page_title: Operation Boomerang
section_title: Aftermath
hierarchical_section_title: Operation Boomerang / Aftermath
caption_attribution_description: English: JAPANESE OIL REFINERIES AT PALEMBANG BURNING DURING ATTACK BY BRITISH AIRCRAFT. JANUARY 1945, FROM ONE OF THE ATTACKING AIRCRAFT OF HMS VICTORIOUS
context_page_description: Operation Boomerang was a partially successful air raid conducted by the United States Army Air Forces' XX Bomber Command against oil refining facilities in Japanese-occupied Palembang on the night of 10/11 August 1944 during World War II. The attack involved attempts to bomb an oil refinery and lay mines to interdict a river.
  The raid formed part of a series of attacks on Japanese-occupied cities in South East Asia which XX Bomber Command conducted as an adjunct to its primary mission of bombing Japan. The command raided the Japanese city of Nagasaki on the same night as Operation Boomerang.
  A total of 54 heavy bombers were dispatched from an airfield in British Ceylon on 10 August, of which 39 reached the Palembang area. Attempts to bomb the oil refinery were unsuccessful, with only a single small building being confirmed destroyed. Mines dropped in the river which connects Palembang to the sea sank three ships and damaged two others. British forces provided search and rescue support for the American bombers. The Japanese defenders of Palembang failed to destroy any of the American bombers, but one was forced to ditch when it ran out of fuel.
context_section_description: Operation Boomerang produced mixed results. Photos taken of the Pladjoe refinery on 19 September indicated that a single building had definitely been destroyed in the raid, though several others were assessed as "probables". The mine laying element of the attack was successful: three ships were sunk, two others were damaged and the Japanese were unable to transport oil via the Moesi River for a month until minesweeping was complete. Subsequently, B-29s frequently laid mines as part of efforts to blockade Japan. Despite the failure of Operation Boomerang to fully achieve its goals, it demonstrated that XX Bomber Command was now capable of conducting complex operations and the B-29s could safely travel long distances over water. 
  XX Bomber Command continued to be reluctant to attack Palembang, and recommended to the Twentieth Air Force on 24 August that its facilities at China Bay be abandoned. Approval to do so was granted on 3 October, though the Twentieth Air Force directed that the aircraft fueling system remain in place. No other B-29 attacks were conducted through Ceylon. The USAAF official history noted that modifying the base for only a single operation was "a glaring example of the extravagance of war". XX Bomber Command attacked several other cities in South-East Asia during 1944 and early 1945; these included multiple raids on Singapore which required even longer flights than those undertaken during Operation Boomerang.
  The Eastern Fleet's aircraft carriers conducted several raids on oil facilities in Sumatra between November 1944 and January 1945. These included two raids against Palembang conducted as part of Operation Meridian in January 1945. On 24 January the fleet's aircraft badly damaged the Pladjoe refinery, and on the 29th of the month serious damage was inflicted on the nearby Sungei Gerong refinery.
caption: An oil refinery at Palembang on fire after being attacked by the British Royal Navy in January 1945
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