Ambon

The principal port of the Spice Islands, Ambon (128.164E 3.687S) is about thirty miles (48 km) long. The island was discovered by the Portuguese in 1512 and was the site of St. Francis Xavier’s missionary work.  As a result, the southern half of the island of Amboina is largely Christian, while the northern half remains Muslim. The Protestant Ambonese were noted for their religious devotion and were highly regarded as soldiers by their Dutch rulers, who sometimes referred to them as the Black Dutch. The Japanese distrusted and mistreated them during the occupation for the same reasons.

In late 1941, the port was relatively well-developed and guarded by 19 coastal guns of various calibers up to 7” (178mm).  It also had a modern airfield at Laha (Pattimura; 128.09E 3.71S) guarded by four 40mm antiaircraft guns, and a seaplane base at Halong (128.220E 3.633S) with three large hangars and three underground fuel tanks.

The Battle of Ambon

The Japanese believed that American air power had been concentrated at Amboina and considered its seizure necessary to complete the isolation of the southern Philippines. The port and airfield fell to 1 Kure Special Landing Force and 228 Regiment (Ito) on 4 February 1942 after four days of bitter resistance by the 2600 troops of the Molukken Brigade and the 1170 Australians of Gull Force.  The Japanese landed on the south coast of the island, which the defenders had assumed would pose insurmountable terrain obstacles, and fought their way through mountainous jungle terrain to take the Allied coastal positions from the rear.

Following the battle, the Japanese murdered 300 Allied prisoners of war at Laha airfield, apparently in reprisal for the mining of W-9.

Ambon remained in Japanese hands for the remainder of the war.

Japanese order of battle, 31 January 1942:

Allied order of battle, 31 January 1942:

Climate Information:

Elevation 14'

Temperatures: Jan 88/76, Apr 86/76, Jul 81/74, Oct 85/74, record 96/66

Rainfall: Jan 13/5.0, Apr 19/11.0, Jul 23/23.7, Oct 13/6.1 == 136.2" per annum

References

"The fall of Ambon" (accessed 2007-4-26)

Kehn (2008)

Morison (1948)

Willmott (1982)

Womack (2006)

http://www.freeport-tech.com/WWII (accessed 2002; now defunct)

The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia © 2007, 2009, 2014 by Kent G. Budge.  Index

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