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PART TWO: “The News from Wavell Is All Bad”
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53 + + + + + PART TWO “The News from Wavell Is All Bad” shortly after 1000 on saturday, January 10, 1942, a Dutch army twinengine Lockheed Lodestar touched down at Batavia’s Kemajoran Airport and disembarked three high-ranking British officers. There to greet them at the capital of the Netherlands East Indies were U.S. Army Lt. Gen. George H. Brett, Maj. Gen. Lewis H. Brereton, and Adm. Thomas C. Hart, along with RAAF Air Chf. Mshl. Sir Charles Burnett, who had flown in the afternoon before from Soerabaja. Promoted just three days before, Brett was relinquishing his post as commanding general of U.S. Army Forces in Australia to report to ABDACOM Supreme Commander Sir Archibald Wavell as the deputy commander of ABDACOM, with Brereton to be introduced as the commanding general of the American Far East Air Force. Admiral Hart was being designated commander of ABDACOM’s naval forces (ABDAFLOAT).1 Wavell had sent advance notice that he and his staff—Lt. Gen. Sir Henry Pownall (his chief of staff ) and Maj. Gen. Ian Playfair—were traveling informally to take up their new assignments, but the Dutch governor general had made their arrival a very formal affair. As Brett, Brereton, and Adm. Thomas Hart and his chief of staff, Rear Adm. William R. Purnell, stood at attention, a Dutch battalion guard of honor presented arms and played “God Save the King.” Waiting to hear the American national anthem, the Americans were miffed when Wavell immediately proceeded to inspect the battalion.2 Also there to greet Wavell was Lt. Gen. Hein ter Poorten, commander in chief of the Netherlands East Indies Army. That afternoon as the British, American, Australian, and Dutch officers met at Dutch navy headquarters to discuss organizational arrangements of their new ABDA command, Brereton was surprised to find that he was being 54 Part Two designated deputy commander of the air arm of the command, to be known as ABDAIR. He would be acting chief until the commander, Air Mshl. Sir Richard Peirse, arrived from England to take over. He had earlier insisted that he have no staff duties interfering with his command of the FEAF, but he was assured he would be retaining that command.3 But more disturbing to the other conference participants was the report they had just received that a Japanese landing force had been spotted ten miles off the island of Tarakan, northeast Dutch Borneo, by a Dutch Dornier flying boat.4 Lumbering Netherlands East Indies Air Force Martin bombers were ordered to attack the Japanese transports, but in the face of heavy antiaircraft fire they were unsuccessful in carrying out their mission. At 1600 the Dutch commander at Tarakan ordered the destruction of the island’s oil wells and facilities, the seizure of which was a main objective of the Japanese landing .5 Before dawn on the eleventh, Japanese troops from sixteen transports Gen. Sir Archibald Wavell (second from left) arrives at Kemajoran Airport, Batavia, on January 10, 1942, to take up his ABDA command and is greeted by Adm. Thomas Hart ( far left), chief of his naval staff; Lt. Gen. George Brett, designated deputy commander, ABDACOM ( far right); and Lieutenant Colonel Lanzing, representing the Dutch governor general of the Netherlands East Indies. Photograph No. 011603 © Australian War Memorial. [3.235.243.45] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 09:41 GMT) News from Wavell All Bad 55 came ashore on the smoke- and fire-shrouded island, defended by a garrison of only thirteen hundred men who the following morning would surrender.6 Also in the early hours of the eleventh, a second force of Japanese that had also set sail from Davao disembarked from eleven transports and landed on the northeast tip of the Celebes, at Manado. Unlike Tarakan, Manado had no oil wealth, but it was important for Japanese plans for its airfield. Its fifteen hundred defenders were easily overwhelmed the same day by the invaders , but still the Japanese decided to drop 334 paratroopers over the northern part of the peninsula, an operation of no importance for their occupation.7 On a mission to strike the transports lying off Tarakan, seven of Brereton’s Java-based B-17Ds had taken off from Singosari on January 11, but because of bad weather only three made it to the target, and their bombing runs were inconsequential. The Dutch tried two days later with their antique Martins, but with disastrous results: six were shot down by Zeros. With such a heavy loss...