Rescue of the USS Pope and HMS Encounter Survivors
Through the night of
March 1st and late into the morning of the 2nd, nearly
500 sailors from the Destroyers USS Pope and HMS Encounter remained stranded in
the Java Sea, covered in layers of oil, sweat, and grime. Many had even been
blinded by the fuel oil coating the inside of their eyelids. The sailors clung
onto rafts and other debris left behind after both Destroyers sunk into the
shallows of the Java Sea. They were miles from shore, amidst hostile enemy
forces. For the survivors of the Second Battle of the Java Sea, all seemed
lost.
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By midday March 2nd, the Japanese Destroyer Ikazuchi
skimmed the waves and picked up survivors one-by-one. Spotters from Japanese
Air Force Floatplanes assisted, directing the Ikazuchi’s Captain and crew. In
total, the they pulled 442 survivors out of the Java Sea.
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However, the survivors were now Prisoners of War. The Destroyer
transported the Allied sailors to Macassar Prison in Sulawesi. Many of those POWs
were then transferred by ship to French Indochina and Burma.
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Many would remain in prison work camps until the end of the
war over three years later. Those who survived were the lucky ones. A great
number of these POWs died while in captivity.
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