HMS Exeter

1942

Java Sea, the second engagement, Nachi and Haguro Location: Java Sea, ~150 nmi NNE of Surabaya · Coordinates: 5.00°S 111.00°E · Casualties: 54 · Survivors: ~651 · Depth: 60 m · Cause: naval gunfire · torpedo — Veteran of the Battle of the River Plate two years earlier, intercepted by the Japanese heavy cruisers Nachi, Haguro, Myōkō, and Ashigara at the Second Battle of the Java Sea on 1 March 1942. Struck in the engine room by a 20.3 cm shell; she slowed and was torpedoed. Scuttled by her own crew after abandoning. · Fate: located 2007 · illegally salvaged 2016 · Type: heavy cruiser · York class · Tonnage: 8,390 tons · Crew: 705 · Flag: United Kingdom · Launched: 1929 Royal Navy York-class heavy cruiser, veteran of the 1939 Battle of the River Plate where she had helped run the Graf Spee to ground. Intercepted by four Japanese heavy cruisers on 1 March 1942 at the Second Battle of the Java Sea while attempting to escape to Ceylon. Struck in the engine room by a 20.3 cm shell; scuttled by her crew after sustained torpedo and gunfire attack. 54 dead. Her wreck was located in 2007 and then, shockingly, illegally salvaged for scrap metal in 2016 by Indonesian scrap divers, along with HMS Electra and HMS Encounter. The Vessel HMS Exeter was a British heavy cruiser of the Royal Navy's York class, built at the Devonport Royal Dockyard between 1928 and 1931 and commissioned on 27 July 1931. She was 176 metres long, 8,520 tons displacement, and armed with six 8-inch primary guns in three twin-gun turrets (two forward, one aft), eight 4-inch anti-aircraft guns, and six 21-inch torpedo tubes. Her armour protection included a 76-millimetre main belt, 76-millimetre turret armour, and 38-millimetre deck armour. Exeter was the second ship of the York class, a two-ship class built under the specific armament constraints of the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty (which limited cruiser primary-gun armament to 8 inches). Her specific claim to historical significance was her prior participation in the Battle of the River Plate (13 December 1939): as a member of Commodore Henry Harwood's Force G, Exeter had engaged the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee off the estuary of the River Plate. Exeter had sustained substantial damage in the engagement (including a major hit to her bridge that killed approximately 60 officers and crew), but had contributed substantially to the tactical pressure that led to Graf Spee's scuttling at Montevideo four days later. By February 1942, Exeter had been repaired from her River Plate damage and had been assigned to the Allied ABDA (American-British-Dutch-Australian) Command in the Southwest Pacific. Her operational role was cruiser operations in defence of the Dutch East Indies an The Disaster At approximately 07:30 on 1 March 1942, Exeter and her escorts were detected by Japanese reconnaissance aircraft approximately 170 kilometres northwest of Bawean Island in the central Java Sea. The Japanese Navy's covering force - the heavy cruisers Nachi, Haguro, Myōkō, and Ashigara, along with multiple destroyers - had been specifically deployed to intercept Allied escape traffic from Surabaya. The Japanese force was substantially superior to Exeter's three-ship group. The four Japanese heavy cruisers carried a combined primary armament of 40 8-inch guns; Exeter carried only six 8-inch guns (and her forward boiler room damage had reduced her speed to approximately 23 knots, below the 25 knots of the Japanese cruisers). The tactical situation was clear: Exeter could not outrun the Japanese force and could not defeat them in a running engagement. The engagement commenced at approximately 10:20 on 1 March 1942, with the Japanese cruisers opening fire at approximately 22,000 metres range. The engagement continued for approximately four hours, with the Japanese force gradually closing range and delivering sustained heavy-gun fire. Exeter returned fire but her rate of fire was progressively degraded by shell hits and by the continuing deterioration of her boiler-room damage. At approximately 11:20 on 1 March 1942, Exeter sustained her critical hit: an 8-inch shell struck her after boiler room, penetrating to the boiler systems and causing catastrophic steam loss. Her speed droppe