Word: palembang
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This strategic city was Palembang, a miracle of industrial creation in the jungle, rich in refineries, stored oil and the Indies' only high-test aviation gasoline. Some $100,000,000 and years of labor had been poured into Palembang and its satellite oilfields and towns...
...Japanese won Palembang, in effect they won all of Sumatra's varied mineral and agricultural wealth (see pp. 24 & 25). For Palembang lies near the center of southern Sumatra. Entrenched there, the Jap could drive on to the extreme southern tip, immobilizing the Dutch forces scattered through central and northern Sumatra. From the island's western coast he would have further command of the Indian Ocean and its vital routes (see p. 20). Only Sunda Strait would lie between the invader and Java...
First the Japanese sent paratroops. They hoped to seize Palembang's oil before Dutch demolitionists could lay everything waste, as they had at Tarakan and Balikpapan. The paratroops died by hundreds, failed in their mission. Seaborne invaders followed. They landed at the mouth of the Musi River, swarmed overland through swamps and marshes. Outnumbered, outgunned, Dutch and native defenders killed hundreds, but the thousands overwhelmed them...
...Hurricane fighters and Blenheim bombers reported over the Indies joined U.S. and Dutch Air Forces in attacks on Jap-laden barges, transports and warships. Bombs smashed two cruisers and five transports, spread death in the barges. Hurricane pilots, probably fresh from Singapore, made six flights in a day from Palembang's airdrome, retired to Java only when the airdrome was lost...
...Strait of Macassar to take Tarakan, Balikpapan, Macassar. The Netherlanders have long anticipated such an attack. The Borneo oil ports have been mined and studded with artillery for several months, and oil wells outside both Tarakan and Balikpapan have been prepared for firing. Borneo refineries have been moved to Palembang on Sumatra. For about a year secret airfields have been under construction...