after the empire of japan completed its defeat of the dutch east indies in march 1942
the japanese navy devised a bold follow-up strike gathering together the full power of its mighty
force of aircraft carriers they set out into the indian ocean determined to launch a pearl
harbor-style attack that would destroy the british eastern fleet once and for all this video is
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in the spring of 1942 the raw navy was reeling from heavy blows in the east
malaya and singapore had fallen and the remaining british ships in the east indies had been
sunk at the battles of the java sea the task then for admiral james somerville who arrived to become
the commander-in-chief of the eastern fleet at the end of march was a difficult one at this
time a new eastern fleet was being hurriedly assembled at ceylon modern-day sri lanka
to provide some kind of force to protect india from potential japanese invasion
somerville's fleet was an impressive size on paper he had three aircraft carriers formidable
indomitable and hermes and five battleships war spite rameli's revenge resolution
and royal sovereign but this wasn't the full story only warspite had been modernized and was capable
of the speed and endurance needed for extended operations the other battleships were really
only suitable for convoy escort duty the carriers too were flawed hermes was old and formidable and
indomitable's aircrews were inexperienced the two modern carriers also had armored decks reducing
the number of aircraft that each could carry somerville's total air group was only 39 fighters
and 57 strike aircraft the imperial japanese navy understood the potential weakness of the british
in march 1942 they actually thought the eastern fleet was even smaller at two battleships and
two carriers but believed heavy reinforcements were on the way including two further carriers
and six more battleships this meant there was an opportunity to destroy the british fleet before
its reinforcements could arrive and assure japanese naval control over the indian ocean
it was an opportunity they were not about to pass up at the start of april 1942 japan began a
two-prong defensive into the indian ocean codenamed operation c the first phase saw
vice admiral zaburo azawa lead a task force including the light carrier ryuho into the bay
of bengal once there over a five-day period they rampage through allied shipping lanes
sinking more than 20 ships and around a hundred thousand tons of shipping before returning to
port as if to underline the overwhelming naval strength japan now enjoyed azaw's force went
completely unbothered by allied naval or air forces as its side through britain's merchantmen
this was because to the south admiral somerville's fleet had more than enough problems of its own
a few days before the end of march the main japanese force departed the east indies
crossing into the indian ocean and progressing up the coast of sumatra this was the core of
japan's naval strength the fearsome kido bhutai with five fleet aircraft carriers and four fast
battleships under the command of admiral chucci nagumo it was the same force as that which
had attacked pearl harbor and devastated port darwin in australia in the middle of february
nagumo's fleet turned eastwards on april 3rd intending to approach the ports of colombo
and trincomalee and launch massive airstrikes aiming to once again catch allied ships in port
thankfully for the british the japanese naval code had been broken
and so admiral somerville was forewarned about the planned japanese offensive
british intelligence pointed to an attack on colombo on april 1st and somerville's
own assessment was that japan would only have perhaps two carriers available for this
operation he therefore devised a plan to take his fleet to sea evade the japanese initially
and then launch knight torpedo attacks on the enemy making use of radar-equipped bombers
admiral somerville assembled his fleet south of ceylon on march 31st and waited unfortunately or
perhaps fortunately as we will see for two days the japanese were nowhere to be seen
by april 3rd the slow unmodernized battleships in the british fleet were low on fuel and as
far as somerville could make out there was no imminent japanese attack coming he therefore
set about returning to port the bulk of the fleet would move to a new anchorage at adu atoll in the
maldives with the heavy cruisers cornwall and devonshire travelling back to colombo
and the carrier hermes heading for trincomalee
unbeknownst to somerville the japanese strike force had merely been delayed leaving the east
indies and was twice the size of the force the british expected barely a few hours after the
eastern fleet arrived at abdu atoll on april 4th a catalina flying boat made contact with a large
japanese fleet steaming north east towards ceylon somerville immediately stepped up the refueling
managing to get back to sea with his faster ships grouped up as force a just after midnight
the british admiral still harbored ambitions of pressing home an attack at night still
unaware at this point of the true strength of the enemy fleet the cruisers cornwall
and devonshire were ordered to link up with force a leaving colombo at 10 pm on april 4.
early the next morning the japanese carriers swung into action
commander fuchida mitsuo led 91 japanese bombers on the attack run
escorted by 36 fighters at 8am colombo was hit hard
waves of japanese bombers appeared devastating the port facilities with impunity the small numbers
of allied fighters on ceylon tried to fight back but they were outnumbered and outgunned
the only positive for the british was that little damage was done to shipping as
most had already left port but this was about to change at 11 30 the cornwall and dorset shear were
spotted and shadowed by an enemy reconnaissance plane the crew were fully aware of what the
lone aircraft heralded and sure enough after two hours 80 dive bombers appeared over the horizon
led by lieutenant commander takashige agusa it was a rapid and devastating onslaught within
20 minutes both ships had gone to the bottom surviving barely long enough to inform somerville
of what was happening immediately on receipt of signals from the cruisers somerville realized his
assessment of the japanese strength had been wrong it was much more powerful than he had thought
in an instant his focus had to change from trying to attack the enemy to just trying to keep his
remaining ships afloat as the historian evan maudsley puts it somerville had suddenly realized
that he was not the hunter but the fox the admiral's biggest fear now was that the japanese
would attack ado atoll but mercifully for him they had no idea of its existence admiral nagumo
was in fact already steaming away from somerville spending the next three days of repositioning his
fleet for the upcoming attack on trincomalee this began in the early morning of april 9th again with
a large attack force devastating the port area but failing to catch significant vessels in port
hms hermes and her escorting destroyer vampire had left the previous evening to avoid the attack
it was not a planned departure so hermes was not even carrying any aircraft when she was discovered
at 9am and a wave of 80 dive bombers again led by lieutenant commander ragusa approached hermes
stood no chance and was hit again and again until she sang all told more than 40 bombs found their
target at 1102 vampire went the same way when her magazine exploded having completed their
operations admiral nagumo's fleet now steamed away returning ultimately to japan to rest and
refit ahead of future campaigns though admiral somerville had lost the carrier and two cruisers
he had actually been quite lucky had the japanese arrived at salon when the entire eastern fleet was
together at the start of april the resulting battle would have likely been devastating
particularly for the slow old battleships as it was even before hermes was sunk somerville had
decided to pull his ships out of the eastern indian ocean entirely the slow force b ships
would head for east africa the fast force a for bombay the admiralty was not particularly happy
about this but as far as somerville was concerned it was retreat or see the eastern fleet destroyed
further japanese attacks were to be expected and perhaps even an invasion of india from the sea
winston churchill would later call this the most dangerous moment of the war he was faced with a
seemingly unstoppable japanese advance that could yet engulf india and the western indian ocean
while all the while the european war remained in the balance
and the raw navy was being stretched to breaking point across at least four major theaters
in fact it was japan's first and last major foray into the indian ocean before too long
the operational commitments against the united states in the pacific would be all-consuming
and then the battle of midway would happen with this in mind there's a strong argument
that operation c was a strategic mistake that japan's carriers would have been better served
strengthening their position in the south pacific while the us was still reeling from pearl harbor
on the other hand the japanese did force a british retreat from ceylon but in truth somerville's
ragtag fleet was not that much of a threat to the new japanese holdings in southeast asia
anyway on the british side the indian ocean raid as the battle would come to be known
was yet another humiliating episode though they had escaped without major damage the degradation
of britain's naval power was exposed as so bad as to require the surrender of large parts of
the indian ocean as well as the east indies the frustrating thing for somerville was that
the situation could have been different if only britain's priorities had been
shortly after the raid he wrote it looks to me as if the japs can walk in anytime they like we
might lose india just for the sake of a handful of aircraft and one or two decent ships the
interesting point here is that what summerville was after particularly in terms of planes was
not a huge commitment of industrial capacity but it ultimately wasn't available in part because the
government was fully committed to the area bombing campaign over germany as morden points out a month
after a dozen british planes tried to defend ceylon the raf would send 1 000 heavy and medium
bombers against cologne broadly the fighting of the second world war for britain was ultimately
about prioritization and from the pre-war years onwards the far east had taken a lower priority
for supplies troops ships and aircraft the indian ocean raid and the raw navy's humiliating retreat
was the culmination of those decisions and of the disastrous events of the previous few months
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