Indian Ocean Raid; are there any books specifically about it ?

by vali1005

Hello!

I would like to know if there are any books ( of the narrative history kind ) with the main subject being the Indian Ocean Raid.

I did a bit of research and I found two books, but they don't seem to be written from the action point-of-view.

  1. "The Royal Navy in Eastern Waters: Linchpin of Victory 1935-1942", some of the Amazon comments for this emphasize that it is not a narrative history book
  2. "Most Dangerous Moment: Japanese Assault on Ceylon, 1942" , only 2 comments for this, one of them being "I was expecting more insight on the raid by the Japanese navy but I read nothing I hadn't already seen from other accounts on this action " ( may still buy it, if there is nothing else out there )

Other than that, doesn't seem like the Indian Ocean Raid was considered eventful enough to have more books written about it.

thefourthmaninaboat

Books specifically on the Indian Ocean Raid are somewhat few and far between, as you note. John Clancy's The Most Dangerous Moment of the War: Japan's Attack on the Indian Ocean, 1942 is a decent overview of the topic. It's on the shorter side, but it's a reasonably thorough presentation of events (and about the only modern one you'll find). That said, it is more a work of popular history than academic history. I'd also recommend Boyd's The Royal Navy in Eastern Waters. While much of the book is concerned with British strategy in the Far East, the final chapter is solely concerned with the Indian Ocean Raid. It provides a detailed narrative of Eastern Fleet's actions, and studies Somerville's thinking in-depth. Beyond these, you'll have to turn to more general histories of the Royal Navy during WWII or of the war against Japan.