| Battle of Tarakan | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of World War II, Pacific War, Dutch East Indies campaign | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Netherlands |
 Japan | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Simon de Waal  Anthonie van Versendaal † |
 Shizuo Sakaguchi Shoji Nishimura | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 1,365[1] | 6,600 | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
|
300 killed 40 wounded 871 captured (of which 215 executed) 1 minelayer sunk |
255 killed 38 wounded 2 minesweepers sunk | ||||||
The Battle of Tarakan took place on 11–12 January 1942, a day after the Empire of Japan declared war on the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Although Tarakan was only a small marshy island off northeastern Borneo in the Netherlands East Indies (today's Indonesia), its 700 oil wells, refineries, and airfield made it a crucial objective for Japan in the Pacific War.[2]