page_title: Easter Sunday Raid
section_title: The attack on Colombo
hierarchical_section_title: Easter Sunday Raid / The attack on Colombo
caption_attribution_description: English: A Hawker Hurricane fighter aircraft (V7476) which was evacuated from Singapore and flown to Australia by Brian Eaton, RAF, in 1942. It was the only Hurricane based in Australia during the Second World War and the RAAF designated it A60-1. The aircraft was based at Laverton, Victoria for the duration of the war and was scrapped some time in 1945-1946. Note the tropicalised air filter which was fitted to many aircraft types operating in the Pacific theatre.
context_page_description: The Easter Sunday Raid was an air attack by carrier-based aircraft of the Imperial Japanese Navy against Colombo, Ceylon, on Easter Sunday, 5 April 1942, in the South-East Asian theatre of World War II. This attack was part of the Indian Ocean Raid, and was followed a few days later by a similar attack on Trincomalee. The targets were British warships, harbour installations, and air bases; the object was to disrupt the war effort of British Commonwealth nations and force the British Eastern Fleet to leave Asian waters.
context_section_description: Somerville retreated with the main body of the Eastern Fleet to Addu Atoll in the Maldives. He left at Ceylon the aircraft carrier HMS Hermes (under repair at Trincomalee), heavy cruisers HMS Cornwall and Dorsetshire, and the Royal Australian Navy destroyer HMAS Vampire.
  After the sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse and the fall of Singapore, British morale on the island dropped. The sinking of these two capital ships shocked much of the world; the awareness of the vulnerability of battleships to air power increased dramatically. On Ceylon, there was much anxiety that a Japanese attack appeared to be inevitable. A large sea turtle which came ashore was reported by an Australian unit as a number of Japanese amphibious vehicles. However, actual preparations for defence were lackadaisical, apart from the deployment of an RAF squadron at the Colombo Racecourse. Anti-British sentiment increased within some portions of the indigenous population and their hopes ran high for liberation by the Japanese.
  The Japanese fleet comprised five aircraft carriers plus supporting ships under the command of Admiral Chuichi Nagumo. On 4 April 1942, the Japanese fleet was located by a PBY Catalina aircraft flown by RCAF Squadron Leader Leonard Birchall, out of Koggala. Birchall's Catalina was shot down by six A6M2 Zero fighters from the carrier Hiryū. He managed to radio in the position of the Japanese fleet and alert Colombo about the impending attack. However, Nagumo's air strike on Colombo the next day achieved near-complete surprise (Pearl Harbor also was attacked on a weekend). The British radars were not operating, they were shut down for routine maintenance.
  The Japanese high command had planned the bombing of Colombo very much like the Pearl Harbor operation (many of the same planes and pilots participated in both strikes); but most of the British Eastern Fleet was at Addu Atoll, so when the Japanese attacked at Colombo there were only three ships there. The survival of the British Eastern Fleet (which included some Royal Netherlands Navy warships) prevented the Japanese from attempting a major troop landing in Ceylon.
  The first attack wave of Japanese planes took off in pre-dawn darkness (30 minutes before sunrise) from the aircraft carriers Akagi, Hiryu, and Soryu, moving about 200 miles south of Sri Lanka. The first attack wave of 36 fighters, 54 dive bombers, and 90 level bombers was led by Captain Mitsuo Fuchida, the same officer who led the air attack on Pearl Harbor.
  The Hawker Hurricanes of the RAF's No. 30 Squadron were on the ground at Ratmalana Airport when the Japanese aircraft passed overhead. The auxiliary cruiser HMS Hector and the old destroyer HMS Tenedos were sunk in the harbour. The RAF and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) lost at least 27 aircraft; the Japanese only five. The Japanese also bombed the mental asylum at Angoda, mistaking it for the fuel tanks at nearby Kolonnawa.
  After Fuchida and his aircrews returned to the flagship Akagi, a second-wave of 53 Aichi D3A Val dive bombers led by Lieutenant Commander Egusa took off to attack the two British cruisers Dorsetshire and Cornwall, 320 km (170 nmi; 200 mi) southwest of Ceylon, and sank the two ships. British losses were 424 men killed; 1,120 survivors spent hours in the water.
  The Japanese dive bombers scored hits with close to 90% of their bombs—an enviable rate of accuracy, according to Mitsuo Fuchida in Midway: The Battle That Doomed Japan.
  The Japanese attack began at 07:30 on Easter Sunday morning. Air defence of Colombo fort and harbour was provided by the 3rd Searchlight/Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Ceylon Garrison Artillery with two batteries based at Galle Face Green and Mutwal. Colonel R. M. White and his operations staff officer, Major J. O. Widdows, DSO commanded ground units from ground forces headquarters at Echelon Barracks.
  St Luke's Church, Borella, was packed for Easter services with both locals and military personnel. According to parishioners, the vicar, Reverend Canon Ivan Corea, was preaching when the RAF Hurricanes engaged the Japanese Zero a
caption: RAF Hawker Hurricanes were scrambled from the temporary airstrip at the Colombo Racecourse. The Hurricanes were involved in several dogfights with the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service Zero fighters and bombers which were attacking the city
exif: {}