The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia
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The Bay of Bengal is a large, deep extension of the Indian Ocean located east of India and west of Burma. It is crossed by important ocean lanes from Calcutta down the east coast of India and to Rangoon and Singapore.
Though rare, tropical cyclones occasionally form in the Bay of Bengal and head north. When these make landfall on the low, densely populated delta of the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers, catastrophic flooding is very likely, with enormous death tolls.
The Japanese conducted a sweep of the Bay of Bengal during the Indian Ocean raid of March-April 1942. The raiding force was commanded by Ozawa Jisaburo and consisted of Ryujo, six cruisers, and four destroyers supported by a force of five submarines. There was no meaningful opposition and Ozawa's force sunk 23 merchant ships.
Thereafter Axis
incursions into the Bay of Bengal were limited to air and submarine operations along the
Indian coast, where Allied
shipping to Calcutta continued.
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