1/700 Battle at the Java sea (see notes)

History

The following is based on this source.

The battle at the Java Sea, a brief history

On February 27 1942 at 18:30  a Japanese task force commanded by Rear Admiral Takeo Takagi on board CA Haguro encountered the Allied fleet commanded by the Dutch Rear Admiral Karel Doorman and shortly after HMS Exeter was hit by an 8" shell in her boiler room and started to burn fiercely and quickly lost speed. This created confusion within the Allied battle line, as the Houston behind her had to turn hard to evade a collision. With all ships behind Houston followed her, this left the De Ruyter alone, as she was at the head of the column.

While there was still chaos in the Allied line, the Japanese ships managed to close in to around 7.000 meters when the Allies finally replied accurately, scoring hits on the destroyers Tokitsukaze and Asagumo. After launching a wave of 72 torpedoes at a range of 6.000 meters, only one found its mark: the HNLMS Kortenaer was hit amidships, broke in half and quickly sank with the loss of 59 lives. A few minutes later, another wave of 64 torpedoes was launched, but due to evasive manoeuvres all missed and the Allied ships disappeared in a smokescreen. From a distance of 16 kilometres the heavy cruisers Nachi and Haguro launched a fourth wave of 16 torpedoes, but all missed.

 In the mean time, Doorman was forced to send the badly damaged Exeter back to Surabaya for repairs, escorted by the destroyer Witte de With. The American destroyers, their torpedoes expended (unlike Japanese destroyers, those of the Allies did not reload their tubes at sea), left for home...and to make matters worse, HMS Jupiter struck a mine while covering HMS Encounter, which was picking up survivors of the sunken Kortenaer. Down to only four cruisers and in a totally hopeless situation, Doorman planned to wait until the evening set in order to try and slip past the Japanese escorts and do some damage to the transport vessels.

It was around 22:50 when Doorman tried again. While the Japanese ships were recovering their scout planes, Japanese lookouts reported the arrival of Doorman's fleet.

With the Japanese ships dead in the water, the Allied ships started firing star shells and opened fire. It would take three whole minutes before the Japanese fleet finally got underway, some still with floatplanes in tow. Luckily for the Japanese, no ship was hit. The artillery duel between the Japanese heavy cruisers and the Allied cruisers lasted ten minutes before the Japanese made their escape, which was helped by the fact that they didn't use their searchlights, so they didn't actively give their positions away.

Regrouping their ships, the Japanese prepared for night fighting with the heavy cruisers Nachi and Haguro keeping watch to the north of the fleet when they spotted the Allied cruisers around 00:30. It is unclear who opened fire first, but what is known is that both ships launched a total of 14 torpedoes at the Allied ships at 00:53. This smallest of all torpedo waves would prove to be the most deadly. At 01:06 HNLMS Java was hit amidships near an ammunition rack, which exploded, the two explosions caused major flooding in the engine room causing the ship to lose power. She sank within fifteen minutes with the loss of 512 men, including her captain.

At 01:10 HNLMS De Ruyter was hit by one or two torpedoes, which caused a fierce fire to break out on the AA deck, which caused an explosion in the storage for the 40mm Bofors AA guns which in turn knocked out the generators in the dynamo room leaving her, like Java without power. Another effect of the torpedo hit(s) was a massive oil leak, which combined to the explosion onboard the De Ruyter turned the sea into an inferno.

De Ruyter finally sank at 02:30, taking 345 crewmembers down with her.

Houston and Perth could do nothing but followed Doorman's last order: withdraw.

At the time, the battle was the largest surface ship engagement since the battle of Jutland in 1916.
 

Allied forces:	Fate		Japanese forces:	Fate:
CA HMS Exeter CA USS Houston  CL HNLMS De Ruyter (flag)  CL HNLMS Java  CL HMAS Perth  DD HNLMS Kortenaer DD HNLMS Witte de With DD HMS Encounter DD HMS Electra  DD HMS Jupiter DD USS Paul Jones DD USS Alden DD USS John D. Edwards DD USS John D. Ford	Sunk, 1 March 1942 Sunk, 1 March 1942 Sunk, 27 February 1942 Sunk, 27 February 1942  Sunk, 1 March 1942 Sunk, 27 February 1942  Scuttled, 2 March 1942 Sunk, 1 March 1942 Sunk, 27 February 1942 Struck a Dutch mine and sank, 27 February 1942 Escaped to Freemantle, Australia, 4 march 1942 Escaped to Freemantle, Australia, 4 march 1942 Escaped to Freemantle, Australia, 4 march 1942 Escaped to Freemantle, Australia, 4 march 1942		CA Nachi  CA Haguro (flag) CL Naka CL Jintsu DD Yudachi DD Samidare DD Murasame DD Harusame DD Minegumo DD Asagumo DD Yukikaze DD Tokitsukaze DD Amatsukaze DD Hatsukaze DD Yamakaze DD Kawakaze DD Sazanami DD Ushio	all ships survived the battle
Note: DD USS Pope was sunk together with HMS Exeter and  HMS Encounter, 1 march 1942
Total casualties: 2300			Total casualties: 36

The models

This diorama comprises 14 ships and 22 “plates”. Building time was slightly more then 3 years. The ships are pictured in a calm sea as the weather was the days when the battle took place. Most ships are resin giving the best building results but instructions were almost always below par. Apparently model quality versus instructions quality are inversely proportional. The decision to build this diorama developed after I read an article about the fate of HMS Electra, this destroyer has one of the most grim histories of all  RN ships, seeing the Hood explode, the Repulse and the Prince of Wales sunk by air raid and herself sunk by Japanese gunfire. Also, since I am Dutch, a substantial part of the ABDA force was Dutch after all.
 

CA HMS Exeter CA USS Houston CL HNLMS De Ruyter CL HNLMS Java  CL HMAS Perth DD HNLMS Kortenaer DD HNLMS Witte de With DD HMS Encounter  DD HMS Electra DD HMS Jupiter DD USS Paul Jones DD USS Alden  DD USS John D. Edwards DD USS John D. Ford

Niko Models Corsair Armada Niko Models Niko Models NNT  HP Models  HP Models  Tamiya Tamiya Wem (HMS Jervis conversion)  WSW (USS Borie conversion) WSW WSW WSW

The pictures

Not the easiest thing to do with tiny models and a DSLR camera. Depth-of-field(DOF) is the challenge to beat. I used a Nikon D5100 connected to a laptop, the camera was controlled by Helicon Remote software. This resulted in 10 to approx 70 shots per scene, all different in DOF. Helicon Focus was used to combine then into 1 picture with sharpness front to back.

There are a few downsides with this method such as a halo around light coloured items like flags ore masts or chromatic aberrations. And a few more…so Photoshop is necessary to repair. The seams between the ships basis (all in all 22 pieces) are also erased. It’s very labouring but the result is ok. Lightning is very difficult, to create a overall even lightning is only possible in studios but in my case that wasn’t an option. So I made me a in height adjustable frame with 4 TL tubes and one free movable spotlight. I use this method for some time now but the change of a bad result is pretty high. Some experience as a hobby photographer is recommended.

Other sources:

An excellent report about the battle is found here.
 

Gallery updated 2/27/2017

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