Operation Boomerang

Operation Boomerang
Part of the Pacific War, World War II
A XX Bomber Command B-29 Superfortress taking off from an airfield in India during June 1944
Date 10/11 August 1944 Location Palembang, Dutch East Indies 2°59′10″S 104°45′20″E / 2.98611°S 104.75556°E / -2.98611; 104.75556 Result Partial Allied success
Belligerents
United States  United Kingdom	Japan
Units involved
XX Bomber Command Eastern Fleet	Palembang Defense Unit
Strength
54 aircraft dispatched 39 reached Palembang	Anti-aircraft guns Fighter aircraft
Casualties and losses
1 aircraft 1 killed	1 building destroyed 3 ships sunk 4 ships damaged

Operation Boomerang was a partially successful air raid by the United States Army Air Forces' (USAAF) XX Bomber Command against oil refining facilities in Japanese-occupied Dutch East Indies during World War II. The attack took place on the night of 10/11 August 1944 and involved attempts to bomb an oil refinery at Palembang and lay mines to interdict the Musi River.

The raid formed part of a series of attacks on Japanese-occupied cities in South East Asia that XX Bomber Command conducted as an adjunct to its primary mission of bombing Japan. The command raided the Japanese city of Nagasaki on the same night as Operation Boomerang.

Fifty-four Boeing B-29 Superfortress heavy bombers were dispatched from an airfield in British Ceylon on 10 August, of which 39 reached the Palembang area. Attempts to bomb the oil refinery were largely unsuccessful, only a single building being confirmed destroyed. Mines dropped in the river connecting Palembang to the sea sank three ships and damaged four others. British air and naval forces provided search-and-rescue support for the American bombers. The Japanese antiaircraft guns and fighter aircraft assigned to defend Palembang failed to destroy any of the American bombers, but one B-29 ditched when it ran out of fuel. This was the only USAAF raid on the strategically important oil facilities at Palembang. The oil facilities were attacked by aircraft operating from British aircraft carriers in January 1945.