Battle of Sunda Strait

28 February – 1 March 1942, Sunda Strait, off Bantam Bay, Java

Japanese victory

The night after the Java Sea, Houston and Perth, both damaged, tried to escape from Batavia through Sunda Strait to the Indian Ocean. Just before midnight they stumbled on the Japanese convoy landing the army in Bantam Bay, and attacked it. The escort of cruisers and destroyers closed in from every side and fired some 87 torpedoes. Perth, out of ammunition, was hit by four torpedoes and sank soon after midnight with Captain Hector Waller. Houston fought on alone until she too was torpedoed and sank; Captain Albert Rooks was killed. Of about 1,060 men aboard Houston, only 368 survived, and many of those died as prisoners on the Burma Railway. Torpedoes that missed the Allied cruisers ran into the Japanese anchorage, sinking a minesweeper and four transports, one of them carrying General Hitoshi Imamura, the commander of the invasion, who had to swim ashore. The Dutch destroyer Evertsen, following on, was caught and beached.