'Tartarus' was the Allied reoccupation of Jakarta on the north-west coast of the island of Java in the Netherlands East Indies after the surrender of Japan (15 September/10 October 1945).

Under the command of Rear Admiral W. R. Patterson, the British heavy cruiser Cumberland arrived off Jakarta (known as Batavia up to 1942) in company with a British frigate and four Australian minesweepers. On 16 September there arrived another frigate, two minesweepers and four landing craft as well as the Dutch light cruiser Tromp. However, because of disturbances on shore between Indonesian nationalists and the Japanese, the British did not land any troops until 29 September, when one battalion was landed. On 3 October a brigade group was disembarked, on 6 October the first elements of Major General D. Hawthorn’s Indian 23^rd Division and the headquarters of Lieutenant General Sir Philip Christison’s Netherlands East Indies Command (ex-Indian XV Corps), and on 10 October the rest of the 23^rd Division arrived.