Operation Cockpit

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Operation Cockpit was a raid by two Allied naval forces (Force 69 and Force 70) totalling twenty-two warships, including two aircraft carriers, on Japanese port and oil facilities on Sabang Island (off the northern tip of Sumatra) on 19 April, 1944.

The raid was launched at 5.30am on the 19th, with 17 bombers and 13 fighters from the HMS Illustrious and 29 bombers and 24 fighters from the USS Saratoga. It was highly successful, the Japanese were caught by surprise. Sabang harbour and the nearby Lho Nga airfield were bombed. Two merchant ships were hit and two Japanese destroyers and an escort ship strafed and set on fire. Japanese aircraft were destroyed on the airfield and a direct hit by a 1000-pound bomb set a large oil tank on fire. The power-station, barracks and wireless station were badly damaged. The submarine HMS Tactician reported large fires in the dockyard burning fiercely hours after the fleet had left the area.

Twelve US aircraft were hit by anti-aircraft fire but all bar one made it back to the Saratoga. The pilot of the one lost aircraft was recovered by Tactician, under fire.

There was a repeat raid on Surabaya (Operation Transom).

[edit] Allied order of battle

Force 69: Battleships HMS Queen Elizabeth (flagship of Admiral James Somerville, Commander-in-Chief Eastern Fleet), HMS Valiant and French battleship Richelieu; cruisers HMS Newcastle (flagship of Rear-Admiral A. D. Reid, commanding Fourth Cruiser Squadron), HMS Nigeria, HMS Ceylon, HMNZS Gambia and HNLMS Tromp; destroyers HMS Rotherham, Racehorse, Penn, Petard, HMAS Quiberon, Napier, Nepal, and Nizam and HNLMS Van Galen.

Force 70: Battlecruiser HMS Renown (flagship of Vice-Admiral A. J. Power, second-in-command Eastern Fleet); aircraft carriers HMS Illustrious (flagship of Rear-Admiral Clement Moody, commanding aircraft-carriers), USS Saratoga; cruiser HMS London; destroyers HMS Quilliam, Queenborough, Quadrant, USS Dunlap, Cummings and Fanning.