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Easter Sunday Raid on Ceylon
Part of the Pacific Theatre of World War II
Date
5 April 1942
Location
Colombo, British Ceylon
Result
Japanese victory
Belligerents
Japan
United Kingdom
British Ceylon
Casualties and losses
7 aircraft[1]
26 aircraft
Many more killed on the ground.[2]
v
t
e
Indian Ocean Theatre
27 February 1941
8 May 1941
Sydney and Kormoran
Japanese merchant raiders
Andaman Islands
Homfreyganj massacre
Christmas Island
1st Indian Ocean
Ceylon
Cocos Islands
Madagascar
Stab
Réunion
Goa
Monsun Gruppe
13 November 1943
11 January 1944
14 February 1944
2nd Indian Ocean
17 July 1944
v
t
e
Pacific War
Central Pacific
Pearl Harbor
Marshalls–Gilberts raids
K
Doolittle Raid
Midway
Gilberts and Marshalls
Marianas and Palau
Volcano and Ryukyu
Truk
Ocean Island
Indian Ocean (1941–1945)
Japanese merchant raids
Andaman Islands
Homfreyganj massacre
Christmas Island
1st Indian Ocean
Ceylon
Bay of Bengal
2nd Indian Ocean
Southeast Asia
Indochina (1940)
Franco-Thai War
Thailand
Malaya
Hong Kong
Singapore
Indochina (1945)
Malacca Strait
Jurist
Tiderace
Zipper
Strategic bombing (1944–45)
Burma and India
Burma (1941–42)
Burma (1942–43)
Burma and India (1944)
Burma (1944–45)
Southwest Pacific
Dutch East Indies (1941–42)
Philippines (1941–42)
RY
Solomon Islands
Coral Sea
Timor
Australia
New Guinea
New Britain
Philippines (1944–45)
Borneo (1945)
North America
Ellwood
Aleutian Islands
Estevan Point Lighthouse
Fort Stevens
Lookout Air Raids
Fire balloon bombs
Project Hula
PX
Japan
Air raids
Tokyo
Yokosuka
Kure
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Mariana Islands
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Starvation
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South Sakhalin
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Downfall
Japanese surrender
Manchuria and Northern Korea
Kantokuen
Manchuria (1945)
Mutanchiang
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Second Sino-Japanese War
The Easter Sunday Raid was an air attack on Colombo, Ceylon during the Indian Ocean raid by carrier-based aircraft of the Imperial Japanese Navy on 5 April 1942. The Japanese objective was to destroy the Ceylon-based British Eastern Fleet in harbour. The British preemptively dispersed shipping from the harbours before the attacks due to advance warning from intelligence in March 1942, and air reconnaissance during the raid.
The attacking Japanese aircraft were met by fighters of the Royal Air Force's (RAF) 222 Group, commanded by Air Vice-Marshal John D'Albiac, and the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm (FAA), and anti-aircraft artillery. Port facilities were damaged, and ships both in harbour and – having dispersed – on the ocean were sunk or damaged. The bulk of the British Eastern Fleet was not found and survived.
The raid demonstrated Ceylon's vulnerability; British forces were not prepared to face further Japanese carrier raids. The Eastern Fleet relocated its main base to East Africa, from which it regularly deployed carrier task forces into the central and eastern Indian Oceans.
^Cite error: The named reference Stuart_2014_33 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^"Ceylon's Pearl Harbour attack". www.sundaytimes.lk. Retrieved 19 May 2017.
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