On the night of 15 January 1962, in the Arafura Sea off western New Guinea, the Dutch warship Evertsen and a Neptune patrol aircraft intercepted three Indonesian motor torpedo boats sent to land troops in the Dutch-held territory. The boat Matjan Tutul was sunk, and Commodore Yos Sudarso died with it.
Battle of Arafura Sea
15 January 1962 · 64 years ago
A disputed territory
When the Netherlands transferred sovereignty to Indonesia in 1949, western New Guinea was left out, pending a later settlement. The question turned into a long dispute, and in early 1962 informal talks between the two governments were beginning while Indonesia tried to land armed infiltrators in the territory.1
Four German-built motor torpedo boats were sent east for one such landing; one broke down on the way, and three went on to the Aru Islands. They were Matjan Tutul, Matjan Kumbang and Harimau, with Commodore Yos Sudarso aboard Matjan Tutul. The Dutch call the clash that followed the Battle of Vlakke Hoek, after the nearby cape.2
The fight in the dark
In the evening of 15 January a Dutch Neptune patrol aircraft found the boats; Historisch Nieuwsblad puts the radar contact at about 8 p.m., Andere Tijden at 9:37 p.m.. The aircraft tried to attack, but its flares failed and its machine guns jammed, and the boats fired back at it. The Dutch warship Evertsen then opened fire.3
Matjan Tutul was hit, caught fire and sank. Both Dutch and Indonesian accounts say Dutch shells struck its bridge; Andere Tijden reports that all its officers were killed. The other two boats turned away and escaped; Dutch accounts add that one of them was hit.4
The dead and the captured
Commodore Yos Sudarso was killed with his boat. The number of Indonesian dead is uncertain; the Dutch historian Paul van der Steen puts it at 39. The Evertsen pulled about 50 survivors from the water: Historisch Nieuwsblad counts 52.5
What followed
The landing had failed, but the pressure on the Netherlands kept growing, and the talks went on. On 15 August 1962 the two countries signed an agreement in New York under which the territory passed to Indonesia after a transition under United Nations supervision; the United Nations handed it over on 1 May 1963.6
The Indonesian navy marks 15 January as Hari Dharma Samudera, a day of remembrance for Yos Sudarso and its other dead of battles at sea.7
Also on this day
Battle of Senafe
15 January 1895 · 131 years ago
Italian colonial troops under Baratieri caught up at Senafe with the Tigrayan army of Ras Mengesha Yohannes, retreating after the Battle of Coatit in the First Italo-Ethiopian War. Italian artillery shelled the camp and scattered what was left of Mengesha's forces.
