Bias Bay becomes a live combined-operations rehearsal

Although authorities used a prearranged response plan, the Bias Bay raid became an unplanned live exercise in amphibious warfare. Sailors and marines landed while cruisers and other ships provided fire support and the Hong Kong police supplied a civil-force element. Aircraft from Hermes and Argus, identified as Fairey Flycatchers and Fairey IIIFs, performed reconnaissance and limited support. Because the pirates had fled, the aircraft faced neither enemy aircraft nor anti-aircraft fire, so the event did not test the full air-combat problem. It still exercised rapid command, naval gunfire, aviation coordination, and combined-force procedures later familiar from the Second World War.