China Bay Trincomalee Airport

RAF Station China Bay was established in March 1942 by the Royal Air Force near Trincomalee, Sri Lanka (then Ceylon). It served as an important Allied air base during World War II.

On 9 April 1942, the airfield was bombed by the Japanese during a major attack on Ceylon (the so-called Indian Ocean Raid).

In the first half of 1944, the airfield was upgraded to accommodate the heavy American Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers.

In August 1944, it was used as a staging base for Operation Boomerang, an unsuccessful American air raid on oil refineries in Palembang, in what was then the Dutch East Indies.

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Source

• Text: TracesOfWar
• Photos: Imperial War Museums