How American Destroyers Ambushed Japan's Invasion Fleet

January 24, 1942. Four American destroyers launched in 1919-1920, ships the Navy had spent a decade trying to scrap, ran at 27 knots into a Japanese invasion anchorage off the burning oil port of Balikpapan, Borneo. For one hour USS John D. Ford, Pope, Parrott and Paul Jones steamed back and forth through sixteen transports and their escorts, firing forty-eight 1911-design Mark 8 torpedoes and their four-inch guns. Three transports and a patrol boat went down. The Americans took one three-inch shell hit. It was the first surface action the United States Navy had fought since Manila Bay in 1898, minute by minute, from the ONI combat narrative and the Japanese records. Chapters 00:00 Two Forty-Five 00:35 Twenty-Seven Knots 01:44 The Ships Nobody Wanted 03:36 The Scrapyard Years 04:52 Exile to the China Station 06:38 The Torpedo from Nineteen Eleven 08:02 December 09:20 The Timetable 10:53 Hart's Plan 12:06 The Jinx 13:31 Talbot's Order 15:09 The Run North 16:30 The Submarine That Opened the Door 17:37 Two Forty-Five 18:58 Nine Ships 20:33 Three O'Clock 21:28 The Turn 23:12 The "Destroyer" 24:45 Stern High 25:41 Guns 27:08 The Hulk 28:13 Ford Alone 29:42 The Friendly Ship 30:33 Nishimura's Hour 31:50 Fuel 32:33 The Count 34:14 Why It Worked 35:28 The Morning After 36:24 Since Eighteen Ninety-Eight 37:48 Badung Strait 39:01 Java Sea 40:17 Pope's Last Stand 42:30 The Fate of the Four 43:42 The Scrap That Fought 44:49 The Flag Sources: Office of Naval Intelligence, Combat Narrative "the Java Sea Campaign" (1943); Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (John D. Ford, Pope, Parrott, Paul Jones); Remmelink (ed.), the Invasion of the Dutch East Indies (2015); Morison, the Rising Sun in the Pacific; NavWeaps order of battle. Footage and photographs: U.S. National Archives (NARA), Naval History and Heritage Command, Prelinger Archives, Castle Films newsreels, Wikimedia Commons (public domain). Music: "Crusade - Heavy Industry" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) — Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License — http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ "Final Battle of the Dark Wizards" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) — Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License — http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ "Curse of the Scarab" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) — Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License — http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/