Indian Ocean raid 1942
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 31 March 1942 – 10 April 1942 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1942 | Wikidata P580 (start time) |
| Era | World War II era (1939–1945) | derived from year |
| Nearest landmass | At sea (nearest continent: Islands & open ocean) | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Islands & open ocean | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Pacific War | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | Australia, Canada, Empire of Japan, Netherlands, United Kingdom, United States | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | -20.0000, 80.0000 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Indian Ocean raid (Operation C, the Third Mobile Operation in the Indian Ocean and the Battle of Ceylon in Japanese) was a sortie of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) from 31 March to 10 April 1942. Japanese aircraft carriers (Admiral Chūichi Nagumo) struck Allied shipping, naval bases and airfields around British Ceylon but failed to find most of the Eastern Fleet. The British were forewarned by signals intelligence and the fleet sailed before the raid; its attempt to surprise the Japanese was frustrated by poor tactical intelligence.
Concurrent with Operation C, the IJN dispatched Malaya Force (Vice Admiral Jisaburō Ozawa) consisting of the aircraft carrier Ryūjō, six cruisers, a light cruiser and four destroyers, to raid the northern Bay of Bengal. In three days, Malaya Force aircraft and ships sank twenty merchant ships and damaged three, a total of over 130,000 GRT.
Following Operation C, the British expected a Japanese offensive in the Indian Ocean. The main base of the Eastern Fleet was moved to East Africa and Ceylon was reinforced. Somerville kept his fast carrier division, Force A, "in Indian waters, to be ready to deal with any attempt by the enemy to command those waters with light forces only".
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Indian Ocean raid (revision 1375587786), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Other battles of the Pacific War
- Battle of Hong Kong 1941
- Battle of Wake Island 1941
- Battle for Henderson Field 1942
- Battle of Badung Strait 1942
- Battle of Balikpapan (1942) 1942
- Battle of Christmas Island 1942
- Battle of Corregidor 1942
- Battle of Manado 1942
- Battle of Midway 1942
- Battle of Mount Austen, the Galloping Horse, and the Sea Horse 1942
All 56 battles of the Pacific War →
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