81st anniversary of Trincomalee battle falls on April 9

Many Sri Lankans from the ‘Ceylon’ vintage will remember the famous Easter Sunday Raid when Japanese fighters dive bombed selected targets in Colombo and other locations. Ceylon’s air defences were reinforced in early 1942.

Records indicate 60 Hurricane aircraft arrived on March 7; they were ferried by HMS Indomitable. The British airbases at Ratmalana and China Bay were expanded. Colombo and Trincomalee each received a radar station.

April 5, 1942 was a beautiful Easter Sunday morning in Colombo. Many Christians had gone to church. The Japanese pilots motivated by their recent victory at Pearl Harbour took off from the aircraft carriers, ‘Akagi’, ‘Hiryu’ and ‘Soryu’, moving about 200 miles south of Ceylon (With a displacement of 36,500 tons the Japanese carrier Akagi was a massive ship with a speed of 31 knots and crew of 1,360. She carried 66 assault aircraft).

The first attacking formation comprising 36 fighter planes, 54 dive bombers and 90 level bombers were led by Captain Mitsuo Fuchida. After causing heavy damage Fuchida and his pilots returned to their flagship Akagi. Later, a second wave of dive bombers led by Lieutenant Commander Egusa was airborne. The Japanese pilots found two Royal Navy cruisers, HMS Cornwall and HMS Dorsetshire. The British sailors put up a gallant resistance lasting nearly an hour. Nearly 440 sailors went down with their ships firing her guns until their last breath.

Unknown to many of us there is another magnificent sea battle that took place in the Eastern Province. The world’s first purpose built aircraft carrier HMS Hermes was ruthlessly attacked by Japanese bombers off Trincomalee and went down to her watery grave taking her Captain and 307 sailors.

For decades their story remained, drowned under the mighty ocean. The Royal Navy commenced building this super vessel during the First World War but the ambitious project was not complete. The massive warship with a displacement of 10,850 tons was completed after the war. Her Latin motto read ‘Altiora Peto – I seek higher things’.

Her unique feature was her retractable slipway. She had a length of 600 feet and a beam of 70 feet. Powered by steam turbines she had a speed of 26 knots. The ship had an armament of six 102 mm guns. This was later updated with 152 mm guns. In addition she had 4 anti-aircraft guns on her broad flight deck. HMS Hermes had a crew of 33 officers and 533 sailors.

Commissioned in 1924 she was attached to the Atlantic Fleet. She was an imposing vessel with her flight deck and was relocated to the Mediterranean Fleet. When the World War 2 began she was deployed to sea tasked with anti-submarine patrols.

Here she gallantly sunk the French battleship Richelieu by using depth charges and deploying her Swordfish torpedo bombers.

In February, HMS Hermes was assigned to the British Eastern Fleet and sailed to Ceylon on March 4,1942.

HMS Hermes strike capability was upgraded with aircraft from 814 Squadron and she was now paired with the Australian destroyer HMAS Vampire and they were tasked with anti-submarine patrolling. HMAS Vampire had a crew of 6 officers and 113 sailors. British naval intelligence had indicated another wave of Japanese attacks and HMS Hermes sailed out of harbour without her aircraft, hoping to keep a low profile.

Four days later, on April 9, the Japanese struck again at Trincomalee, the home base of the British Eastern Fleet. 125 Japanese fighter aircraft took part in the attack. The thunder of their combined engines was audible for miles. Responding to a radar warning, 15 Royal Air Force Hurricanes took off from China Bay.

The battle raged from 22,000 feet. The steam ship SS Sagaing had reached Ceylon on April 3, carrying a dangerous cargo of ammunition, including 22,000 depth charges. She was berthed within Malay Cove. The Japanese planes dive bombed the SS Sagaing. The deck of the SS Sagaing was ripped apart as her cargo of ammunition exploded violently.

A solitary scout plane from the Japanese battleship Haruna spotted the massive ship on April 9,1942 and radioed her bearings at 10.35 am. The Japanese bombers scrambled their flights to action. The naval radioman of HMS Hermes received a message from naval command to sail back to the safety of Trincomalee harbour.

The ship was now exposed without its fighter air escort. Turning a mammoth ship of this magnitude is no easy task. In the meantime the carrier was being targeted by 85 Japanese Aichi dive bombers and 9 Mitsubishi Zero fighters. The attacking bombers would soon zero in on the vulnerable target. British gunners ran to their action stations to defend their ship. The Royal Air Force dispatched 6 Fulmar fighter aircraft from 273 Squadron to provide air support to the ship.

The Fulmar bomber has a speed of 272 miles per hour and was armed with 4 wing mounted machine guns. Another 6 planes from 806 Squadron also joined the counter strike but it was too late. Having being hit 40 times the majestic HMS Hermes sent out her distress signals. She was taking in water rapidly. Her injured crew fought gallantly. HMS Hermes sank off the Batticaloa coast.

Captain Richard Onslow and 307 crew members were sucked into the gushing blood stained waters. In this land away from their own homes they would rest from the danger of war. Their mortal bodies lay asleep deep in the oceans bed, their gallant story submerged in time. The captain of HMAS Vampire was also killed. A few survivors from HMS Hermes were rescued by the ship Vita. Some nautical miles away the Japanese aircraft attacked and sank the HMS Hollyhock and the oil tanker SS British Sergeant.

As Winston Churchill stated, “This is no time for ease and comfort, it is the time to dare and endure.” I was able to visit the Commonwealth War graves in Trincomalee and see the names of a few sailors from these ships. To date the spot where the courageous warship HMS Hermes went down remains a mystery laden dive site.