The fall of this, the fulcrum point of the Indian Ocean’s shipping lanes, would sever trade routes with Australia and New Zealand. On March 8, 1942, the First Sea Lord informed Prime Minister Winston Churchill that he regarded Ceylon to be Japan’s next target.Īdmiral Pound warned its loss would ‘undermine our whole strategic position in the Middle as well as the Far East'
Their calculations proved almost correct. The Admiralty estimated it had just six weeks to assemble a viable defensive force for the strategic Indian Ocean island of Ceylon. Worst-case estimates projected that the Middle and Near East, the Caucasus, India and all of South East Asia would be under Axis control by September.Īll that stood in their way was the British Eastern Fleet.įour days after Singapore capitulated, the Port of Darwin in northern Australia was smashed. That the Axis would merge at some point between India and the Middle East appeared almost inevitable.
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