Archaeological discoveries

Several ships sunk during the Battle of Java in 1942 have disappeared from the bottom of the sea

A handful of Allied warships sunk off the Indonesian coast in 1942 during the Battle of the Java Sea and other operations have all but disappeared.

The Battle of the Java Sea was one of the largest fought on the Asian stage of World War II, between Allied and Japanese forces. It took place on February 27, 1942, when the combined squadron of the United States, Australia, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom tried to stop the Japanese invasion convoy of the island of Java, defended by a Dutch garrison.

Victory fell to the Japanese side, who only suffered the loss of one destroyer (which was accompanied by 4 cruisers and 13 other destroyers, as well as 40 transports that were uninjured). On the contrary, allied casualties accounted for 3 destroyers and 2 cruisers sunk, as well as more than 2,000 human casualties.

The place where the wrecks of all these ships rest, along with some others sunk throughout the war, has been well known by researchers for years. However, recent sonar reconnaissance has provided an unpleasant and inexplicable surprise. They're gone.

Three British ships (Exeter , Encounter and Electra ), three Dutch (De Ruyter , Java and Kortenaer ) and an American one (Perch ), have vanished from the bottom of the sea almost without a trace. Most of these were sunk in the aforementioned Battle of the Java Sea, such as the submarine Perch , whose entire crew was taken prisoner and survived the war in Japanese prison camps.

The wreck of the Perch had been discovered in 2006 by amateur divers, while the resting place of the Dutch ships had been known since 2002. On the internet there are videos like the one showing the wreck of the British Encounter in 2011, apparently still in one piece.

And it is that according to international law the wrecks belong to the countries that own the ships, who must issue permits to anyone who wants to visit them or even take something from them. Furthermore, military wrecks are considered funerary monuments.

What happened to all these ships then? The theory that is being considered is that they have been assaulted by looters and smugglers, who have used explosives to take valuable materials, then dismantling the remains into sections, to obtain steel and other metals that may have value on the black market, such as copper. , aluminum and even brass. According to The Guardian, the latter is currently being paid at more than 2,000 euros per ton.

Incredibly, some of the ships were more than 70 meters deep, which makes the extraction of materials complicated, but not impossible. Furthermore, in the case of the Dutch ships, they were near the island of Madura, a known base for this type of smuggler. And last year the Malaysian navy intercepted and detained several Vietnamese crews looting the Repulse and the Prince of Wales , two other British wrecks.

A study carried out by a documentation expedition of the wrecks that intended to film them for the 75th anniversary of the battle to which The Guardian has had access , shows 3D images taken at the sinking sites, now showing large empty holes in the seafloor .

The Encounter has almost completely disappeared as the report shows, while others like the Electra parts still intact. In the case of the submarine Perch and the De Ruyter ships , Java and Kortenaer , there is absolutely nothing left.

Both the UK and the Netherlands have started investigations to find out what has happened to their wrecks.