The Battle of the Java Sea
27 February 1942
Allied action to stop Japanese Navy
Dutch, British, Australian, US forces ships involved
Five cruisers and nine destroyers involved, Led by Rear-Admiral Karel Doorman
Only two ships remained
Vanished ships are HNLMS De Ruyter, HNLMS Java, and HNLMS Kortenaer
Defeat led to the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia)
The seas around Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia are a graveyard for hundreds of ships and submarines sunk during the war.
Illegal salvaging of the wrecks for steel, aluminium and brass has become commonplace.
But the three missing wrecks were located 100km (60 miles) off the coast of Indonesia, at a depth of 70m. Salvage operators say it would not be easy to lift them.
"It is almost impossible to salvage this," Paul Koole of the salvage film Mammoet told the Algemeen Dagblad. "It is far too deep."
Experts say the operation would have needed large cranes for long periods of time and would be unlikely to have gone unnoticed.
The Indonesian Navy, when contacted by the BBC, said they were unaware of the disappearance but said they would investigate.
"To say that the wreckage had gone suddenly, doesn't make sense," Navy spokesman Colonel Gig Sipasulta said. "It is underwater activities that can take months even years."
The Dutch authorities have also notified the other countries that formed part of the international expedition: the UK, Australia and the US.
