Battle of Balikpapan

24 January 1942, Off Balikpapan, Borneo

Allied victory

The first surface action of the Pacific war, and the US Navy's first since 1898. Four old four-funnelled destroyers of the Asiatic Fleet under Commander Paul Talbot raced up the Makassar Strait to attack the Japanese invasion convoy anchored off Balikpapan. In the early hours they ran through the anchorage, silhouetted for the Japanese gunners by the oil fires the Dutch had lit ashore, firing torpedoes and guns. Many torpedoes missed, but they sank four transports and a patrol boat, while Rear Admiral Shōji Nishimura's escort went off chasing a submarine. All four destroyers got away. It hardly slowed the invasion.