Operation Lentil
Operation Lentil was a British carrier-aircraft raid on oil installations at Pangkalan Brandan, Sumatra, on 4 January 1945.
Fleet Air Arm: The aviation branch of the British Royal Navy, responsible for operating naval aircraft. Its carrier aircraft carried out the attack on Pangkalan Brandan.
Pacific War: The war fought by Japan and the Allies across the Pacific and East Asia from 1941 to 1945. Lentil took place during the final year of this wider conflict.
Operation Meridian: British carrier strikes against Japanese oil refineries at Palembang, Sumatra, in January 1945. Meridian followed Lentil and attacked another major oil center on Sumatra.
Strategic bombing during World War II: Air attacks intended to weaken an enemy’s capacity to wage war by striking industry, infrastructure, or population centers. Lentil aimed to reduce the usefulness of Japanese-held oil infrastructure.
Aircraft carrier: A warship equipped with a flight deck for launching and recovering aircraft at sea. Carriers supplied the mobile airfields from which Lentil’s aircraft operated.
Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies: Japan's wartime rule over the Dutch East Indies from 1942 until its 1945 surrender. Japanese control made the region’s oil infrastructure a target for Allied attacks.
Pangkalan Brandan oil refinery: An oil-processing facility at Pangkalan Brandan in northern Sumatra. The refinery was among the industrial facilities attacked during Lentil.
Oil warfare: Military action directed at the production, storage, transport, or supply of petroleum. The raid targeted oil facilities as part of a wider struggle over fuel resources.
Pangkalan Brandan: A town in North Sumatra, Indonesia, associated with a major oil field and refinery. Its oil facilities were the raid’s target.
Operation Robson: A British carrier-aircraft raid on Japanese-held oil installations at Pangkalan Brandan in December 1944. Robson was an earlier strike against the same oil complex.