Operation Robson

Operation Robson
Part of the Pacific Theatre of World War II
Date 20 December 1944 Location Sumatra, Netherlands East Indies Result Limited Allied operational success
Belligerents
United Kingdom	Japan
Commanders and leaders
Philip Vian	Unknown
Strength
60 planes 2 aircraft carriers 3 cruisers 7 destroyers 1 oiler	Anti air defences
Casualties and losses
1 torpedo bomber	1 bomber Facilities damaged

Operation Robson (20 December 1944) was the first of a series of aerial operations, Operation Outflank, undertaken by the British Pacific Fleet (BPF) against the oil refineries of Japanese-occupied Sumatra during World War II. Admiral Chester Nimitz, Commander in Chief, Pacific Ocean Areas, proposed a strike on the refineries to Admiral Bruce Fraser, commander of the BPF, during a meeting in early December.

The primary target of Operation Robson was the refinery at Pangkalan Brandan. It had been fired by fleeing American and Dutch personnel during the invasion of the Dutch East Indies in 1942, but the Japanese had repaired it by the year's end. Refined product was piped from there to the port of Pangkalan Susu eight miles away and to the more distant deep-water port of Belawan Deli, the secondary target. Pangkalan Soesoe had tanks capable of holding thirty million gallons.^[1]