Battle of the Malacca Strait The Battle of the Malacca Strait , sometimes called the Sinking of the " Haguro " , and in Japanese sources as the Battle off Penang ( ペナン沖海戦 ) , was a naval battle that resulted from the British search and destroy operation in May 1945 , called Operation " Dukedom " , that resulted in the sinking of the Japanese cruiser . " Haguro " had been operating as a supply ship for Japanese garrisons in the Dutch East Indies and the Bay of Bengal since 1 May 1945 . Battle . On 9 May , " Haguro " left Singapore , escorted by the destroyer , to re - supply the Port Blair garrison on the Andaman Islands and to evacuate troops back to Singapore . The Royal Navy was alerted to this by a decrypted Japanese naval signal , subsequently confirmed by a sighting by the submarines and . Force 61 of the Eastern Fleet set sail on 10 May from Trincomalee , Ceylon to intercept the Japanese flotilla . The Japanese were unwilling to risk any battle and , on receipt of an air reconnaissance warning , they returned to Singapore . On 14 May , " Haguro " and " Kamikaze " tried again and left Singapore . The next day , they were spotted by aircraft from Force 61 . The subsequent dive bombing attack by Grumman Avenger II s of 851 Squadron caused only minor damage to " Haguro " , for the loss of an aircraft whose crew was taken prisoner by the Japanese . Information was relayed to the Japanese that two British destroyer squadrons had been sighted heading towards them . Again , they reversed course to return to the Malacca Strait . This change had been anticipated , however , and the 26th Destroyer Flotilla ( , , , , and ) , commanded by Captain Manley Laurence Power ( in " Saumarez " ) steamed to intercept . In heavy rain squalls with lightning , " Venus " made radar contact at . The British destroyers arranged themselves in a crescent cordon and allowed the Japanese ships to sail into the trap . At 01 : 05 , " Saumarez " s guns commenced fire at a range of while closing at and hit " Haguro " with the second salvo . " Saumarez " turned sharply right to pass astern of " Haguro " and raked " Kamikaze " with her 40 mm gun s as the Japanese destroyer appeared off the port bow and swept by at a relative speed of . " Haguro " returned six main battery salvos at " Saumarez " before being hit at 01 : 15 by three torpedoes from " Saumarez " and " Verulam " . " Venus " hit " Haguro " with one torpedo at 01 : 25 , and " Virago " stopped " Haguro " with two more torpedo hits two minutes later . " Haguro " sank at 02 : 09 after receiving another torpedo from " Vigilant " , two more from " Venus " , and nearly an hour of gunfire from the 26th Flotilla . This was the last surface battle of World War II . " Kamikaze " was also damaged , but escaped , returning the next day to rescue survivors . About 320 survived , but over 900 died , including the Japanese commanders , Vice - Admiral Hashimoto and Rear - Admiral Sugiura . " Saumarez " ' s main aerial ( in British terminology of the time , an aerial was the radio ) and a funnel top had been shot away and an shell nicked the forecastle . Two men were killed and three burned in the boiler room when a shell severed the main steam pipe . There was no damage to the remainder of the 26th Flotilla .