East Indies Fleet

The Eastern Fleet, later called the East Indies Fleet, was a fleet of the Royal Navy which existed between 1941 and 1952.
In 1904, the British First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir John Fisher, ordered that in the event of war the three main commands in the Far East, the East Indies Squadron, the China Station, and the Australian Squadron, should all come under one command called the Eastern Fleet based in Singapore. The Commander-in-Chief, China would then take command. During the First World War, the squadrons retained their distinct identities and 'Eastern Fleet' was used only as a general term. The three-squadron structure continued until the Second World War and the beginning of hostilities with the Empire of Japan, when the Eastern Fleet was formally constituted on 8 December 1941, amalgamating the East Indies Squadron and the China Squadron.
During the war, it included many ships and personnel from other navies, including those of the Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. On 22 November 1944 the Eastern Fleet was re-designated East Indies fleet and continued to be based in Trincomalee. Following its re-designation its remaining ships formed the British Pacific Fleet. In December 1945 the British Pacific Fleet was disbanded and its forces were absorbed into the East Indies fleet. In 1952 the East Indies Fleet was renamed the Far East Fleet.

Background

Until the Second World War, the Indian Ocean had been a British "lake". It was ringed by significant British and Commonwealth possessions and much of the strategic supplies needed in peace and war had to pass across it: i.e. Persian oil, Malayan rubber, Indian tea, Australian and New Zealand foodstuffs. Britain also used Australian and New Zealand manpower; hence, safe passage for British cargo ships was critical.
At the outbreak of war, Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine used auxiliary cruisers and the "pocket battleship" to threaten the sea lanes and tie down the Royal Navy. In mid-1940, Italy declared war and their vessels based in Italian East Africa posed a threat to the supply routes through the Red Sea. Worse was to come when the Japanese declared war in December 1941 and, after Pearl Harbor, the sinking by air attack of the battleship and battlecruiser, and the occupation of Malaya, Singapore and the Dutch East Indies, there was an aggressive threat from the east.
This threat became a reality during the Indian Ocean raid when an overwhelming Japanese naval force operated in the eastern Indian Ocean, sinking an aircraft carrier and other warships, and disrupting freight traffic along the Indian east coast. At this stage, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, General Sir Alan Brooke wrote of the situation in 14 April 1942:

We were at the time literally hanging on by our eye-lids! Australia and India were threatened by the Japanese, we had temporarily lost control of the Indian Ocean, the Germans were threatening Iran and our oil, Auchinleck was in precarious straits in the desert, and the submarine sinkings were heavy.

Early war years

Until 1941, the main threat to British interests in the region was the presence of German commerce raiders and submarines. The fleet had trade protection as its first priority and was required to escort convoys and eliminate the raiders. The Germans had converted merchant ships to act as commerce raiders and allocated supply ships to maintain them. The location and destruction of these German raiders consumed much British naval effort until the last raider – Michel – was sunk in October 1943.
On 10 June 1940, the entry of Italy into the war introduced a new threat to the oil supply routes from the Persian Gulf, which passed through the Red Sea to the Mediterranean. The Italians controlled ports in Italian East Africa and Tianjin, China. The Italian Royal Navy presence in the Red Sea, Indian Ocean, and the western Pacific Ocean consisted of destroyers, submarines, and a small number of armed merchantmen. The majority of these were based at Massawa in Eritrea as part of the Italian Red Sea Flotilla, including seven destroyers and eight submarines. Damage to British destroyers at this time included which was crippled by Italian shore batteries.
The Italian naval forces in East Africa were caught in a vice. To put to sea invited heavy British reaction, while to stay in ports threatened by British and Commonwealth forces became impossible. In 1941, during the East African Campaign, these ports were captured by the British.

Singapore

Before the fall of Singapore, the Eastern Fleet's naval base at Singapore was part of the British Far East Command. British defence planning in the area was based on two assumptions. The first was that the United States would remain as an effective ally in the western Pacific Ocean, with a fleet based at Manila, which would be available as a forward base for British warships. Secondly, the technical capabilities and aggression of the Imperial Japanese Navy were underestimated. In these circumstances, with the Japanese fleet engaged by the United States Navy, the Admiralty planned to send four Revenge-class battleships to Singapore to provide defensive firepower and a British presence. The British assumptions were destroyed on 7 December 1941: the impact of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor denied substantial USN support to the British defence of the "Malay barrier" and made impossible the relief of American garrisons in the Philippines. Furthermore, Japanese capabilities exceeded expectations.
After the fall of France in June 1940, Japanese pressure on the Vichy authorities in French Indochina resulted in the granting of base and transit rights, albeit with significant restrictions. Despite this, in September 1940, the Japanese launched an invasion of that country. The bases thus acquired in Indochina allowed extended Japanese air cover of the invasion forces bound for Malaya and for the Dutch East Indies. In these circumstances, Prince of Wales and Repulse, which were dispatched to intercept the invasion force, were vulnerable to concerted air attacks from the Japanese bases in Indochina and, without their own air cover, they were sunk in December 1941.
After the sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse, Admiral Sir Geoffrey Layton assumed command of the Eastern Fleet. The fleet withdrew first to Java and, following the fall of Singapore, to Trincomalee, Ceylon.

Indian Ocean retreat

writes in the War at Sea, Vol. II that:

Admiral Somerville arrived at Colombo on the 26th of , and he then took over command of the Eastern Fleet from Admiral Layton. His fleet consisted of the two large carriers Indomitable and Formidable, the small carrier, the battleships Warspite, Resolution, Ramillies, Royal Sovereign and Revenge, two heavy and five light cruisers, sixteen destroyers and seven submarines.

On 31 March Somerville decided to divide the Fleet into two: Force A and Force B. Force A consisted of the battleship, the aircraft carriers, and, and three cruisers. Force B was based around the slow Revenge-class battleships of the 3rd Battle Squadron, under Vice-Admiral Algernon Willis. Neither individually nor together could the two Eastern Fleet forces challenge a determined Japanese naval assault.
When Admiral Somerville inspected the base at Trincomalee, its deficiencies were clear to him. He found the port inadequate, vulnerable to a determined attack, and open to spying. An isolated island base with a safe, deep anchorage in a suitably strategic position was required. Addu Atoll, southernmost of the Maldives in the Indian Ocean, 600 miles southwest of Ceylon, met the requirements and it was secretly developed as a fleet anchorage.
Following the Japanese capture of the Andaman Islands, the main elements of the Fleet retreated to Addu Atoll. On 7 April Somerville was given discretion by the Admiralty to send the slow Revenge-class battleships of Force B all the way back to Kilindini in East Africa, relatively safe from Japanese attack. The Indian Ocean raid by Chuichi Nagumo cost the Fleet the carrier Hermes, the cruisers and, the Australian destroyer, and two tankers. Beyond the withdrawal of Force B, the Admiralty warned that Colombo could not be used for the present. Somerville kept Force A in Indian waters "to be ready to deal with any attempt by the enemy to command those waters with light forces only."
Later, the fleet in the Indian Ocean was then gradually reduced to little more than a convoy escort force as other commitments called for the more modern, powerful ships. In May 1942, the Eastern Fleet supported the invasion of Madagascar, Operation Ironclad. It was aimed at thwarting any attempt by Japanese vessels to use naval bases on the Vichy French controlled territory. During the invasion, vessels of the Eastern Fleet were confronted by vessels of the French Navy and submarines of the Imperial Japanese Navy.
File:Admiral Sir James Somerville, Commander-in-Chief Eastern Fleet, inspecting Wrens in Colombo, Ceylon, 17 July 1944. A24959.jpg|thumb|Admiral Sir James Somerville, Commander-in-Chief Eastern Fleet, in Colombo, British Ceylon, 17 July 1944
From October 1943, the Eastern Fleet was the maritime component of South East Asia Command, including responsibilities beyond the SEAC area. The fleet reached full operational strength again by 1944. On 22 November 1944 the Eastern Fleet was split into the British Pacific Fleet, receiving the majority of the ships, and the remnant, which became known as the East Indies Fleet.
Apart from the Eastern Fleet battle forces, it also included a submarine force, to hinder Japan from using sea lanes between Burma and Singapore; and a large supporting escort force, responsible for protecting convoy roues between Suez and India, and between the Cape of Good Hope and India.
The Eastern Fleet included, from time to time, as well as British warships, a number of warships from the British Dominions of Australia and New Zealand as well as other Allied nations, such as the French battleship Richelieu, other ships from the Free French Naval Forces, the Netherlands, and the United States.