The Bathurst-class corvettes were a class of general purpose vessels designed and built in Australia during World War II. Originally classified as minesweepers, but widely referred to as corvettes, the Bathurst-class vessels fulfilled a broad anti-submarine, anti-mine, and convoy escort role.
During the Second World War (1939–1945), India was a part of the British Empire. British India officially declared war on Nazi Germany in September 1939. India, as a part of the Allied Nations, sent over two and a half million soldiers to fight under British command against the Axis powers. India was also used as the base for American operations in support of China in the China Burma India Theater.
Commerce raiding is a form of naval warfare used to destroy or disrupt logistics of the enemy on the open sea by attacking its merchant shipping, rather than engaging its combatants or enforcing a blockade against them.
The Royal Indian Navy (RIN) was the naval force of British India and the Dominion of India. Along with the Presidency armies, later the Indian Army, and from 1932 the Royal Indian Air Force, it was one of the Armed Forces of British India.
Maritime powers in the Indian subcontinent have possessed navies for many centuries. Indian dynasties such as the Chola Empire used naval power to extend their influence overseas, particularly to Southeast Asia. The Marakkar Navy under Zamorins during 15th century and the Maratha Navy of the Maratha Empire during the 19th and 18th centuries fought with rival Indian powers and European powers. The East India Company organised its own private navy, which came to be known as the Bombay Marine. With the establishment of the British Raj after the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the small navy was transformed into "His Majesty's Indian Navy", then "Her Majesty's Indian Marine", and finally the "Royal Indian Marine".
The Battle of Christmas Island was a small engagement which began on 31 March 1942, during World War II. Assisted by a mutiny of soldiers of the British Indian Army against their British officers, Imperial Japanese Army troops were able to occupy Christmas Island without any land-based resistance. The United States Navy submarine Seawolf caused severe damage to the Imperial Japanese Navy cruiser Naka during the landings.
The Japanese raiders in the Indian Ocean were those vessels used by the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during the Second World War to pursue its war on Allied commerce in that theatre. Possessing a powerful fleet of warships, prior to the start of World War II, the IJN had strategically planned to fight a war of fleet actions, and as a consequence delegated few resources to raiding merchant vessels. Nevertheless, in 1940, two passenger-cargo vessels – Aikoku Maru and Hōkoku Maru – of the Osaka Shipping Line were requisitioned for conversion to armed merchant cruisers (AMC)s, in anticipation of the likely thrust southward by the Japanese. These vessels were subsequently used as merchant raiders attacking Allied commercial shipping along vital sea lanes of communication between Australia and the Middle East. Using their comprehensive armament and speed to their advantage, the raiders experienced a brief period of success. Japanese raiding in the Indian Ocean largely ceased by the end of 1942 after an action with a Dutch vessel, the Ondina and a Royal Indian Navy corvette, HMIS Bengal in which the Hōkoku Maru was sunk.
Tamotsu Oishi was a career officer in the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II.
The Nakajima A6M2-N was a single-crew floatplane based on the Mitsubishi A6M Zero Model 11. The Allied reporting name for the aircraft was Rufe.
Prior to World War II, the Indian Ocean was an important maritime trade route between European nations and their colonial territories in East Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, British India, Indochina, the East Indies (Indonesia), and Australia for a long time. Naval presence was dominated by the Royal Navy Eastern Fleet and the Royal Australian Navy as World War II began, with a major portion of the Royal Netherlands Navy operating in the Dutch East Indies and the Red Sea Flotilla of the Italian Regia Marina operating from Massawa.
The Hōkoku Maru-class ocean liner was a class of ocean liners of Japan, serving during 1940 and World War II.
HMIS Sutlej (U95) was a modified Bittern-class sloop, later known as the Black Swan class, which served in the Royal Indian Navy (RIN) during World War II.
HMIS Carnatic (J182) was a Bangor-class minesweeper built for the Royal Navy, but transferred to the Royal Indian Navy (RIN) during the Second World War.
HMIS Hindustan (L80) was a Folkestone-class sloop which served in the Royal Indian Navy (RIN) during World War II. Her pennant number was changed to U80 in 1940.
Aikoku Maru (愛国丸) was an armed merchant cruiser of the Imperial Japanese Navy in World War II. The ship entered service in 1940, the ship was later converted to an ammunition ship. She was sunk in February 1944 during Operation Hailstone.
The 8th Submarine Squadron of the Imperial Japanese Navy was based at Swettenham Pier, Penang, Malaya, until late 1944 during World War II. Its mission was to disrupt Allied supply lines in aid of Nazi Germany.
MV Ondina was an oil tanker built in 1939 and owned by Royal Dutch Shell; initially operated by the La Corona shipping company. In November 1942, during the Second World War, it was attacked in the Indian Ocean by two Japanese commerce raiders, one of which was sunk possibly by a shell fired by the Ondina. After the war it continued operating until decommissioned and broken up in 1959.
Hōkoku Maru (報國丸) was an Hōkoku Maru-class ocean liner that served as an armed merchant cruiser in the Second World War. She was launched in 1939 and completed in 1940 for Osaka Shosen Lines.
Operation Stab was a British naval deception during the Second World War to distract Japanese units for the forthcoming Guadalcanal campaign by the US armed forces.
India
