 Part of the Eastern Fleet left Trincomalee and Colombo on 21 March and arrived at a point some 850 miles south of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).They rendezvoused, on 24 March, with three tankers escorted by the Dutch cruiser and practised refuelling at sea for the next two days.Later, on 27 March, they met up with the US Task Group 58.5 which consisted of the aircraft carrier and her three attendant destroyers (, , and ).