Chaos is not good for record-keeping

The evacuation of the Netherlands East Indies was chaotic, as were many during the Second World War. However much they may be planned in theory, evacuations during wartime rarely go smoothly, and even when they are deemed “successful” (such as the one at Dunkirk in 1940), in the moment, chaos reigns, as the pursuing enemy disrupts events with bombing raids. Sunken ships can still be located, however. It is surprising that anyone engaged in a battle for their life might think to record the exact location of their ship’s demise, but this is what happened during the evacuation of the Netherlands East Indies, March 1 to 8, 1942.

In his book The Allied Defense of the Malay Barrier, 1941 – 1942, Tom Womack provides a detailed account of the Japanese invasion of the Netherlands East Indies. He focuses on the naval and maritime aspect of the event and provides a grim look at the scale of the Allied defeat. In just seven days, Womack writes, 186 merchant and naval vessels were scuttled as the Japanese approached Soerebaja (now called Surabaya), Batavia (Jakarta) and Tjilatjap (Cilacep) on the island of Java. The locations of 59 of these scuttled ships has been mapped; the rest received hasty descriptions, such as “at Soerebaja” or “in the Donan River.” 

These numbers do not include the more than 50 vessels that were sunk at sea during their attempts to escape. These locations are mostly known, as the sinkings occurred one by one at the hands of Japanese naval personnel, who recorded them in their ship logs.