The Eastern Fleet and the Indian Ocean, 1942-1944: The Fleet that Had to Hide

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The Darkest Hour presents the Imperial Japanese Navy offensive in the Indian Ocean area in March–April 1942, the main goal of which was to destroy the Royal Navy in the Far East and achieve domination on the western flank of the Pacific War on the eve of the Battle of Midway. Carrier Division 2 did not immediately follow; it performed a series of kinking manoeuvres starting at 15:00 that initially took it northwest. Somerville declined to launch a strike based on poor information, and opted to head northwest in pursuit.

At the end of August 1944, Admiral Somerville was relieved as Commander-in-Chief Eastern Fleet by Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser, former Commander-in-Chief Home Fleet. Naval operations against the Japanese weakened defenses after Leyte were described by Admiral Cunningham's biographer as being "less about defeating Japan than preparing the Royal Navy for the future. In the vast reaches of the Pacific- Britain's pre-war doctrinal mistake about both Battleships and aircraft were almost fatal- and resulted in the Imperial Fleet retiring before the Japanese Imperial Fleets. Even now there are U-Boats in the Indian Ocean, but the same technique of air-sea co-operation which gained the Battle of the Atlantic is winning the Battle of the Indian Ocean. Australia and India were threatened by the Japanese, we had temporarily lost control of the Indian Ocean, the Germans were threatening Iran and our oil, Auchinleck was in precarious straits in the desert, and the submarine sinkings were heavy.The tonnage and number of ships sunk by Malay Force, are comparable to that of the 3-month long Operation Berlin raid conducted by two battleships of the Kriegsmarine from January to March 1941. Thankfully control of the West coast of India, and the east coast of Africa allowed this fleet to retire and lend its Destroyers to Convoy, ASW, and Special raiding tasks- while it waited for the ETO fleets to be ready.

At this time, Somerville was refuelling at Port T; Force A sailed eastward toward the Japanese upon receiving the sighting; [10] Force B could not be ready until 5 April. Nagumo's leadership has been characterized by Andrew Boyd as rigid and unimaginative, and contributed to the escape of the British Eastern Fleet. Following the successful Allied landings in France during the summer of 1944, Operation OVERLORD in June and Operation DRAGOON in August, Britain began to reallocate resources to the Far East and the war against Japan. The size of the airstrike on Colombo was Somerville's first concrete evidence that the Japanese force contained more than the two carriers he expected. The Darkest Hour: Volume 1: The Japanese Naval Offensive in the Indian Ocean 1942 – The Opening Moves.Given the importance of the Indian Ocean trade and Imperial communications then surely the Eastern Fleet is not a Fleet In Being but to assure the “safe and timely arrival of the convoy” the main threat to this as ever was the Axis submarine and this problem was solved before the deployment of the Pacific Fleet. It was considered wise to move the weakened Eastern Fleet to East Africa to prepare for the next phase.