January 24, 1942 0130 near Balikpapan
Six ships glided through the water. Four destroyers were ahead of Norfolk and Boise. They had dashed across the Java Sea when a Dutch DO-24 had spotted an invasion force that was destined for Balikpapan. The Americans had been patrolling near Makassar when the call for assistance had gone out. The Dutch Eastern force was in port at Surabaya while their Western force and the Royal Navy was covering Sumantra and the Sunda Straits.
USS Grau was in the lead of the attacking force. Three of her sisters were immediately behind her. All four of her guns were manned. All four of her guns were tracking a Japanese patrol boat. The American destroyer division pressed itself into the anchorage, every second bring them ten yards closer to their target. Every second infinitesimally increased the probability of a hit with their torpedoes. Thirty two torpedo tubes had swung out from over the centerline and the torpedo men were ready, waiting for orders. They had babied their missiles for months now and they had spent extra time that afternoon and evening to make sure that the finicky beasts would work.
Two rows of transports were anchored. The nearer line was 5,000 yards away while the far line was close to 7,000 yards away from the Grau’s bow. A light cruiser and at least eight or nine other escorts were on the far side of the anchorage as well. Fires from the incompletely destroyed equipment backlit the transports while destroying the night vision of Japanese look-outs. The young commander on Grau’s bridge pushed forward for another minute and then he gave the order to launch his torpedoes at the closest target. Eight fish entered the water and then he ordered a signal lamp to break the black-out to tell the rest of the division it was time to launch.
Within a minute thirty torpedoes were streaking forward. One had misfired and the other had an engine failure. The gun crews were still waiting for their time, they were as ready to get some action as they were the evening of their prom. They had to wait.
The torpedoes went through the water and no one noticed them. No one noticed the four American destroyers that had already started to turn out to sea. No one knew that the transports were under attack yet.
Each destroyer accelerated to twenty eight knots as they fell back to the cruisers. The gunnery radar aboard Norfolk had some targets picked out while Boise’s radar could not differentiate the ships from the land. She would wait until she had illuminated targets. As the last destroyer in line was seventy three hundred yards away from the target, the first wave of torpedoes from Grau arrived. Four were clean misses. Three were duds. The last one ripped open a 4,800 ton cargo ship’s hold.
Three other ships were hit. They survived with minor leaks because the Mk-6 detonators failed.
Most of the escorts began to sweep for submarines but a single patrol boat fired a star shell. No one would ever find out why a star shell was fired as the patrol boat had no survivors who knew. It illuminated the four retreating American destroyers. Almost as soon as the shell burst, sixteen five inch guns went into rapid aimed fire at the patrol boat. The obsolete destroyer was overwhelmed within minutes, her gun crews cut down by shell fragments and ship shards.
Even as PC-35 was sinking, the rest of the escort force started to respond. Gunfire was chasing the fleet American destroyers who had started to weave and bob at flank speed. Their aft guns were routinely firing back at the superior escort without effect beyond morale. Occasionally, the full broadside would be presented and four shells fired.
The two light cruisers 16,000 yards away from the closest Japanese escort waited a few minutes until they had a clear sight picture and they were sure that their destroyers were out of their firing arcs. Norfolk picked out Naka as her target. Fifteen six inch rifles from one of the most modern and largest light cruisers in the world were aimed at a ship with half the guns of a lighter weight and half the sustained rate of fire. The Japanese light cruiser was soon overwhelmed by an avalanche of heavy, accurate, radar directed shell fire.
Boise did not have as clean of a sight picture. Japanese destroyers were somewhat visible on the horizon and as her secondary guns were loading star shells in place of general purpose high explosive shells, Boise, flung seven salvos at the nearest transport. Those shells were designed to defeat the armor of heavy cruisers. The thin, structural steel of a transport barely was enough to contain the damage from half a dozen hits. The empty transport was on fire when Boise turned to gain sea room. The aft turrets continued to send shells at the transport line as the three forward turrets fired over the shoulder at a well illuminated Japanese destroyer. That destroyer and two of her peers had crippled USS Page with a half dozen shells landing, including two in an engine room. Page could still steam at eighteen knots but she would be overtaken. The decision to stop and take off survivors or to fight a delaying action in order to allow for repairs was about to be made by Admiral Glassford when the Japanese made it for him. Two torpedoes ripped open the destroyer, throwing the survivors into the ocean and simplifying the choices an admiral had to make.
At the end of an hour long chase, the two American cruisers slowed to twenty seven knots to allow the three surviving, and all slightly damaged destroyers, to form up on them as they headed south. At the cost of a single destroyer sunk with none of her crew recovered, they had won. The Japanese light cruiser had gone up from a magazine explosion half way through the action while at least three Japanese escorts, either destroyers or very large patrol boats were sinking from the heavy American gunfire. Three or four transports were sinking or on fire. It was a victory that would not reverse the failure of the Dutch defenders to hold the oil city but it would help defend the next target. Now they just had to run far enough south by daylight to be under Dutch fighter cover provided by the single squadron of Wildcats.