East Indies Campaign (1940-1942)

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Japan
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The Netherlands
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Germany
A close ally of the Netherlands, Germany joined the war on November 16th, 1942. By this point, the Dutch had been at war with Japan for almost two years, and with the help of Australian, New Zealand, and British troops and aircraft, had been managing to more or less hold on to the Dutch East Indies with great difficulty. Though Germany had been indirectly supporting the Dutch war effort prior to their declaration of war by bolstering the Chinese resistance to Japan, blocking of Japanese ships in parts of the South China Sea, and providing weapons to the Dutch East Indies garrison, it had always reassured the Dutch that Germany was prepared to come to their aid.

On the 16th of November, 1942, Germany's first contribution to the war was the sinking of a number of small Japanese ships off the coast of the Hainan Peninsula, and the subsequent Battle of the Gulf of Tonkin, where the German Pacific Expeditionary Fleet was heavily mauled by Japanese naval forces assaulting Guangzhouwan. Germany originally promised the Dutch that their small Pacific forces, which included the battleship SMS Bismarck and the Heavy Cruiser SMS Prinz Eugen, would be earmarked for protecting the Dutch East Indies at declaration of war. As both ships were greatly damaged in the battle and forced to port in Saigon, with most of the German destroyers sent to the bottom of the sea or sent hurrying back to Saigon as well, no German naval reinforcements would reach the Dutch East Indies.

On December 3rd, 1942, however, Germany and the Netherlands both signed the Germanic Pact, a special pact that essentially promised German aid for the Dutch in the war and vice versa. Both nations promised France and Britain that this would not override or interfere with the organization and planning of the AFEC, and was more of a sign of friendship between Germany and the Netherlands.

As a show of goodwill, Germany earmarked its only Aircraft Carrier, the SMS Graf Zeppelin, to sail from from its German port of Kiel immediately to the Dutch East Indies. The aircraft carrier would be escorted by the two Battleships SMS Gneisnau and SMS Scharnhorst as well as the Heavy Cruiser ''SMS Admiral Hipper. ''A handful of destroyers would accompany these as well. Since the official German Pacific Expeditionary Fleet remained at port in Saigon, with the SMS Bismarck and SMS Prinz Eugen both deemed un-seaworthy at the time, the name (GPEF) was transferred to the new departing fleet, and what seaworthy destroyers that remained of the old one in Saigon were to link up with the new fleet in the Dutch East Indies.

On December 9th, the new German fleet departed Kiel and linked up with a small Dutch reinforcement fleet that included the new light cruiser HNLMS Heemskerck, off the Western Coast of Spain. The two navies then sailed through Gibraltar and the Suez Canal to reach the Indian Ocean by mid-December.