On 6 April heavy cruisers Kumano and Suzuya with destroyer Shirakumo sank the British merchant ships Silksworth, Autolycus, Malda and Shinkuang and the American ship Exmoor.

The book is quite broad in its coverage, including setting the scene as to why the British would find themselves ill equipped for modern carrier warfare in the Indian Ocean in 1942.Following the Japanese capture of the Andaman Islands, the main elements of the Fleet retreated to Addu Atoll. If you would like to use IWM collections materials in a way that is not covered above, require a commercial licence, high-resolution copies, or have manipulation requests, please contact the Image and Film Licensing Team. The objective was for the fleet to rendezvous with a group of tankers (escorted by the Dutch cruiser HNLMS Tromp) and practice refuelling at sea procedures. Sometimes we discover new information that changes what we know about an object, such as who made it or used it.

As a result he detached Cornwall, Dorsetshire, and Hermes, which were subsequently lost after being sent into areas overflown by Japanese aerial reconnaissance. Did they see the danger signal from the East in the developing might of USA and turn to deal with this threat, to their rear? Most purchases from business sellers are protected by the Consumer Contract Regulations 2013 which give you the right to cancel the purchase within 14 days after the day you receive the item.The rearming encountered delays, and the strike was carried out by Carrier Division 2 instead; Soryu and Hiryu began launching dive bombers at 11:45. Admiral King requested that, during April, the Eastern Fleet should engage Japanese forces in their area and hold them there to reduce the opposition to an American seaborne assault on Hollandia and Aitape on the north coast of Netherlands New Guinea.

I had thought I had at least a passing familiarity with all major naval ops in WWII, but this interesting read presented an interesting addition about something I had no significant knowledge of, the British fleet in the Indian Ocean. But in this book- Charles Stephenson, an author on British Naval and colonial topics, tells quite a different tale of Britain's Eastern Fleet, the Pacific Fleet that had run from the Japanese, letting the Japanese dominate the Southeast Asian coastlines for much of the Pacific War.Lumped together in grotesque partnership these motley armadas crept down the China coasts and through the Malacca Straits towards Burma.

Then Sabang caught it again, the Eastern Fleet sailing straight into the harbour and smash­ing up its installations, with 15-inch shells. Subsequently, the limit of Japanese operations in the Indian Ocean was against trade using submarines and armed merchant cruisers.Although it was the largest fleet deployed by the Royal Navy prior to 1945 and played a vital part in the theater it was sent to protect, it has no place in the popular consciousness of the naval history of the Second World War. The course change was presumably to maintain distance between a superior enemy that was believed to be still closing, or to cover Port T from attack, but it also meant the British lost an opportunity to meet the enemy; had Force A continued on its easterly course, Carrier Division 2 would have passed right in front of it at 21:00 at range of about 20 miles (32 km).