Navy Department Communique No. 61

MARCH 24, 1942

The Navy Department issued the following communiqué today:

Far East.
The U. S. destroyers Pillsbury and Edsall have been reported missing since early March and must be presumed lost. The next of kin of the personnel of the Pillsbury and Edsall have been informed accordingly.
The Pillsbury is believed to have been lost in the vicinity of Bali Strait subsequent to the naval engagement in the Java Sea which was reported in communiqué No. 54.
The last report from the Edsall placed her in waters south of Java.
These destroyers were units of the original U. S. Asiatic Fleet which has been used since the beginning of the war in an attempt to frustrate the Japanese invasion of the islands of the Southwest Pacific.  The ships of this fleet were fought with distinction as units of the Allied Naval Forces at Makassar Strait (communiqués Nos. 32, 33, and 34) Lombok Strait, Bali Strait (communiqué No. 42) and the Battle of the Java Sea.
There is nothing to report from other areas.