Battle of Makassar Strait

4 February 1942, Bali Sea, south of the Kangean Islands

Japanese victory; the Allied strike force driven back

With the Japanese gathering an invasion convoy at Balikpapan, the Allied command in the East Indies formed a striking force under the Dutch Rear Admiral Karel Doorman: two Dutch and two American cruisers and seven destroyers. Japanese aircraft found it refuelling at Madura on 3 February, and the next morning, as Doorman headed north-east to look for the convoy, 60 twin-engined bombers from Kendari and Balikpapan caught his ships in the open south of the Kangean Islands. With no fighters to cover them the ships could only dodge. Marblehead was straddled by bombs that jammed her rudder and holed her bow, and a bomb wrecked Houston's after turret, killing 48 men. Doorman turned back through the Lombok Strait. Houston went on to fight with her two forward turrets; Marblehead was out of the war in the Pacific. Three days later the Japanese landed at Makassar unopposed.