Java Sea — Doorman and the ABDA Squadron

Rear Admiral Karel Doorman leads through the waters of Java a scratch force that nothing had prepared to fight as one. His cruisers — *De Ruyter*, *Java*, HMS *Exeter*, USS *Houston*, HMAS *Perth* — and a handful of destroyers belong to 4 navies, speak 4 languages, and operate on incompatible radio codes. The crews have not slept in days; not a single Allied aircraft patrols overhead. On the northern horizon, Japanese transports packed with assault troops are converging on Java, screened by cruisers and destroyers armed with **Long Lance** torpedoes whose range and power outclass anything the **ABDA** force can bring to bear.

Doorman has been ordered to intercept the convoy. But time is running out and his options are narrowing. He can throw his entire mismatched squadron into a frontal assault, accept certain losses to try to reach the transports before Java is overrun; he can preserve his ships, withdraw toward the Sunda Strait to cover an evacuation and defer a battle that already looks lost; or he can keep the **Long Lance** at arm's length and send only destroyers and submarines to harry the convoy's flanks.

Every hour of inaction brings the transports closer to Java's beaches. Doorman knows that total naval defeat will leave the island defenceless — but that a frontal attack may mean the end of ABDA Force, and his own.