War - Ww2 - The Battle Of The Sunda Strait Poem by Paul Warren

The Imperial Japanese Navy was rampaging in the Southern Seas
Wanting to conquer South East Asia with Emperor Hirohito to please
Singapore had fallen and the race was on to save Australia
And so it was decided the Allies would make a stand on Java

The Allied Navies were stretched with ships sunk by the IJN
And the Japanese Army Java invasion force was sent right in
In the February 1942 the HMAS Perth and USS Houston
Engaged them in the Java Sea before retreating to Tanjung Priok town

So on the 28 February 1942 both ships sailed into the Sunda Strait
And they met the huge IJN task force and the battle sealed their fate
The overwhelming Japanese force attacked and the Allies fought back
But the Japanese continued on with the overwhelming attack

Hec Waller, the captain of the Australian HMAS Perth fought the good fight
But in the end the ship low on ammunition and from stem to stern alight
Started to sink and Waller ordered abandon ship there is no hope
He was last seen on the bridge before a final shell hit knocking it to a pulp.

So they didn't stop the Japanese who took Java in the sweep
But both ships died in an honourable fight to keep
The legends of the fight that time against heavy odds defined
And when the final victory was won their sacrifice for us all it did remind

Remember the USS Houston the pride of the American Fleet
Earlier on took Roosevelt to the Atlantic Churchill meet
But it went down with guns blazing losing half its crew
And those who survived for three years as a Japanese prisoner too

And the HMAS Perth had sailed around the world and fought the good fight
In the Caribbean escorting convoys against the German U-boat might
And in the Mediterranean fought the Italian and the German Force
Whilst the fight against the Axis as they conquered in their course.

© Paul Warren Poetry