Attack On Colombo, Sri Lanka
On 5 April 1942, the Japanese struck with a force of 125 aircraft, made up of 36 Aichi D3A2 dive bombers and 53 Nakajima B5N2 torpedo bombers, with 36 Zero fighters as escort. The aircraft, under the command of Commander Mitsuo Fuchida of Akagi—who had led the attack on Pearl Harbor—made landfall near Galle. They flew up the coast for half an hour in full view of everybody, but no one informed the RAF at Ratmalana, whose aircraft were still on the ground as the Japanese flew overhead.
The Japanese attacked the naval base at Colombo, Ceylon, sinking the auxiliary cruiser, HMS Hector and the old destroyer HMS Tenedos in the harbour, but losing a claimed 18 planes to heavy flak (the Japanese only admitted to five, three of them over land—as only three destroyed planes were discovered on land). The RAF lost at least 27 planes. Then Japanese search planes discovered Cornwall and Dorsetshire—commanded by Captain Augustus Agar—200 mi (170 nmi; 320 km) southwest of Ceylon and a second attack wave sank them, killing 424 men. In the late afternoon, just before sunset, at 16:55 and again at 18:00, on April 5, 1942, two RN Albacores operating from the RN aircraft carriers made contact with the IJN carriers. One Albacore was shot down and the other damaged before an accurate sighting report could be made, frustrating Admiral Somerville's plans for a retaliatory night strike by his ASV radar equipped Albacore strike bombers. Somerville continued to probe for the IJN carriers on the night of April 5, 1942 but they failed to find the IJN ships, and the RN's only opportunity to launch a strike against enemy aircraft carriers faded away.
On 6 April heavy cruisers Kumano and Suzuya with destroyer Shirakumo sank the British Steamships Silksworth, Autolycus, Malda and Shinkuang and the American Steamship Exmoor. Also on 6 April, the Indian sloop HMIS Indus was sunk by air attack off the coast of Burma, off Akyab.
Read more about this topic: Indian Ocean Raid
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