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| HMS Hermes, one of the victims of Operation C |
After the fall of Singapore, and the defeat at Java, the British moved their headquarters to Sri Lanka (then called Ceylon). From there the British plotted on how to combat the Japanese in Southeast Asia.
This made Ceylon a key target for the Japanese. The Japanese plan to attack Ceylon was called Operation C. On 26 March 1942, Admiral Nagumo led his fleet of five aircraft carriers, four battleships and their escorts from Staring Bay (Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia) towards Ceylon.
British intelligence accurately assessed the naval strength that the Japanese deployed. but assumed that the Japanese would attack Ceylon on 1 April 1942. As such, the British Far East Fleet (under Vice-admiral Somerville) left Ceylon on 30 March 1942 in an attempt to engage the Japanese fleet.
After three days of searching, Somerville moved his fleet to the Maldives for supplies. He dispatched his aircraft carrier (HMS Hermes) and two of his cruisers (HMS Dorsetshire and HMS Cornwall) back to Ceylon for upgrading.
Unknown to the British, the Japanese were fast approaching Ceylon.
4 April 1942
1600 -- Scouting aircraft from the Royal Canadian Airforce spotted the Japanese fleet 580 km southeast of Ceylon, but could not confirm the number and type of ships. Somerville quickly organised his forces to leave Maldives, although he knew that he was too far to aid the defence of Ceylon.
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| Position of Japanese fleet at 1600 on 4 April 1942. Note that Somerville's fleet was docked at Maldives |
5 April 1942
0600 -- The Japanese launched 91 bombers and 36 fighters.
0730 -- The Japanese planes arrived over Colombo. Their attack destroyed 26 aircraft, and sunk HMS Hector (merchant cruiser), HMS Tenedos (destroyer) and Soil (Norwegian tanker).
1000 -- Japanese scout planes spotted HMS Dorsetshire and Cornwall. Japanese carriers launch dive bombers.
1344 -- The Japanese dive bombers engaged the cruisers and sunk them at 1400.
1600 -- Somerville's scout planes spot Nagumo's fleet 201 km away, but Nagumo's fleet evades Sommerfield advance.
6 April 1942
In the morning, Somerville made the decision to stop his pursuit of the Japanese, and returned to Maldives at 1100.
8 April 1942
1517 -- The Japanese fleet was spotted near Trincomalee, another major British naval base in Ceylon. Sommerville was too far again to engage the Japanese fleet.
9 April 1942
0706 -- 132 Japanese planes were detected 146 km away from Triconmalee. The subsequent attack damaged the air base and port.
1025 -- 9 British bombers engaged the Japanese fleet, and failed to hit their targets. 7 of the planes were shot down.
1035 -- HMS Hermes, and HMS Vampire (destroyer) were engaged by 80 Japanese planes. Both ships were sunk. The Japanese decided to take no further offensive action and returned to Japan.
Aftermath
Operation C lost the Japanese about 20 planes, and about 30 men.
In contrast, the Allied forces lost 1 aircraft carrier, 2 cruisers, 2 destroyers, 23 merchant ships and 3 other ships. More than 40 planes were lost. Over 800 men died.
After Operation C, it was clear that the Indian Ocean and Ceylon were not safe for the British Royal Navy. While he retained most of his fleet, Somerville retreated to East Africa. The British were in no position to conduct major operations in the Southeast Asia and the Pacific. The liberation of Southeast Asia, and Singapore would have to wait.
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