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Naval History and Heritage Command #NH 1779
Colombo
(79.8614E
6.9381N) was a
minor harbor as early as the 12th
century, when Arab traders first
arrived in
the area. The Portuguese founded the present city in 1520,
but it was
later seized by the Dutch
(in 1656) and British
(in 1796). The British build a
large artificial harbor between 1875 and 1885 that was capable of
anchoring 40 ships,
transforming Colombo
into the most important ports and administrative center in the
region. By fall 1941 the port was equipped with SCR270 radar to
provide air raid warning, and a new airfield was under construction at Ratmalana (79.886E 6.822N). An airstrip was also hastily constructed at the racecourse (79.864E 6.904N) and so well camoflauged that the Japanese never detected it.
42 Hurricanes
were based at the airfields when
war broke out.
Colombo was raided by 130 aircraft from Nagumo's carriers during the Japanese raid into the Indian Ocean, 5 April 1942. The British had sufficient warning that the harbor was largely cleared of merchant shipping, which meant that the brunt of the attack fell on the harbor facilities. However, the Japanese had sent a second force into the Bay of Bengal, which sunk 83,000 tons of shipping -- much of it shipping dispersed from Colombo.
Climate Information:
Elevation 24'
Temperatures: Jan 86/72, Apr 88/76, Jul 85/77, Oct 85/75, record 96/59
Rainfall: Jan 7/3.5, Apr 14/9.1, Jul 12/5.3, Oct 19/13.7 == 92.3" per annum
References
Richards and Saunders (1954; accessed 2012-9-10)
The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia © 2007, 2012 by Kent G. Budge. Index
