Raid on Trincomalee and the sinking of Hermes

9 April 1942, Off Batticaloa, eastern Ceylon

Japanese victory

Four days after Colombo, Nagumo's aircraft struck the naval base at Trincomalee. The ships there had been sent out to sea, but Japanese scouts found the old carrier Hermes, with no aircraft aboard, and the Australian destroyer Vampire heading back south along the coast. About seventy dive bombers sank Hermes in some twenty minutes and then Vampire, the corvette Hollyhock and other ships nearby. 307 men died on Hermes; a hospital ship nearby picked up most of the survivors. British Blenheim bombers that attacked the Japanese carriers did no damage. Nagumo then went home to prepare for Midway, and Japanese carriers never came back to the Indian Ocean.