Staring-baai

Staring-baai ( Dutch for Staring Bay) is a

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

off the southeast peninsula of

Sulawesi Sulawesi ( ), also known as Celebes ( ), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the List of islands by area, world's 11th-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Min ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

. It lies slightly southeast of

Kendari Kendari is the capital city of the Indonesian province of Southeast Sulawesi. It had a population of 289,966 at the 2010 CensusBiro Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2011. and 345,107 at the 2020 census,Badan Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2021. making it the ...

, the provincial capital of

South East Sulawesi Southeast Sulawesi (, ; often abbreviated to Sultra, ), is a province on the island of Sulawesi, forming the southeastern peninsula of that island, together with a number of substantial offshore islands such as Buton, Muna, Kabaena and Wawoni ...

, where it opens to the east onto the

Banda Sea The Banda Sea (, , ) is one of four seas that surround the Maluku Islands of Indonesia, connected to the Pacific Ocean, but surrounded by hundreds of islands, including Timor, as well as the Halmahera Sea, Halmahera and Ceram Seas. It is about ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the bay was a refueling checkpoint for warships of the

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, Potsdam Declaration, when it was dissolved followin ...

(when the island was generally called Celebes). Sorties out of Staring-baai included the air raids on Darwin, February 19, 1942 and the later Indian Ocean raid against Allied forces and shipping around

Ceylon Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

. Bays of Indonesia Landforms of Sulawesi Landforms of West Nusa Tenggara {{SESulawesi-geo-stub