Balikpapan! PTO (id:#67208)

(Schwerpunkt #25 ID: SP293)   [next]   [previous]

Balikipapan, Boreno, The Netherlands East Indies 1942-01-24 (6 others)

Overview:

Major General Shizuo Sakaguchi's 56th Divison had seized the vital oil field of Tarakan on January 12th and now was conducting an amphibious landing to capture Balikpapan, along with its oil fields and refineries. Colonel Kyohei Yamamoto's 146th Regiment made the main landing on the beaches east of town while a Japanese raiding unit consisting of Colonel Ken'ichi Kanauji's 2nd Battalion used assault craft to move up the Kali Soember River to seize the Wain River pumping station and prevent the Dutch forces from retreating to the north. Lieutenant Colonel Cornelis van den Hoogenband, commanding the garrison of Balikpapan, received the Japanese ultimatum warning the Dutch not to destroy the oil refinery or else face severe reprisals for doing so. Colonel van den Hoogenband ignored this and immediately set in motion all of his oil field demolition and evacuation plans. He ordered 2nd Company to destroy the artillery battery's two remaining 120mm guns and counterattack to hold the Wain River pumping station while the main body of the garrison retreated north along the jungle road toward the Samarinda II airfield. 2nd Company attacked but failed to secure the pumping station. They did however, delay and hold the road open long enough for Lieutenant Colonel van den Hoogenband to move his column of trucks and evacuees north. Two hundred Dutch personnel and dependents made it to Samarinda II. After the Japanese secured Balikpapan, they made good on their promise of reprisals and executed 78 civilians and Dutch prisoners of war.

Defender: Japanese (2nd Battalion, 146th Infantry Regiment, Sakaguchi Detachment, 56th Division)  

Errata (source)