Operation Cockpit was a bombing

Airstrike

An air strike is an attack on a specific objective by military aircraft during an offensive mission. Air strikes are commonly delivered from aircraft such as fighters, bombers, ground attack aircraft, attack helicopters, and others...

 raid by aircraft from two Allied

Allies of World War II

The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...

 naval forces (Force 69 and Force 70) on 19 April 1944. The forces were made up of 22 warships, including two aircraft carrier

Aircraft carrier

An aircraft carrier is a warship designed with a primary mission of deploying and recovering aircraft, acting as a seagoing airbase. Aircraft carriers thus allow a naval force to project air power worldwide without having to depend on local bases for staging aircraft operations...

s, from the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

, Royal Australian Navy

Royal Australian Navy

The Royal Australian Navy is the naval branch of the Australian Defence Force. Following the Federation of Australia in 1901, the ships and resources of the separate colonial navies were integrated into a national force: the Commonwealth Naval Forces...

, French Navy

French Navy

The French Navy, officially the Marine nationale and often called La Royale is the maritime arm of the French military. It includes a full range of fighting vessels, from patrol boats to a nuclear powered aircraft carrier and 10 nuclear-powered submarines, four of which are capable of launching...

, Royal Netherlands Navy

Royal Netherlands Navy

The Koninklijke Marine is the navy of the Netherlands. In the mid-17th century the Dutch Navy was the most powerful navy in the world and it played an active role in the wars of the Dutch Republic and later those of the Batavian Republic and the Kingdom of the Netherlands...

, Royal New Zealand Navy

Royal New Zealand Navy

The Royal New Zealand Navy is the maritime arm of the New Zealand Defence Force...

, and United States Navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

. The targets were Japanese port and oil facilities on Sabang

Sabang

Sabang is a city consisting of several islands in Aceh, Indonesia. The metropolitan area is located on Weh Island, 17 km north of Banda Aceh. The city covers an area of 118 square kilometres and according to the 2000 census had a population of 23,654 people...

 Island (off the northern tip of Sumatra

Sumatra

Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 with a population of 50,365,538...

).

Background

A raid in the Sumatra area had been requested by United States as a distraction from their own operations on Hollandia

Jayapura

Jayapura City is the capital of Papua province, Indonesia, on the island of New Guinea. It is situated on Yos Sudarso Bay . Its approximate population in 2002 was 200,000....

 (now Jayapura). Somerville, the British commander, had selected Sabang for its location at the entrance to the Malacca Strait

Strait of Malacca

The Strait of Malacca is a narrow, stretch of water between the Malay Peninsula and the Indonesian island of Sumatra. It is named after the Malacca Sultanate that ruled over the archipelago between 1414 to 1511.-Extent:...

 and its strategic installations, such as a radar station, port and airfields. At this time, Japanese forces in Burma were under pressure and suffering serious supply problems: the raid was expected to exacerbate these problems and thereby assist the British 14th Army. A further gain was the opportunity for Royal Navy and Fleet Air Arm

Fleet Air Arm

The Fleet Air Arm is the branch of the British Royal Navy responsible for the operation of naval aircraft. The Fleet Air Arm currently operates the AgustaWestland Merlin, Westland Sea King and Westland Lynx helicopters...

 crews to work with United States personnel and learn procedures needed for their subsequent deployment as the British Pacific Fleet

British Pacific Fleet

The British Pacific Fleet was a British Commonwealth naval force which saw action against Japan during World War II. The fleet was composed of British Commonwealth naval vessels. The BPF formally came into being on 22 November 1944...

.

The action had been made possible by the recent substantial increase in the destroyer strength needed to escort the task forces' capital ships.

The raid

The raid was launched at 5.30am on 19 April, with 17 Barracuda

Fairey Barracuda

The Fairey Barracuda was a British carrier-borne torpedo- and dive bomber used during the Second World War, the first of its type used by the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm to be fabricated entirely from metal. It was introduced as a replacement for the Fairey Swordfish and Fairey Albacore biplanes...

 bombers and 13 Corsair

F4U Corsair

The Vought F4U Corsair was a carrier-capable fighter aircraft that saw service primarily in World War II and the Korean War. Demand for the aircraft soon overwhelmed Vought's manufacturing capability, resulting in production by Goodyear and Brewster: Goodyear-built Corsairs were designated FG and...

 fighters from HMS Illustrious and 29 Dauntless

SBD Dauntless

The Douglas SBD Dauntless was a naval dive bomber made by Douglas during World War II. The SBD was the United States Navy's main dive bomber from mid-1940 until late 1943, when it was largely replaced by the SB2C Helldiver...

 and Avenger

TBF Avenger

The Grumman TBF Avenger was a torpedo bomber developed initially for the United States Navy and Marine Corps, and eventually used by several air or naval arms around the world....

 bombers and 24 Hellcat

F6F Hellcat

The Grumman F6F Hellcat was a carrier-based fighter aircraft developed to replace the earlier F4F Wildcat in United States Navy service. Although the F6F resembled the Wildcat, it was a completely new design powered by a 2,000 hp Pratt & Whitney R-2800. Some tagged it as the "Wildcat's big...

 fighters from USS Saratoga. It was highly successful, the Japanese were caught by surprise, there was no fighter opposition. 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. Thirty 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

HMS Tactician (P314)

HMS Tactician was a British submarine of the third group of the T class. She was built as P314 by Vickers Armstrong, Barrow, and launched on 29 July 1942.-Service:...

 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; all bar one made it back to Saratoga. The pilot of the one lost aircraft was recovered by Tactician, under fire.

Aftermath

The Japanese had been caught by surprise and the raid was a clear success - Somerville said that the Japanese "had been caught with their kimonos up". The destruction of oil installations and shipping successfully contributed to the cessation of Japanese offensives in the Arakan

Rakhine State

Rakhine State is a Burmese state. Situated on the western coast, it is bordered by Chin State in the north, Magway Region, Bago Region and Ayeyarwady Region in the east, the Bay of Bengal to the west, and the Chittagong Division of Bangladesh to the northwest. It is located approximately between...

. There was a follow-up raid on Surabaya

Surabaya

Surabaya is Indonesia's second-largest city with a population of over 2.7 million , and the capital of the province of East Java...

, Java in May 1944, named Operation Transom

Operation Transom

Operation Transom was a major bombing raid on Japanese targets at Surabaya, Java by American and British planes on 17 May 1944 during World War II....

.

Allied order of battle

Force 69:
Battleships HMS Queen Elizabeth

HMS Queen Elizabeth (1913)

HMS Queen Elizabeth was the lead ship of the Queen Elizabeth-class of dreadnought battleships, named in honour of Elizabeth I of England. She saw service in both World Wars...

 (flagship of Admiral James Somerville, Commander-in-Chief Eastern Fleet

British Eastern Fleet

The British Eastern Fleet was a fleet of the Royal Navy which existed from 1941 to 1971...

), HMS Valiant

HMS Valiant (1914)

HMS Valiant was a Queen Elizabeth-class battleship of the British Royal Navy. She was laid down at the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Govan on 31 January 1913 and launched on 4 November 1914...

 and French battleship Richelieu

French battleship Richelieu (1939)

The Richelieu was a battleship of the French Navy, lead ship of her class. She served during World War II, on the Vichy Regime side, notably fending off an Allied attempt on Dakar, and later with Allied forces in the Indian Ocean in 1944 and 1945...

; cruisers HMS Newcastle

HMS Newcastle (C76)

The seventh HMS Newcastle was a Town-class light cruiser of the British Royal Navy. She belonged to the Southampton subclass. In the Second World War following extensive battle damage sustained in the Mediterranean, she spent some time being repaired in New York.She also saw action in the Korean...

 (flagship of Rear-Admiral A. D. Reid, commanding Fourth Cruiser Squadron), HMS Nigeria, HMS Ceylon

HMS Ceylon (C30)

HMS Ceylon was a Ceylon class light cruiser of the British Royal Navy, named for the island of Ceylon — now Sri Lanka — which was a British possession when she was built.-Wartime career:...

, HMNZS Gambia

HMS Gambia (C48)

HMS Gambia was a Crown Colony-class light cruiser of the Royal Navy. She was in the service of the Royal New Zealand Navy as HMNZS Gambia from 1943 to 1946...

 and HNLMS Tromp

HNLMS Tromp (1937)

HNLMS Tromp was the lead ship of the Tromp-class light cruisers of the Royal Netherlands Navy during and after World War II.Originally designated as a flotilla leader and a torpedo cruiser in the Deckers Fleet Plan of 1931, she was laid down at the "Nederlandsche Scheepsbouw Maatschappij" ,...

; destroyers HMS Rotherham

HMS Rotherham (H09)

HMS Rotherham was a R-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy during the Second World War, named after Captain Edward Rotheram, who commanded during at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Rotherham was completed in 1942 and equipped as a flotilla leader, having slightly reduced armament to allow...

, Racehorse, Penn

HMS Penn (G77)

HMS Penn was an escort destroyer of the P Class. Penn was ordered by the United Kingdom under the Wartime Emergency Programme, in the early part of the Second World War and was laid down at the Newcastle-on-Tyne yard of Vickers Armstrong on 26 December 1939.- Service :HMS Penn was launched on 12...

, Petard, HMAS Quiberon

HMAS Quiberon (G81)

HMAS Quiberon was a Q class destroyer of the Royal Australian Navy . Although built for the Royal Navy and remaining British property until 1950, Quiberon was one of two Q class destroyers commissioned into the RAN during World War II...

, Napier

HMAS Napier (G97)

HMAS Napier was an N class destroyer serving in the Royal Australian Navy during World War II. Built During 1939 and 1940, the destroyer was commissioned into the RAN, although she was ordered and owned by the British government...

, Nepal

HMAS Nepal (G25)

HMAS Nepal was an N class destroyer of the Royal Australian Navy . Launched in 1941 as Noreseman, the ship suffered significant damage during an air raid on the John I. Thornycroft and Company shipyard, and during repairs was renamed to recognise Nepal's contribution to the British war effort...

, and Nizam

HMAS Nizam (G38)

HMAS Nizam was an N class destroyer of the Royal Australian Navy . The destroyer, named after Sir Osman Ali Khan, The Last Nizam of Hyderabad, was commissioned into the RAN in 1940, although the ship remained the property of the Royal Navy for her entire career.Nizam spent the early part of her...

 and HNLMS Van Galen.

Force 70:
Battlecruiser HMS Renown

HMS Renown (1916)

HMS Renown was the lead ship of her class of battlecruisers of the Royal Navy built during the First World War. She was originally laid down as an improved version of the s. Her construction was suspended on the outbreak of war on the grounds she would not be ready in a timely manner...

 (flagship of Vice-Admiral A. J. Power, second-in-command Eastern Fleet); aircraft carriers HMS Illustrious

HMS Illustrious (R87)

HMS Illustrious , the fourth Illustrious of the British Royal Navy, was an aircraft carrier which saw service in World War II, the lead ship of the Illustrious-class of carriers which also included Victorious, Formidable, and Indomitable.-Construction:Illustrious was built by Vickers-Armstrongs at...

 (flagship of Rear-Admiral Clement Moody

Clement Moody

Admiral Sir Clement Moody KCB was a Royal Navy who went on to be Commander-in-Chief, East Indies Station.-Naval career:Moody was appointed a Sub-Lieutenant in the Royal Navy in 1911. He served in World War I and in 1935 was given command of HMS Curacoa...

, commanding aircraft-carriers), USS Saratoga

USS Saratoga (CV-3)

USS Saratoga was the second aircraft carrier of the United States Navy and the fifth ship to bear her name. She was commissioned one month earlier than her sister and class leader, , which is the third actually commissioned after and Saratoga...

; cruiser HMS London

HMS London (69)

HMS London was a member of the second group of the County class heavy cruiser of the Royal Navy. She and her sisters; Sussex, Shropshire, and Devonshire differed from the earlier group of Counties, , by having a smaller forward superstructure, which was positioned slightly further aft, and next...

; destroyers HMS Quilliam

HMS Quilliam (G09)

HMS Quilliam was a Q class destroyer serving in the Royal Navy during World War II, and the Royal Netherlands Navy from 1946 to 1957.-Construction:The ship was laid down by R. and W...

, Queenborough, Quadrant, USS Dunlap

USS Dunlap (DD-384)

USS Dunlap was a Mahan-class destroyer in the United States Navy during World War II. She was named after Brigadier General Robert H. Dunlap, USMC.-History:...

, Cummings

USS Cummings (DD-365)

The second USS Cummings was a Mahan-class destroyer in the United States Navy during World War II. She was named for Andrew Boyd Cummings.-History:...

 and Fanning

USS Fanning (DD-385)

USS Fanning , a Mahan-class destroyer, was the 2nd ship of the United States Navy to be named for Nathaniel Fanning. She first saw action during World War II immediately following the attack on Pearl Harbor. She continued to serve in the Pacific Theatre throughout the war, and was decommissioned...

.