the Far East at that time, Admiral Hart desired to "obtain additional security from surprise attack" and reduce the possibility of the Japanese cutting off "certain of his surface forces" from British and Dutch bases in the event of war. To that end, on 24 November 1941, CINCAF ordered Task Force 5, formed around , two destroyer divisions (57 and 58, the former including Alden) and Black Hawk, to the ports of Balikpapan and Tarakan Island, Borneo. Hart directed the detachment commanders to proceed to these ports for fuel, but to "have difficulty" in doing so, with a view toward lingering in those ports "for a protracted period if necessary." Alden got underway on 25 November 1941, bound for Borneo, accompanying Black Hawk, and arrived at Balikpapan on the morning of the 30th. While she lay in that port, the British Admiral Thomas Spencer Vaughan Phillips, the newly designated Commander in Chief, Eastern Fleet, flew to Manila for conferences with Admiral Hart on 5–6 December. Phillips sought the loan of destroyers from the Asiatic Fleet to help screen his capital ships, but Hart, opining that the British already possessed adequate resources in that department, demurred. Intelligence information disclosing the movement of a Japanese convoy in the Gulf of Siam, however, changed Hart's mind, and as Admiral Phillips resolved to return to Singapore, CINCAF decided to transfer one division of destroyers. Consequently, Alden and three sister ships, as well as Black Hawk, were soon directed to proceed to Batavia, Java, "for supplies and liberty." Soon after they departed Balikpapan, however, the destroyers received new sailing orders. They were to proceed instead to Singapore, where they were to join Phillips' force formed around and . World War II 1941 Alden was en route to her destination when, at 0300 on 8 December 1941, she received word that "war has been started by Japan." At Singapore, reports of a Japanese invasion convoy standing toward British Malaya compelled Admiral Phillips to act before his reinforcements could arrive, and he cleared Singapore on the evening of 8 December with Prince of Wales and Repulse, screened by four destroyers, to seek out the enemy. Reaching Singapore on the morning of 10 December, Alden moored at 1113, and embarked a liaison party consisting of a Royal Navy lieutenant and four signalmen at 1130. She and her sister ships were still preparing for sea as Japanese high-level and