422.Photograph. "File No: TR-9684 May 20, 1944 First Photos Show U. S. and British carriers combining forces to smash Jap East Indies Base. A combined task force of U. S. and British aircraft carriers, along with other Allied warships, struck a heavy blow at the Japanese base of Sabang in northern Sumatra on April 19, 1944. First major blow struck by the British Eastern Naval forces in the Indian Ocean since the fall of Singapore, the raid left the enemy stronghold in the Netherlands Indies burning, with drydocks, power stations, wharves, barracks, hangars, and the radio station aflame from direct bomb hits. Four enemy ships were sunk or damaged and more than 25 Jap planes were destroyed at a cost of one plane shot down of which the pilot was saved in a daring rescue by an Allied submarine. Though the preponderance of shipping was British, 80 percent of the air armada of the task force was American. These Official U. S. Navy photographs narrate in pictures some of the sidelights of the historic raid. High ranking U. S. and British Naval officers, junior officer, war correspondents, and U. S. Navy enlisted men stand on the captain's bridge of an American carrier as the ship meets its British 'opposite number' warship (center, background) at a specified rendezvous area at sea. From this point the two carrier, along with other warships in the task force, proceeded to raid Jap-held Sabang in northern Sumatra on April 19, 1944." 20 May 1944