Easter Sunday Raid

The Easter Sunday Raid was an air raid carried out by the Empire of Japan on Easter Sunday, 5 April, 1942 on Colombo, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), as a part of the Indian Ocean Raid. A few days later Trincomalee was also attacked. The raids were intended to disrupt the war effort of British Commonwealth nations and force the British Eastern Fleet to leave Asian waters.

Background

The British had been in occupation of the coastal areas of the island since 1796, but the colony had not had a regular garrison of British troops since 1917. The Ceylon Defence Force and Ceylon Navy Volunteer Reserve were mobilized and expanded. The Royal Navy maintained naval installations in Trincomalee and the RAF had established an aerodrome in China Bay, Trincomalee long before the war.

After the fall of Singapore the Royal Navy's East Indies Station was moved to Colombo and then to Trincomalee. Admiral Sir Geoffrey Layton was appointed Commander-in-Chief, Ceylon with Air Vice Marshal John D'Albaic as Air Officer Commanding and Admiral Sir James Somerville appointed commander of the British Eastern Fleet.

The fixed land defences consisted of four coastal batteries at Colombo and five at Trincomalee; these were established just before the war. Air defences were expanded in 1941 with the RAF occupying the civil airfield at Ratmalana near Colombo with its station headquarters set up at Kandawala. Another airbase was rapidly built at Koggala near Galle and several temporary airstrips were built across the country with the largest at Colombo Racecourse grounds. Several RAF squadrons were sent to Ceylon.

The attack

With Japan's entry into the war, and especially after the fall of Singapore, Ceylon became a front-line British base against the Japanese. Admiral Sir Geoffrey Layton was appointed Commander-in-Chief, Ceylon. Air Vice Marshal John D'Albaic became Air Officer Commanding. Admiral Sir James Somerville was appointed commander of the British Eastern Fleet. Somerville retreated with his main fleet to Addu Atoll in the Maldives, leaving the aircraft carrier "Hermes", escorted by the heavy cruisers "Cornwall" and "Dorsetshire", and the Royal Australian Navy destroyer HMAS "Vampire" in Ceylon.

After the sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse and the fall of Singapore, British morale on the island dropped. The sinking of these two capital ships shocked much of the world; the awareness of the superiority of aircraft carriers over battleships increased dramatically. On Ceylon there was understandably much anxiety that a Japanese attack appeared to be inevitable. A large sea turtle which came ashore was reported by an Australian unit as a number of Japanese amphibious vehicles. However, actual preparations for defence were lackadaisical, apart from the deployment of a Royal Air Force squadron at the Colombo race course. Anti-British sentiment increased accordingly within some portions of the indigenous population and their hopes ran high for liberation by the Japanese.

On 4 April 1942 the Japanese Navy fleet of Admiral Chuichi Nagumo was located by a Catalina aircraft flown by Squadron Leader Leonard Birchall out of Koggala. However, Nagumo achieved near-complete surprise when he launched an airstrike on Colombo the next day (Easter Sunday, 5 April). Despite the fact that the war in Europe had been raging for almost 18 months, and in the Pacific for almost four, the British radars were not operating because it was Sunday.

But the greatest shock of the day was probably felt by the Japanese high command, who had expected to catch the remnants of the British fleet at anchor in Ceylon. The Japanese had planned the bombing of the Eastern Fleet's home base with meticulous care and precision in a manner almost exactly like the Pearl Harbor operation (in fact many of the same bombers with the same pilots participated in both strikes). Most of the British Eastern Fleet was maintaining radio silence in Addu Atoll, so that when the Japanese arrived at Colombo there were only three ships at anchor instead of the much larger number they had anticipated.

The continued existence of the remnants of the British Eastern Fleet (which included some Dutch warships as well) prevented the Japanese from attempting a major troop landing in Ceylon. Speaking at a dinner party at the British Embassy in Washington after the war, Winston Churchill called the attempted invasion of Ceylon, “the most dangerous moment of World War II.” Churchill concluded that if the Japanese fleet had succeeded, they would have controlled the Indian Ocean.

The Hawker Hurricanes of No 30 Squadron were on the ground at Ratmalana when the Japanese aircraft passed overhead. The auxiliary cruiser "Hector" and the old destroyer "Tenedos" were sunk in the harbour. The Japanese discovered the "Cornwall" and "Dorsetshire" 320 km (200 miles) southwest of Ceylon and sank the two ships. British losses were 424 men killed; 1,120 survivors spent hours in the water. The RAF and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) lost at least 27 aircraft, the Japanese only five. The Japanese also bombed the lunatic asylum at Angoda, mistaking it for the fuel tanks at nearby Kolonnawa.

On 9 April 1942 the Japanese attacked the harbour at Trincomalee and the British ships off Batticaloa. "Hermes", "Vampire" and the Flower-class corvette "Hollyhock" were sunk. The Royal Air Force lost at least eight Hurricanes and the FAA one Fairey Fulmar. The Japanese lost five bombers and six fighters, one in a suicide attack on the Trincomalee fuel tanks.

The sortie demonstrated Japanese superiority in carrier operations. Good luck favored Somerville when the Japanese did not find his fast carriers "Indomitable" and "Formidable"; these ships were saved to fight another day. But British prestige was brought even lower than it had been after the fall of Singapore.

British Commonwealth units in Ceylon at the time of the attack

Ground

;Ceylonese units
*Ceylon Defence Force
**Ceylon Garrison Artillery (CGA) (equipped with six-inch (152 mm) and nine-inch (227 mm) guns)
**Ceylon Light Infantry (CLI)
**Ceylon Planters Rifle Corps (CPRC)
**Colombo Town Guard

;Commonwealth units
*34th Indian Division.
*16th Brigade, 7th Australian Division.
*17th Brigade, 7th Australian Division.
*24th East African Brigade.

Air

* No. 222 Group RAF
**RAF
*** No. 11 Squadron RAF (Bristol Blenheims)
*** No. 30 Squadron RAF (Hawker Hurricanes)
*** No. 258 Squadron RAF (Hawker Hurricanes)
*** No. 261 Squadron RAF (Hawker Hurricanes)
*** No. 273 Squadron RAF (Fairey Fulmars)
*** No. 202 Squadron RAF (PBY Catalina one aircraft)
*** No. 204 Squadron RAF (PBY Catalinas)
*** No. 205 Squadron RAF (PBY Catalina one aircraft)
*** No. 321 Squadron RAF (PBY Catalinas) (Dutch unit under formation)
*** No. 413 Squadron RCAF
**Fleet Air Arm
*** 788 Naval Air Squadron (Fairey Swordfishs)
*** 803 Naval Air Squadron (Fairey Fulmars)
*** 806 Naval Air Squadron (Fairey Fulmars)

See also

*Sri Lankan Army
*Sri Lankan Navy

External links & References

* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/38/a4428038.shtml 1941-1945 Eastern Travels Part 4 by cjcallis]
* [http://www.lankalibrary.com/geo/30-squadron.htm The Battle of Ceylon - 1942]