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CHAPTER SEVEN

UNWELCOME VISITORS

April 1942

A regular Saturday evening haunt of myself and a few friends was the lounge bar at the Colombo Swimming Club, usually crowded with Royal Navy and a few Merchant Navy Officers, and Airmen. On the evening of April 4th there was not a sailor or airman in sight. The place was almost deserted, just a few lonely-looking girlfriends. We wondered why this was, perhaps they were on combined exercise?

The next morning we knew the real reason.

April 5th 1942 was Easter Sunday, so we had a "lie-in". At 8am I was sitting on my charpoy having a cup of tea when we heard the sound of air-raid sirens. "Funny time for a practice" we thought. Suddenly all hall was let loose! Our peaceful Sunday morning was torn apart by the sound of exploding bombs, the thunder of hundreds of heavy guns, the scream and roar of diving aircraft and the rattle of machine guns and cannon. Dashing out onto our first-floor veranda we had a grandstand view of a Japanese dive-bombing on the Harbour, a quarter of a mile away, beyond the town centre.

Aircraft were diving and climbing, twisting and turning low over the harbour. Clouds of smoke went up, and columns of water rose above the houses, tall and white from exploding bombs. Hurricane fighters came weaving in, diving after the bombers, trying to shoot them down before they could release their bombs. One Jap plane blew up in a flash of flame over the centre of the harbour. Jap Zero fighters joined in the fray. The din was terrific!

Whilst all this was going on I was up on the veranda with my camera, trying to photograph the spectacle, every few minutes jumping out of my skin when a Bofors gun 20 yards away went off, crash-bang! Then, looking to my left towards the sea, I suddenly saw a plane diving straight at us. I shot down to the ground floor and dived under the stairs like a rabbit down a bolthole! That was the fastest I had moved for a long time.

Fortunately the bombs dropped short and did little damage. I was soon out of the bolthole and back upstairs, but by now the Zero fighters and Val dive-bombers were scooting away chased by Hurricanes. Instead, high bombers appeared out of the clouds, in perfect formation, released their bombs and wheeled away.

It was all over in little more than an hour, leaving masses of black smoke rising from burning ships, warehouses, stores, workshops and jetties, but the damage was not as severe as it might have been, and the raid had been a big disappointment for the Japanese. The strength of the defence had been an unpleasant surprise, as also had the fact that what they had hoped to destroy was not there. They had missed their main target.

For the rest of that day Colombo was in turmoil. Every road leading out of the town was packed with panicking natives swarming out into the country as fast as they could, carrying what belongings they could with them.

"A History of Naval Action" (Peter Kemp) gives in interesting account of the air raid, as follows:

TORA TORA! AGAIN

'Admiral Nagumo of Pearl Harbour fame, had sailed into the Indian Ocean with a Battle Fleet of 5 Aircraft Carriers with 300 aircraft, 4 Battleships, 3 Cruisers and 9 destroyers and support ships with orders to destroy, once and for all, British Naval power in the Indian Ocean. He was confident he could do another "Pearl Harbour" on Colombo, suspecting most of the remaining fleet would be there.

Shortly after 4pm on Saturday, the Captain of a British reconnaissance Catalina flying-boat caught sight of this large fleet 350 miles S E of Ceylon, on a westerly heading. The Japanese fleet had also spotted the Catalina and Zero fighter planes were already taking off, but the wireless operator just had time to get a short message transmitted before the Catalina was shot down…… Colombo heard that message.

The next morning, when the first raiding planes arrived over Colombo, the harbour was empty of warships - the British fleet had disappeared into the broad wastes of the Indian Ocean. All that was left was a scattering of merchant ships, mainly small, which had been unable to get clear of the harbour in time (nearly 50 had put to sea), a few fishing boats and one Warship - a destroyer under repair".

So now we knew why there were no sailors in the Club that Saturday night. Wanting to preserve their nucleus of a new Fleet, the Royal Navy had cleared the harbour during the night. The RAF had been put on "alert".

The small air defence that we had was ready and waiting. Local radar, only recently installed, confirmed the imminent arrival of the enemy and all 42 fighters, nearly all of them Hurricanes, were in the air or taking-off when the first dive-bombers came into sight.

Although hardly a match for the Zeros and hopelessly outnumbered, the Hurricanes gave a very good account of themselves, and gave the Jap pilots a considerable shock. It was the first time they had come up against a relatively modern fighter. In the dog-fights that followed 17 Hurricanes were lost - a number of pilots saved themselves - but they shot down at least 20 enemy fighters and bombers, the anti-aircraft guns shot down several more. 85 civilians were killed and 77 injured.

One Hurricane force-landed on Galle Face Green, damaged by our own ack-ack. The pilot got out, flung his flying helmet back into the cockpit and walked off in disgust to the Hotel.

Later that day 2 British ships, the heavy Cruisers "Cornwall" and "Dorsetshire" were spotted by Jap recce planes. They were attacked by a swarm of dive-bombers, and even though putting up a fierce defence barrage, both ships were sunk.

TRINCOMALEE, TOO

The Admiral then spent several days searching far and wide for the main British Fleet, but without success. Finally, at 8am on April 9th, 130 Japanese planes launched an attack on the Naval base at Trincomalee. It was the same story again, a virtually empty harbour, with the shore installations as the only useful target. Again there were Hurricanes to meet them, to mix in with the fighters and bombers, with about a dozen losses on both sides. Blenheim bombers attacked the enemy fleet, but were nearly all shot down. The only Navy casualties were the old light-carrier "Hermes" and an escort destroyer, the Australian "Vampire", which they found creeping close inshore and treated with the same ruthlessness as they had the two cruisers.

Whilst Ceylon was being attacked another Japanese Strike Force had sailed into the Bay of Bengal and approached the eastern shores of India. It sank 18 unescorted merchant ships and bombed 3 minor ports.

Then Admiral Nagumo called it a day and set off home to Tokyo and a hero's welcome. The Japanese Navy was now master of the seas, from Pearl Harbour in the East to Ceylon in the West, and South to Port Darwin, Australia. Yet that was the last time the Japanese Navy came west to the Bay of Bengal or the Indian Ocean in any strength. The Americans were already fighting back in the Pacific, and attacking enemy bases in the East Indies. The Japanese Navy would from now on be fully committed to the Far East.

The summer of 1942 was the blackest time for the War for the Allies, following a long chain of catastrophes and defeats. Yet by Autumn we would see a change of tides, the fortunes of war at last begin to flow our way, defeats change to victories.

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