Battle of Kendari
The Battle of Kendari took place on 24 January 1942 as part of the Japanese offensive in the Dutch East Indies. The airfield Kendari II at Kendari became an essential target for Japanese forces for its strategic location and infrastructure quality. Encountering little to no resistance, Japanese troops managed to capture the airfield in one day, as the Dutch defenders were already in retreat inland.
Background
Constructed in 1938, Kendari II Airfield, which was located 27 km from the eponymous city, increased the military significance of the Southeast Celebes Region exponentially. Upon its completion, Kendari II was considered as the best airfield throughout the Dutch East Indies, if not the entire Southeast Asia. The airfield had three runways and additional space for expansion. Before the outbreak of war, Dutch forces had already built barracks that can accommodate 500 troops and planned to expand it more for Australian or KNIL reinforcements.To bolster its defense, four KNIL brigades garrisoned the airfield, before they were reinforced by additional troops, AA guns, machine guns and mortars from Java. By the end of 1941, Dutch forces strength on the city numbered around 500 troops, of which 320 of them are regular soldiers. By 1942, about 3,000 bombs and a million liters of aircraft fuel had been placed on Kendari II to accommodate American bombers who were using the airfield as a staging base to refuel and rearm in their operations against the southern Philippines.
All the same, the airfield is one of the bases that Japanese forces must capture to establish a solid air support network to successfully occupy Java, along with the ones at southern Sumatra, Kuching, Banjarmasin and Makassar. Its capture would enable Japan to conduct air raids on eastern Java, while maintaining air cover that stretched from Ambon to Kupang and Bali Island, in addition to establishing a new naval base.
Order of battle
Japan
Ground forces
- Sasebo Combined Special Landing Force
Naval units
Netherlands
Ground forces
Dutch plans
Dutch plans of defense called for repulsing any landings on the beach, before delaying the enemy advance towards Kendari II and stoutly defend the airfield. The plan arranged for half of the occupying troops would repel the coastal landings near Kendari City, while the other half would defend Kendari II against possible paratrooper attacks. As with other Dutch troops stationed in the Outer Regions, the defenders must resort to guerrilla warfare in the case that regular defense could not be conducted anymore. Regardless of the plan, the defensive structure and details had already begun to break down in the periods leading up to the battle.Even though the troops had been equipped with six machine guns and three Madsen guns, the machine guns had to be allocated to Makassar in January 1942, leaving Anthonio's troops without any automatic weapons to support them. For motorization, even through Dutch troops were provided with 30 trucks, they had to assigned their own troops to drive them, thus reducing their combat capacity. Yet eventually, as these trucks were more often used by Dutch personnel at Kendari II for barracks construction and fuel supplying, the motorization plan falls apart.
To make matters more difficult, Dutch defenders had not come up with demolition plans for the airfield by late December 1941, when the war was in full swing. When Reserve Capt. A.J. Wittich had come up with a feasible plan by late January 1942, shortage of explosives forced Dutch troops to adopt incineration plan for the airfield instead. In overall, Kendari defenders' morale had already been teetering before Japanese forces had even arrived. A NEFIS report published after the war remarked that Dutch leadership in Kendari had little confidence that they can adequately defend the airfield, with Anthonio himself stating: "What can we do with 400 men?"
Japanese plans
According to the Japanese plan, the operation to capture Kendari will proceed along the Menado – Kendari – Makassar line that falls under the responsibility of the Imperial Japanese Navy. The plan calls for the landing in Kendari to be conducted 43 days after the general Japanese offensives on 8 December began, which will be on 20 January. The Sasebo Combined Landing Force that took part in the capture of Manado were assigned for this operation. Even though the operations in Tarakan and Manado were completed ahead of schedule, the Dutch East Indies Commander, Vice Adm. Ibo Takahashi postponed the Kendari attack to 24 January due to the delay in the arrival of the Construction Squad and the ongoing operation to clear allied submarines from Molucca Sea. By 21 January, the Sasebo Force and its naval escorts left the Bangka anchorage, heading for Kendari.Battle
Prelude air raids
On 12 January a Japanese recon aircraft flew over Kendari II to scout the area. The following day, a C5M plane dropped leaflets over Kendari II, saying that Dutch troops had better surrender, which was followed by raids from nine bombers the day after. On 15 January, Zero fighters from the 3rd Air Group strafed the airfield, but Dutch AA fire damaged one Zero. Even though these raids did little damage to the airfield, it wreak great havoc among Dutch troops' morale. The day after the first bombing raid, the entire Indonesian crew of the AA detachment and several troops deserted, forcing Anthonio to send out two brigades to apprehend them. Furthermore, Dutch troops also had to evacuate women and children to Wawatobi town, 60 km away from Kendari. Despite the actions that have been taken, poor Dutch leadership performance still persists. During the first air raid, Captain Van Straalen immediately ran away at first sign from the air raid siren and only returned 90 minutes after the All-Clear signal have been given.Escape of USS ''Childs''
When the Japanese invasion fleet was approaching, Staring Bay and Kendari anchorage was already cleared of Allied shipping, except for the American seaplane tender USS Childs, who had arrived on the night of 22 January. Its skipper, Lt. Cdr J. L. "Doc" Pratt, was assigned to send 30,000 gallons of aviation fuel for Kendari II.To mitigate the risk of Japanese air raids, the ship's hull was painted green and its movement was limited to nighttime sailing only; at day time, Pratt hides the ship in small coves among trees. During the fuel transfer, Childs was tied to some coconut trees to hide itself. Yet the low tide rendered the offloading place dry, leaving the ship nearly tipped over in the mud. At this point, a Japanese scout plane flew overhead and spotted the seaplane tender. It was only because of the green paint and tilted position that Childs was saved from any follow-up attacks.The arrival of the high tide helped repositioned the ship again.
When a schooner was spotted sailing nearby, Pratt was convinced that Japanese forces are monitoring his ship, and got Childs underway at 05:25 on 24 January. But as they were steaming southward, a lookout reported that four Japanese destroyers are heading to intercept them, and that one of them challenged Childs with the signal "A8Y...A8Y...A8Y." Rodney Nordenfelt, the signalman, simply returned the signal back, giving time for Pratt to change course to a narrow channel in full speed under the cover of heavy rain squall.
As the seaplane tender cleared the channel, Pratt noticed that the four destroyers are still pursuing them. Eventually, however, they perceived Childs to be a merchant ship and headed back to the anchorage. Just 30 minutes later, three Japanese fighters were scouting the ship overhead. Its anti-aircraft defenses immediately open fire and drove them off, only to have the fighters returned again 5 minutes later. This time, the AA fire damaged one of the plane and the fighters retreated. A floatplane appeared at 14:15 and challenged Childs with the "A8Y" signal again. When Childs used the same strategy to deceive it, the plane swiftly dropped two bombs on the ship. Both of them missed and Childs' AA fire forced the floatplane to retreat. Pratt now directed the seaplane tender to steam southeast at full speed to avoid possible encounter with Japanese warships. In two days, Childs managed to reach Soerabaja safely.
Japanese landing
At the time of the Japanese landing on 24 January, Dutch troops in Kendari were spread out in this disposition:- A number of coastguards, including at Sampara
- Two brigades who were tracking down the deserters.
- Four brigades under Capt. Anthonio in Kendari City.
- Three brigades under Lt. Aronds at Mandongan-Lepo Lepo area
- Four brigades at the Kendari II, supported by anti-aircraft artillery
- Two so-called reserve brigades under Van Straalen near Amboepoea
- C. 22 men in Mandongan.
When he received word about the fleet sightings, Anthonio drove to the Kendari coastline, where he personally saw the warships and transport ships, before driving back to Mandongan. There, he organized Aronds' troops around a defensive position, before report of the landing in Sampara made him drove to Kendari City; Anthonio feared that Japanese fighters will strafe him if he head for the airfield instead. At Kendari City, Anthonio divided the garrisoning troops into two groups and ordered them to march inland. One group under Anthonio's command made its way, while Mori's troops captured the second group and beheaded the two sergeants who were leading it.
After he was informed of Mori's landing, Lt. Aronds left Kendari City for Mandongan and destroyed the Dutch quarters there. Local population then informed the Japanese advance towards the Kendari-Wawotobi road to him, who passed it along to Anthonio. Aronds was then ordered to inform Kendari II of the situation and began the destruction task at once. Anthonio finally ordered Aronds and his 15 soldiers to defend against the Japanese advance at the 7-km marker. Aronds tried to contact the three brigades at the Mandongan - Lepo Lepo area to join him, but they could not be reached. He eventually had to defend the marker alone.
At the airfield, the destruction efforts began under much confusion around 12:00. Lt. Schalen, assisted by the AA crews, destroyed the warehouses, radio station, diesel installations, AA guns and transport vehicles. The aircraft bomb dumps could not be destroyed, though, as they do not have the explosives to do so. Half an hour later, Van Straalen and his brigades retreated inland, leaving two brigades under Sgt. G.J. van Duuren and Sgt. Maj. Vellinga to engage the Sasebo Force as they entered the airfield. By 17:00, Mori's troops managed to occupy and secure Kendari II. At 03:05 the following day, Mori reported: " right away available for 30 fighter planes. the airfield is quite good and it can be used even by medium-sized land-based attack planes without problem."
Within hours, 25 Mitsubishi Zero and five Mitsubishi C5M from the 1st Air Raid Group staged into the airfield, followed by the 21st Air Flotilla Headquarters and 27 bombers of the Kanoya Air Group. Between 27 January and 6 February, 19 Zeros and nine dive bombers from the 2nd Air Group arrived as reinforcements.