Location
Strait seporating Java and Sumatra.

Battle of Sunda Strait
February 28 - 1 March, 1942. This battle consisted of several of the bigger warships that had survived the Dutch East Indies Campaign and Battle of the Java Sea that were then trying to escape the Java area.

Allied cruisers, Houston and the Perth, which were attempting to escape southward through Soenda (now Sunda) Strait, suddenly ran into a huge Japanese invasion armada in the process of assaulting Batavia (now Djakarta). The cruisers were destroyed, but only after sinking 3 loaded Japanese transports. On the 28th, the Japanese heavy cruisers torpedoes and sinks Dutch light cruiser De Ruyter (RNN RAdm Doorman's flagship, in which he is lost) and Dutch light cruiser Java. After the battle, the Japanese land on north coast of Java.

Unknown one for most of the war, many of the crews of the ships sunk were taken prisoner and initially. Several years later, a Japanese transport with Australian survivors of the Perth was torpedoed, and the Australians rescued, shed light about what happened to the Perth and Houston, as no signals of thier battle were transmitted before they were sunk.

HMAS Perth
Sunk February 28, 1942

USS Houston CA-30
Sunk February 28, 1942

HNMS Evertsen
Beached February 28, 1942

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Last Updated
October 1, 2009