaged Tanhausen was hit by four more bombs, the last of which penetrated the aft deck and into the magazine. With one tremendous explosion, the Tanhausen broke two-thirds of the way to its stern at 1418. The rest of the ship sank within ten minutes, with most of the crew on board.

At 1422, torpedoes ripped open the starboard hull of the King William IV, causing the battleship to list severely. Java exploded in a giant fire ball at 1426, and Delphi was crippled by repeated attacks. The Japanese ended their attack at 1431, with two additional destroyers on fire, and the King William IV further damaged by addition bombs. Admiral Doorman was killed during the last bombing run, when the bridge was strafe, and then toppled by a bomb impact below it. The King William IV capsized at 1541. By night fall, when it was clear no further attack was on its way, Captain Hans Vermen of the DCS Flores took command of the fleet, and ordered the survivors of the disastrous battle to be retrieved by night fall. Following sunset, the remainder of the fleet limped eastwards towards Ceylon, since Jakarta’s port facilities were no longer able to take on the ships.

The Battle of the Java Sea was the first naval battle in history were the fleets never actually saw each other. The battle also shattered Commonwealth carrier doctrine, and propelled the Commonwealth to design and produce its own carrier-based bombers and attackers. The battle also allowed the Japanese to land on Java, and occupy Jakarta. Like the other major islands of the archipelago, the Japanese were easily able to control the cities and oil fields, but failed to pacify the rest of the island, though not from lack of effort. The Commonwealth Navy was out of the East Indies for the better part of a year, until the first of the Ernst van Bohr class carriers were launched. Commonwealth ground forces did not return to the islands until 1944.