conflict oliver gordon
Captain Oliver Loudon Gordon MVO RN ( 26 Jan 1896 -- 30 Jan 1973 ) was in command of the heavy cruiser HMS Exeter from 11 March 1941 until she was sunk in the Second ___MASK24___ on 1 March 1942 . He later wrote of his experiences both in command of the Exeter and as a Prisoner of War in Japan in the book Fight It Out , published in 1957 . The Washington Naval Treaty , also known as the Five - Power Treaty , and including the " Four - Power Treaty " and the " Nine - power Treaty " was a treaty among the major nations that had won ___MASK48___ I , which agreed to prevent an arms race by limiting naval construction . It was negotiated at the Washington Naval Conference , held in Washington , D . C ., from November 1921 to February 1922 , and it was signed by the governments of the United Kingdom , the United States , Japan , France , and Italy . It limited the construction of battleships , battlecruisers and aircraft carriers by the signatories . The numbers of other categories of warships , including cruisers , destroyers and submarines , were not limited by the treaty , but those ships were limited to 10 , 000 tons displacement . The Second ___MASK24___ was the last naval action of the Netherlands East Indies campaign , of 1941  42 . It occurred on 1 March 1942 , two days after the first ___MASK24___ . It saw the end of the last Allied warships operating in the waters around Java , allowing Japanese forces to complete their conquest of the Netherlands East Indies unhindered . The heavy cruiser was a type of cruiser , a naval warship designed for long range and high speed , armed generally with naval guns of roughly 203mm calibre ( 8 inches in caliber ) and displacing approximately 10 , 000 tons . While the general mission of the heavy cruiser , to act as a fast scout for a battle fleet and protect and hunt down commerce , was largely unchanged from the days of sail , its design parameters were dictated by the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and the London Naval Treaty of 1930 . The ___MASK24___ was a decisive naval battle of the Pacific campaign of ___MASK85___ .