Battle of Bali Strait

Battle of Bali Strait
Part of Indonesian National Revolution
Date 5 April 1946 Location Bali Strait, Indonesia Result Indonesian victory
Belligerents
Indonesia	Netherlands
Commanders and leaders
Captain Markadi	Unknown
Units involved
Indonesian Navy	Royal Netherlands Navy
Strength
2 small ships	2 LCM
Casualties and losses
light	4 deaths LCM got burned

The Battle of Bali Strait (also known as Banyuwangi Bali Operation Strait) was the first Indonesian amphibious battle in the Bali Strait. The battle, on 5 April 1946, involved the Indonesian Navy and the Dutch Navy, with the battle resulting in an Indonesian victory.

Background

Dutch and Allied forces came to Indonesia on 2 March 1946. They landed to recapture Java, but before recapturing Java they landing on a small islands like Bali and Lesser Sunda Islands. Situation in Bali and any places get occupied by Dutch forces with an increase the soldier to 2,000 soldiers. With this situation make the urge in main base of Indonesian soldier in Yogyakarta to instructed the operation in Java-Bali to keep the Indonesian independence from the colonizer. The created forces of this operation was M forces (under Captain Markadi command), Captain Albert Warokka forces in Banyuwangi, and the Indonesian soldier in Bali under Lieutenant Colonel I Gusti Ngurah Rai command. Of the three companies, Captain Markadi forces was selected to perform this operation, and Markadi splits his forces into four divisions: three divisions to focus on the combat and one to collect information.

Incident in Bali Strait and the operation

After feeling ready to prepare the forces they launched the operation, they tried to cross the blockade of the Dutch Navy but the heavy rain comes and make them difficult to attack the Dutch. Two Indonesian ships was nearly get spotted by the Dutch Navy. Markadi give the order to acting like a fisherman to distract the Dutch. After the Dutch LCM was closed to his ships he was drowning himself with the grenades. The Dutch countered the attack with the machine gun but the machine gun was not effective to attack the ships. Markadi and his forces throw the grenades into a Dutch LCM causing heavy casualties. After this battle, Markadi and his forces joining the Lieutenant Colonel I Gusti Ngurah Rai forces in Bali. They landed in Bali with the good reception by the civilian and soldiers.