Битва за Таракан (1942)

1942 battle involving Japanese Empire and Dutch Empire

The Battle of Tarakan took place on 11–12 January 1942, a day after the Empire of Japan declared war on the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Although Tarakan was only a small marshy island off northeastern Borneo (now divided between Indonesia's Kalimantan and Malaysia's East Malaysia) in the Netherlands East Indies (today's Indonesia), its 700 oil wells, refineries, and airfield made it a crucial objective for Japan in the Pacific War.

Located at a remote edge in the Dutch colony of Netherlands East Indies and only 25 sq. miles in diameter, the discovery of oil at a relatively low depth below the ground (50 to 300 meters) brought great significance to Tarakan. Pamoesian (Pamusian) on the western side of the island became the main drilling site before the war, where about 700 oil wells were established by the Bataafse Petroleum Maatschappij (BPM; "Batavian Petroleum Company"). In the vicinity of the drilling sites, housing centers for BPM European employees and Chinese residents was established. Further up north, BPM also established another drilling site at Djoeata (Juwata). To all intents and purposes, the oil wells became the source of living for the island's population. Despite the prevalence of this massive production, during the prewar time, most of Tarakan's hilly terrains at the center of the island, as well as the swamp coastlines in the east remained at their natural state. The road network was limited to connecting the Pamoesian and Djoeata drilling sites, the port facilities at Lingkas on the west) in their plans to occupy the Netherlands East Indies in the years leading up to the war.

For the capture of Tarakan, the Japanese planned for a two pronged landing from the eastern side of the Island. One prong of the advance, the Right Wing Unit (under Col. Yamamoto), would land at the shores near the Amal River and destroy any Dutch troops there. Without waiting for the landing to be completed, the unit would then move westwards through the jungle and launch a sudden attack to seize the Pamoesian oilfields. Upon securing Pamoesian, Yamamoto's troops would then advance to secure the installations at the Lingkas port before the Dutch could demolish it. The second prong, the Left Wing Unit, would land further south at Tandjoeng Batoe (Tanjung Batu) and make their way west to capture the Peningki Karoengan gun batteries, before moving to Lingkas, passing by the 2nd Kure Special Landing Force at the airfield, to attack and capture the Gunung Cangkol and Djoeata oil fields and the Djoeata battery up north. Once these key points of Tarakan Island were cleared, the Army would turn over guard duty to the Navy, and the force would be assembled in Tarakan and its vicinity to prepare for the capture of Balikpapan.

On 10 January 1942, after an MLD Dornier Do 24 spotted the approaching Japanese invasion fleet, Lt. Col. Simon de Waal ordered the destruction of all oil installations on the island. The engineer platoons dynamited the drilling pipes, causing an underground explosion that prevented the wells and oil below to be extracted in the near future. By 10:00 P. M., 100,000 tons worth of oil had been engulfed in flames. At 03:00 A. M. on 11 January, Sergeant Major C. P. E. Spangenberg, commanding the Amal River support point (with 53 troops) reported sighting landing vessels nearing the coast. At that point, the Right Wing Unit of the Japanese invasion force began to land on the eastern parts of Tarakan under the silhouette of the blazing oil fields. Since Dutch forces have arranged their dispositions to defend attacks from a westerly direction, they were still uncertain that the enemy forces that have been concentrating on the eastern parts of the island constitute the main attacking force. Diversionary landings and maneuvers were still being considered, even as another Japanese landing force were already sighted at 05:00 A. M. by the defending force at Tandjoeng Batoe, further south of the Amal River.

Col. Yamamoto's Right Wing Unit, having mistook the fires at the Gunung Cangkol oil field for that of the Lingkas oil field to the south, landed four to six km further north of their intended landing point, the mount of the Amal River. As fires from the oil fields rendered many support points useless, Spangenberg's have become the main point of defense on the Eastern Front. Under the overall command of Capt. Saraber, the point became a rallying base for retreating troops, enabling the Dutch to restore the front line. To support this line, the Dutch constructed a second front line behind Saraber's. Consisted of around 650 men, the line was supported by Everaars' Javanese machine gun company, Treffers's Ambonese soldiers and several overvalwagens. Everaar's troops, however, did not receive proper training; many of the machine guns malfunctioned and the company had virtually little to no ammunition. Meanwhile, from information obtained through interrogating captured soldiers, the Right Wing Unit now advanced to the north side of the Tarakan oil field. As they approached the oil fields, the unit's advance was bogged down from artillery and mortar fire from Saraber's support point. Frustrated by the Dutch resistance, Gen. Sakaguchi requested air strike support on the batteries of Djoeata up north and on Sadau Island at the far west of Tarakan, in addition to Tarakan city itself for the following day. The Japanese, however, took the first initiative. Despite this, the Right Wing Unit failed to capture the Dutch headquarter.

Maj. Kanauji's Left Wing Unit landed near Tandjoeng Batoe at 04:00 on the 11th, but by 17:00 on the same day, its whereabouts were still virtually unknown to the invasion force. At that point, having landed, Ken'ichi's force tried to advance directly through the jungle towards the rear of the Karoengan battery. However, due to the dense vegetation and steep jungle terrain, the unit could only advance by about 100 meters per hour, while under disorientation about their surroundings.

By 13 January, the Sakaguchi Detachment had rounded up all prisoners and captured materials, and handed over the administrative matters to the Navy the following day. The oil facilities at Tarakan by then had been substantially destroyed. In Lingkas, even though much of the oil had in large part been consumed by fire, there was still 12,300 tons of heavy oil left in the surviving tanks, and 120 drums of heavy oil. By June 1942, the wells had been repaired and the oil production continued without any serious hindrance until mid August 1943, when the first Allied air raids on Tarakan began.

Dutch planes flew bombing missions from the Samarinda II Airfield in eastern Borneo on Tarakan Airfield repeatedly on January 13–14.15 Navy personnel were killed, and an additional 27 were wounded during these raids. However, repairs by the 2nd Base Force engineers brought the airfield back into operation by 16 January when planes of the 23rd Air Flotilla and Tinian Air Wing flew in from Jolo. The airfield would then become the staging ground for the Japanese invasion of Balikpapan.

Tarakan remained under Japanese occupation until May 1945, when it was liberated by Australian troops.