(The unnamed ship was the 12,842-ton San Florentino, which was sunk by U-94 on Oct. 2, 1941. The ship was part of convoy ON-19 and was struck by a torpedo from U-94 on Oct. 1, torpedoed by U-94 again on Oct. 2 and finally sunk, twenty-two men were lost.)

On the screen:

(The number has increased from only 20 yesterday.)

(An unnamed spokesman in Batavia so says. However, the truth was something quite different.

Below is a brief timeline of the actions that took place between Feb. 25 and Mar. 9, 1942.

Feb. 25: The Japanese depart for the invasion of Java. They are split into two forces, which was the typical Japanese tactic, one which almost always failed. Almost one hundred transports ships of all sizes were escorted by a huge force of cruisers, destroyers, minesweepers, submarine chasers, and all kinds of support vessels. Air cover was provided by the aircraft carrier Ryujo and the seaplane carrier Chiyoda along with shore-based aircraft. A third force, under Admiral Nagumo, consisting of aircraft carriers, battleships, cruisers and destroyers takes up a position south of Java.

The invasion forces are sighted by waiting Allied submarines on Feb. 25, but no attack is made against them. Japanese air reconnaissance sights Allied ships off Java and the invasion force is stopped. There was no great battle, the Japanese just retired to avoid combat.

Feb. 26: The ABDA force, under the command of Rear Admiral Kaerl Doorman, sortied, but did not locate the Japanese. They sortie again on the 27th and this time they found one of the invasion forces and the Battle of the Java Sea began.

Feb. 27: The Dutch destroyer Kortenaer is sunk by a torpedo fired from Haguro, 59 men are lost. Then HMS Exeter, veteran of the Battle of the River Plate, is hit by a Japanese shell and is forced to retire, 13 men are killed. HMS Electra is sunk by a torpedo attack with the loss of 109 men.

HMS Jupiter hits a Dutch mine and sinks, taking 84 men with her. HNLMS De Duyter, flagship of the squadron, is sunk sometime during the night of Feb. 27-28, three hundred and sixty-six men, including Doorman, were lost. HNLMS Java, also sunk in the same action takes five hundred and thirty men with her.

In a separate action with Nagumo's covering force, USS Langley AV-1 is sunk, fortunately only 16 men were lost. In all of this, only two Japanese warships had been damaged, none were sunk.

Feb. 28: Japanese forces land on Java.

Mar. 1: The Battle of the Sunda Strait. The cruisers USS Houston CA-30 and HMAS Perth attack the Japanese force landing on Java, sinking two transports and damaging a minesweeper. Both Houston and Perth are sunk, Houston lost six hundred and ninety-three men while Perth lost three hundred and forty-two.

HMS Exeter is sunk with the loss of 54 men. HMS Encounter is shelled and sunk, 7 men are killed. USS Pope DD-225 is bombed by aircraft from Ryujo and disabled, then shelled by the same two Japanese ships that sank HMS Encounter and sunk, only 1 man was lost. The Japanese lost two transports [mentioned above] and two cruisers were damaged.

In a separate action on Mar. 1st, aircraft from Nagumo's force locate USS Pecos AO-6 and sink her. One hundred and seventy-two men, including many survivors from USS Langley, were killed. The battleship force then comes across USS Edsall DD-219, which also had survivors from Langley on board. The destroyer took on the battleships single-handed, never hauling down her flag, she went down after a severe punishing. One hundred and forty-seven men went down with the ship, five were picked up by the cruiser Chikuma. They were interrogated, tortured, and then executed at Kendrie POW camp, Celebes. Along with this, five merchant ships were sunk.

Mar. 2: HMS Stronghold is sunk, 75 men lost, USS Pillsbury DD-277 is sunk, 185 men lost. One merchant ship sunk one captured. HNLMS Banckert, HNLMS Witte de With, USS Stewart DD-224 and three Dutch submarines, K-XII, K-XVIII and K-IV are scuttled at Surabaya, Java. Stewart and Banckert were later raised and repaired by the Japanese. USS Sailfish SS-192 sinks the aircraft transport Kamogawa Maru.

Mar. 3: USS Asheville PG-21 is sunk with 160 of her 161-man crew.

Mar. 4: Japanese ships locate a small convoy and sink all but one ship, which is captured. Lost were HMAS Yara with 138 men, HMAS Anking, with 259 men lost, HMS MMS-51 with the loss of 2 men and RFA Francol and 19 men. The 7,089-ton Tjisaroea was captured.

Mar. 5: Nagumo's carrier aircraft raid Tjilatjap, Java, two ships are damaged but 15 are scuttled.

Mar. 6: HNLMS Jan van Amstel, HNLMS Eland Dubois and HNLMS Pieter de Bitter are scuttled.

Mar. 9: With much of the ABDA force sunk and the remaining ships and submarines having fled to safety, the ABDA command is dissolved.

Many of the survivors would die as prisoners in Japanese custody.)

(Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the man who planned the attack on Pearl Harbor, reported dead. Tokyo radio is cited as the source for the report, which was completely false. It is unclear if a translator made an error, of if this was just pure propaganda which was designed to soften the blow of the news about the disastrous battles around Java. Yamamoto was shot down and killed on Apr. 18, 1943, exactly one year after Doolittle's Raiders bombed Japan.)

(The unnamed tanker was the 3.493-ton Jean et Jacques, which was attacked by HM MTB-45 and other boats of the 5th MTB Flotilla.)

(Sadly, this was true. HMS Exeter and USS Houston CA-30 had both been sunk, but the public had not been told yet.)

(A headline which was truthful.)

(USS Aaron Ward DD-483 was sunk by Japanese aircraft on Apr. 7, 1943.)

(Notice how the number of Japanese ships sunk by MacArthur's forces increased the further west the newspaper was printed. Two ships in the Washington, D.C. paper, four in the Xenia and Port Arthur papers and five in California.

As it turns out, no Japanese ships had been sunk by MacArthur's air forces. Of course, the press had no way to confirm this and the headlines would soon fade into some other war story and nobody would ever know that they had been lied to. Well, now they know.)

(The fate of Java is sealed.)