Easter Sunday raid

5 April 1942, Colombo and the sea south-west of Ceylon

Japanese victory

Nagumo's carriers swept into the Indian Ocean to strike the British Eastern Fleet. Admiral James Somerville, warned by codebreakers, had pulled his fleet back to a secret base at Addu Atoll in the Maldives. On Easter Sunday 350 Japanese aircraft attacked Colombo, sinking the destroyer Tenedos and an armed merchant cruiser in harbour. That afternoon scout planes found the heavy cruisers Cornwall and Dorsetshire hurrying south to rejoin Somerville, and fifty-three dive bombers sank both of them in about twenty minutes, with very accurate bombing. 424 men were killed; over 1,100 survivors spent a day and a half in the water before they were rescued.

Imperial Japanese Navy

12+ ships, none lost

Ship	Type	Outcome
IJN Akagi Nagumo's flagship	Aircraft carrier	Survived
IJN Sōryū	Aircraft carrier	Survived
IJN Hiryū	Aircraft carrier	Survived
IJN Shōkaku	Aircraft carrier Shōkaku class	Survived
IJN Zuikaku	Aircraft carrier Shōkaku class	Survived
IJN Kongō	Battleship Kongō class	Survived
IJN Haruna	Battleship Kongō class	Survived
IJN Hiei	Battleship Kongō class	Survived
IJN Kirishima	Battleship Kongō class	Survived
IJN Tone Her seaplane found the cruisers	Heavy cruiser Tone class	Survived
IJN Chikuma	Heavy cruiser Tone class	Survived
IJN Abukuma	Light cruiser Nagara class	Survived