Operation cockpit
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Air raid against Sabang begins
| date | April 19, 1944 |
|---|---|
| place | Sabang and surrounding waters |
| output | allied victory |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Troop strength | |
| Task Forces 69 and 70 | Fighter planes and anti-aircraft guns |
| losses | |
|
1 fighter-bomber destroyed |
Damage to docks and oil stores, |
The operation cockpit was a series of allied air strikes against Japanese facilities and positions in Sabang in northern Sumatra during the Pacific War in World War II . The air strikes took place on April 19, 1944 and were carried out by squadrons of Task Forces 69 and 70. The Japanese oil refineries in Sabang were badly hit. Only one Allied machine was lost.
prehistory
After the heavy losses that the Imperial Japanese Army had suffered in the previous years of the war, only fragmented Japanese units were in occupied Southeast Asia in 1944 . Japanese supply routes between the Philippines , Borneo and the mainland had been cut off by ongoing Allied air and underwater attacks and only a few cargo ships broke the blockade. The Japanese units in Borneo and Malaysia ran out of supplies and ammunition, while the main islands and the United Fleet suffered from severe oil shortages.
target
In Sabang, on the Indonesian island of Weh , northwest of Sumatra, was the largest refinery complex in Southeast Asia, which supplied the important Japanese port of Singapore and various bases in the Philippines. In addition, Sabang was also used as a radio and communication base, from where the starving Japanese troops in Burma were supplied with the few remaining supplies.
First plans of attack
The Joint Chiefs of Staff had been planning an air strike against Sabang since 1942. Due to the problematic Allied offensives in New Guinea and the lack of available airfields, however, no land-based attack could be carried out. The deployment of a Fast Carrier Task Force was seen as too risky because of the presence of enemy naval units in Singapore and Java, as the American aircraft carriers could have been sunk in a possible Japanese counter-offensive . However, when the United Fleet was withdrawn from these waters in April 1944 and concentrated in Tawi-Tawi to fight the Battle of the Philippine Sea , the United States Navy dispatched two aircraft carriers and their escorts, Task Forces 69 and 70, to the To carry out an air strike. The aim was to eliminate the refineries and other facilities in order to cut through the Japanese supply and communication lines in the area.
attack
The operation began in Trincomalee with the departure of the British Eastern Fleet , reinforced by American , Australian , Dutch and French ships. It was divided into two task force units; TF 69 under the command of Admiral Somerville, as well as the TF 70 under Vice Admiral AJ Power .
For TF 69 belonging Battleship s Queen Elizabeth ( flagship of Somerville), Valiant and the French Richelieu , the cruisers under Rear Admiral Peter Reid , Newcastle , Nigeria , Ceylon , Gambia and the Dutch Tromp , and the destroyer Rotherham , Racehorse , Penn , petard who have favourited Australian Quiberon , Napier , Nepal , Nizam and Dutch Van Galen .
TF 70 consisted of the battle cruiser Renown , the aircraft carrier n under Rear Admiral Clement Moody , Illustrious and the American Saratoga , the cruiser London , the destroyers Quilliam , Quadrant , Queenborough , the American Cummings , Dunlap and Fanning as well as the submarine tactician , that should be used for sea rescue. The Ceylon and the New Zealand Gambia encounter two days later to the TF 70th
The attack began at dawn on April 19 and was flown by 17 Fairey Barracuda , 29 SBD Dauntless and TBF Avengers . The fighter-bombers were escorted by around 40 F6F Hellcats and F4U Corsairs . The high-precision bombing attack destroyed several oil and gasoline tanks and around 30 aircraft at the nearby airfield. Two tankers and a destroyer were also hit, and two cargo ships sank. The refineries, barracks and anti-aircraft positions were attacked at low altitude by the escort machines and mostly destroyed. Shortly after the air attack, the British submarine HMS Tactician observed blazing flames on the docks and various burning ships circling in the harbor trying to put out the fires on board with seawater.
losses
An estimated 100 Japanese soldiers, local workers and technicians were killed in the attack. The facilities also suffered severe damage. Several ships in the harbor basin were hit or sunk. The Japanese flak reacted a few minutes after the first air alarm and was able to damage 12 Allied machines. One of them was lost on the return flight, but the pilot was saved by the HMS Tactician .
consequences
Admiral James Somerville , commander of the British task force, said after the attack that the Japanese "were caught with their kimonos up". Indeed, the Japanese response was weak. No counterattack followed the bombing and the Allied task forces left the area without further ado. All objectives of the attack were met on April 19th. The attack also contributed to the failure of Japanese operations in Arakan . Another British-American air strike against Java, called Operation Transom, followed in May.
literature
- Ashley Jackson: The British Empire and the Second World War. Hambledon Continuum, London et al. 2006, ISBN 1-85285-417-0 .
- Sydney D. Waters: The Royal New Zealand Navy. War History Branch, Department of Internal Affairs , Wellington 1956, pp. 350-366: The New Zealand Cruisers. Visited in February 2012.
Individual evidence
- ^ Sea War 1944, April. Retrieved June 30, 2020 .
- ↑ Cockpit | Operations & Codenames of WWII. Retrieved June 30, 2020 .
- ^ Sydney D. Waters: The Royal New Zealand Navy . 1956, p. 359.
- ^ A. Jackson: The British Empire and the Second World War. 2006, pp. 303, 398.