After the outbreak of theSecond World War, in theBritish Crown Colony of Ceylon (modern-daySri Lanka), the government of SirDon Baron Jayatilaka assured the British King and his government of its continued support.
The British had occupied the coastal areas of the island since 1796, but after 1917 the colony had no regular garrison of British troops. TheCeylon Defence Force andCeylon Navy Volunteer Reserve were mobilised and expanded. TheRoyal Navy maintained naval installations inTrincomalee and theRoyal Air Force (RAF) had established an aerodrome inChina Bay, Trincomalee long before the war.
After thefall of Singapore the Royal Navy'sEast Indies Station was moved toColombo and then to Trincomalee.AdmiralSirGeoffrey Layton was appointed Commander-in-Chief, Ceylon withAir Vice MarshalJohn D'Albiac Air Officer Commanding and AdmiralSir James Somerville appointed commander of theBritish Eastern Fleet.
The army headquarters were established at theColombo Museum building, while the Fighter Operations Room was setup atBishop's College, Colombo. Naval headquarters was moved to HMS Lanka and its operations room took form in an underground center and Admiral Layton established his headquarters at theSecretariat. Admiral Somerville took over the house of the King's Harbour Master adjoining the Victoria Arcade Navy officer's mess.[1]
The fixed land defences consisted of fourcoastal batteries at Colombo and five at Trincomalee; these were established prior to the war. Air defences were expanded starting in 1941 with the RAF occupying the civil airfield atRatmalana near Colombo with its station headquarters set up at Kandawala. Another airfield was rapidly built atKoggala nearGalle and several temporary airstrips were built across the country, with the largest atColombo Racecourse Airstrip. Several RAF Squadrons were sent to Ceylon. Several Commonwealth units were also stationed in Ceylon for the duration of the war.
As with other British Colonies,conscription was not implemented in Ceylon. However, Ceylonese were encouraged to volunteer for service. Many volunteered throughout the war, most joining theCeylon Defence Force, which was expanded from a reserve unit to a mobilised force of 10 infantry battalions, 3 artillery regiments and support units. For the first time, Ceylonese units were deployed outside Ceylon in formation until theCocos Islands Mutiny after which deployment overseas of Ceylonese units was stopped with a few exceptions.
Ceylonese continued to volunteer and joined theBritish Army,RAF and theRoyal Navy. They were supplemented by personnel of the Ceylon Defence Force who requested transfer to front line units of theBritish Army. They served in theBurma and later inMalaya. Ceylonese served in theRoyal Engineers inItaly and with theRoyal Army Service Corps in theMiddle East andNorth Africa. The 1st battalion, the Ceylon Corps of Military Police, served in Malaya till 1949.[2]
Several of those who served with Commonwealth Forces during the war went on to serve in the Sri Lankan Armed Forces after Ceylon gained independence in 1948; these includeGeneralD. S. Attygalle,Major GeneralAnton Muttukumaru,Major GeneralBertram Heyn,Major GeneralRichard Udugama,Major GeneralH.W.G. Wijeyekoon andAir Vice Marshal Edward Amerasakera.
TheCeylon Navy Volunteer Reserve was taken over by the Royal Navy. Cutting its teeth on the Port Commission TugsSamson andGoliath, it later manned and operated trawlers and Antarctic whalers converted as Minesweepers and fitted out with guns, submarine detection equipment and anti-submarine weaponry. They were H.M. ShipsOverdala Wyike (the first ship to be purchased by the Government of Ceylon),Okapi,Semla,Sambhur,Hoxa,Balta and H.M TugsBarnet andC405. In addition it manned several Motor Fishing Vessels (MFV) and miscellaneous auxiliary vessels. All were manned exclusively by CRNVR personnel. These ships were meant to sweep and guard the approaches the harbours but were also often used on extended missions outside Ceylon waters. In the course of these operations, the ships came under enemy fire, recovered essential information from Japanese aircraft shot down, sailed to Akyab after the Burma front was opened in two FMVs for harbour duties, and was called upon to accept the surrender of theItalian colonial shipEritrea and escort her to port with a prize crew on board.
Thesinking of the battleshipHMS Prince of Wales and the battlecruiserHMS Repulse, and the subsequentfall of Singapore, punctured forever the myth of British invincibility. Against this backdrop, and on the agitation of theTrotskyist-inspiredLanka Sama Samaja Party, soldiers of the garrison on Horsburgh Island in theCocos Islands mutinied on the night, intending to hand the islands over to the Japanese. The mutiny was suppressed within an hour, however, and three of the mutineers were later executed — the only British Commonwealth soldiers to be executed for mutiny during the Second World War.[3]
Following the mutiny the use of Ceylonese combat troops was discontinued by the British, although a number of supply and transport units were used in the rear areas in the Middle East. The defences of Ceylon were reinforced by the7th Australian Division and elements of the1st (African) Division because of the island's strategic importance, holding almost all the British Empire's resources of rubber.
TheEaster Sunday Raid was the air raid carried out byJapan on Easter Sunday (5 April) 1942 on Colombo; a few days later Trincomalee was also attacked.
Although the military effect of the raids was substantial - it resulted in the sinking of several ships including two cruisers and an aircraft carrier, the effect on the Ceylonese population was far greater as it had heard of theNanjing Massacres and of the act of brutality of the Japanese in occupied countries. The civilian population began a panicked fleeing of Colombo and of Ceylon by boat to India following the raid.[4]
There was some opposition to the war in Ceylon, particularly among the workers and thenationalists (such as theCeylon National Congress), encouraged by theTrotskyistLanka Sama Samaja Party (or "Samasamajists"), which supported the independence movement and led the anti-war movement, made it clear that it did not side with either the Axis powers or theAllies and considered the war aninternationalist one. In 1940, the LSSP was banned; in response, the LSSP supported the pro-Japanese unrest in Cocos Islands.[5]
TheCommunist Party of Ceylon too supported the anti-war movement as they saw it also as a war of imperialists, but in 1941 when Germany attacked the Soviet Union they joined the war movement in support of the British calling it a people's war. But much of the populace dreaded aJapanese victory.
Among Buddhists, there was anger that Buddhist monks of German origin were interned as 'enemy aliens' whereas German andItalianRoman Catholic priests were not. Two young members of the Governing Party,Junius Jayawardene (who later became President) andDudley Senanayake (later the third Prime Minister), held discussions with the Japanese with a view to collaboration to oust the British. These discussions did not go further since the much olderD. S. Senanayake (later the first Prime Minister) stopped them.
Independence agitators turned to opposition to the Ministers' support for the British war effort. The local Ministers brought motions gifting the Ceylonese taxpayers' money to the British war effort, which were opposed by the pro-independence members of theState Council. Propaganda was carried out among the troops,Australian and British as well as indigenous with little effect.
Starting in November 1939 and during the first half of 1940 there was a wave of spontaneous strikes on the British-owned plantations, basically aimed at winning the right of organisation. There were two main plantation unions,Natesa Iyer's Ceylon Indian Congress and the All-Ceylon Estate Workers Union (later theLanka Estate Workers Union, LEWU) led by Samasamajists. In the Central Province the strike wave reached the zenith on the Mool Oya Estate strike, which was led by Samasamajists. After Mool Oya, the strike wave spread southward towardsUva, the strikes became more prolonged and the workers began to seek the militant leadership of the Samasamajists more and more. The Trotskyist leaderN. M. Perera addressed a large meeting in Badulla on 12 May, and the police were powerless to act, although it was banned. At Wewessa Estate the workers set up an elected council and the Superintendent agreed to act in consultation with theWorkers' Council. An armedpolice party that went to restore 'law and order' was disarmed by the workers. The strike wave at last was beaten back by a wave of terror by the police, aided by floods which cut Uva off from the rest of the country for over a week.
However, the colonial authorities were finding that the independence struggle was becoming too powerful. AfterDunkirk, the British colonial authorities reacted in panic (as revealed in secret files released decades later) and the LSSP State Council members N. M. Perera andPhilip Gunawardena and others were arrested on 18 June. The Samasamajist press was raided and sealed. Regulations were promulgated which made open party work practically impossible.
Public opposition to British colonial rule continued to grow. Among the elite there was irritation at the colour-bar practised by the leading clubs. SirOliver Ernest Goonetilleke, the Civil Defence Commissioner complained that the British commander of Ceylon, Admiral Layton called him a 'black bastard'.
Ceylonese in Japanese occupied Singapore and Malaya formed the 'Lanka Regiment' of the so calledIndian National Army which had been established by Nazi Germany, directly under NetajiSubhas Chandra Bose. A plan was made to transport them to Ceylon by submarine, to begin the independence struggle, but this was abortive.
The LSSP leaders were able to escape, with the help of one of their guards. Several of them fled to India, where they participated in the struggle there, underscoring what had been established before the war, that India's and Ceylon's independence struggles were interlinked. However, a sizable contingent remained, led byRobert Gunawardena, Philip's brother.
