Operation Boomerang
Operation Boomerang was a partially successful air raid by the United States Army Air Forces’ XX Bomber Command against oil refining facilities in Japanese-occupied Dutch East Indies. The attack took place on the night of 1011 August 1944 and involved attempts to bomb an oil refinery at Palembang and lay mines to interdict the Musi River. The Japanese antiaircraft guns and fighter aircraft assigned to defend the oil refineries failed to destroy any of the U.S. bombers, but one ditched when it ran out of fuel. The raid formed part of a series of attacks on Japanese- occupied cities in South East Asia that XX Bomber command conducted as an adjunct to its primary mission of bombing Japan.
About Operation Boomerang in brief
Operation Boomerang was a partially successful air raid by the United States Army Air Forces’ XX Bomber Command against oil refining facilities in Japanese-occupied Dutch East Indies during World War II. The attack took place on the night of 1011 August 1944 and involved attempts to bomb an oil refinery at Palembang and lay mines to interdict the Musi River. Fifty-four B-29 Superfortress heavy bombers were dispatched from an airfield in British Ceylon on 10 August. Attempts to bomb the oil refinery were largely unsuccessful, only a single building being confirmed destroyed. British air and naval forces provided search-and-rescue support for the American bombers. The Japanese antiaircraft guns and fighter aircraft assigned to defend the oil refineries failed to destroy any of the U.S. bombers, but one ditched when it ran out of fuel. The raid formed part of a series of attacks on Japanese- occupied cities in South East Asia that XX Bomber command conducted as an adjunct to its primary mission of bombing Japan. The command raided the Japanese city of Nagasaki on the same night as Operation Boomersang. This was the only USAAF raid on the strategically important oil facilities at PalEmbang, but they were attacked by aircraft operating from British aircraft carriers in January 1945. At the time of the Pacific War, the Sumatran city was a major oil production center. The city was the source of 22 percent of Japan’s fuel oil for ships and industrial facilities, and 78 percent of its aviation gasoline.
In early 1944, Allied intelligence estimated that the Pladjoe refinery atPalembang was the sources of 78 per cent of Japan’s fuel oil. The USAAF’s first attack on Japan’s home islands and East Asia was made against Yawata on 1516 June, made against Japan. In April 1944, it became apparent that both could not be completed in time. It was decided to concentrate on China Bay and so it would not be possible to follow-up raids until the end of the year. The final plan for Operation Matterhorn approved by the Joint Chiefs of Staff in April specified that while XX bomber Command would focus on Japan, it was to also attack Palembangs. These raids were to be staged through airfields in British Ceylon. In March 1944, work began to modify four airfields on Ceylon to support the planned raids on Pal Embang. In June 1944, the two airfields were scheduled to be ready by July. The first attack was conducted on 20 July 1944, against Bangkok, on 5 June 1944. During this operation, two B- 29s ran out of fuel over the Bay of Bengal during the return flight to India and were forced to ditch. During the first attack, XX Bomber Command conducted its first combat mission, against Bangkok, on 5 June 44. The main element of this strategy was to construct airstrips near Chengdu in inland China which would be used to refuel B- 1929s traveling from bases in Bengal en route to targets in Japan.
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This page is based on the article Operation Boomerang published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 04, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
