The Battle of Balikapan in January 1942 was the first sea battle between American and Japanese ships. It was a very curious battle. A small armada of four old flushdeckers went into the Japanese amphibious armada in the night of 23 to 24th January. The Japanese destroyers were busy with the hunt of a submarine. The small armada flushed quite into the perimeter of the armada, with machinery in stand by mode, utilizing the forward momentum of the ships under higher speed before. Nobody on Japanese side thought that enemy ships could close the own ships unspotted. Thus, while the Japanese were hunting the submarine, the American destroyers could put some torpedoes into the anchoring transport ships and could sink four transporter and scoot as fast as they could. The American destroyers expended all of their torpedoes with only a few hits, mostly because the as yet unrealized problems with the Mark 15 torpedo running too deep. In the picture the destroyers are leaving Balikapan harbor with the light of the burning ships shining on the destroyer. The American sailors are from the master of uniforms and gear Tryphon. The Flushdecker I got some years ago from DeEspona