Toward Java

For all the U.S. Navy's effective raiding, shelling and torpedoing in Macassar Strait, the Jap pushed on through the Indies. The U.S. and the Dutch together did not have enough warships, planes or troops to meet the invader on all his fronts.

The Jap bombed, then occupied western Borneo's port of Pontianak on the South China Sea. He completed his occupation of Balikpapan on the east coast of Borneo. He hurled bombs, then troops at the Indie's No. 2 naval base, Amboina in the Moluccas. The brave, brown Amboinese met the enemy with skill at marksmanship and the bayonet. But they were too few and they lacked both naval and air support. The Dutch sadly announced that demolition squads, long trained for just such preventive waste, had wrecked every useful thing in Amboina.

The Jap was almost ready to assault Java. If Java falls, the Indies will fall.

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