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(For more information and assistance for family history military research and travel to Sri Lanka please visit our sister Remembrance and Battlefield Travel site: Spirit of Remembrance )
Background:
After the outbreak of the Second World War, in the British Crown Colony of Ceylon (Sri Lanka), the government of Sir Baron Jayatilleke assured the British King and his government of its continued support. British soldiers and sailors had been in occupation of the coastal areas of the island since 1796. The Royal Navy's East Indies Squadron had a base in Colombo and another in Trincomalee, on the other side of the island. It had a regular garrison of British troops. The fixed land defences consisted of four coastal batteries at Colombo and five at Trincomalee. There was an aerodrome at Ratmalana near Colombo. Two more were rapidly built at Koggala near Galle and at China Bay near Trincomalee, and the Colombo Race Course was pressed into action as a temporary airstrip. There was however resistance to occupation, both against the Axis powers and against the colonial power, the British.
The forces were mobilised on 2 September, the day before Britain declared war on Germany. The CGA was equipped with six-inch (152 mm) and nine-inch (227 mm) guns. Several of them were posted to the Seychelles and the Cocos Islands, accompanied by contingents of the CLI and the Medical Corps.
As the war progressed, the CDF was expanded. The CLI was increased to four battalions. The Ceylon Royal Artillery (CRA), the Post and Telegraph Signals, the Ceylon Railway Engineer Corps, the Ceylon Electrical and Mechanical Engineer Corps, the Auxiliary Territorial Service, the Ceylon Corps of Military Police, and the Ceylon Signals Corps were formed. The Colombo Town Guard , which had been disbanded earlier, was re-established.
With Japan's entry into the war, and especially after the fall of Singapore, Sri Lanka became a front-line British base against the Japanese. Admiral Sir Geoffrey Layton was appointed Commander-in-Chief, Ceylon. Air Vice Marshal John D'Albaic became Air Officer Commanding. Admiral Sir James Somerville was appointed commander of the British Eastern Fleet. he retreated with his main fleet to Addu Atoll in the Maldives, leaving the Aircraft Carrier Hermes, escorted by the heavy cruisers Cornwall and Dorsetshire, and the Royal Australian Navy destroyer HMAS Vampire in Sri Lanka.
After the sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse and the fall of Singapore, British morale on the island dropped. The sinking of these two vast battleships was a shock to much of the world, and the dawning awareness of the superiority of aircraft carriers over destroyers increased dramatically. On Ceylon there understandably was much anxiety in the knowledge that a Japanese attack now appeared to be inevitable. A large sea turtle which came ashore was reported by an Australian unit as a number of Japanese amphibious vehicles. However, actual preparations for defence were incredibly lackadaisical, apart from the deployment of a Royal Air Force squadron at the Colombo race course. Anti-British sentiment increased accordingly within some portions of the indigenous population and their hopes ran high of liberation by the Japanese.
On 4 April 1942 the Japanese Navy fleet of Admiral Chuichi Nagumo was located by a Catalina aircraft flown by Sqn.Ldr. Leonard Birchall out of Koggala. However, when Nagumo launched his aircraft on an attack on Colombo on Easter Sunday, 5 April, so apparent complete surprise was achieved (the British radars were not operating because it was Sunday). The huge shock of the day was to the Japanese high command. They intended to catch the remnants of British Eastern Fleet at anchor in Ceylon where they normally were found. The Japanese had planned the bombing of the Eastern Fleet at their home base with meticulous care and precision in a manner almost exactly like the Pearl Harbor operation.
In fact many of the same bombers with the same pilots were used on 5th April 1942 as had been used on 7th December 1941. Most of the fleet was secretly at anchor in Addu Atoll maintaining a radio silence, so that when the Japanese arrived at Colombo there were only three ships at anchor instead of the much larger number they had anticipated. It was the continued existence of the remnants of the British Eastern Fleet (which contained some Dutch war ships as well) which prevented the Japanese from attempting a major troop landing in Ceylon. The continuing presence of the Eastern Fleet was the first Japanese disaster of the Second World War, completely scuppering their plans for invading both Ceylon and *India (*the real Japanese goal - above all others - in early 1942 was the conquest of both Ceylon and *India).
The Hawker Hurricanes of No 30 Squadron were on the ground at Ratmalana when the Japanese aircraft passed overhead. The auxiliary cruiser Hector and the old destroyer Tenedos were sunk in the harbour. The Japanese discovered the Cornwall and Dorsetshire 320 km (200 miles) southwest of Sri Lanka and sank them. The RAF and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) lost at least 27 aircraft, the Japanese only 5. The Japanese also bombed the lunatic asylum at Angoda, mistaking it for the fuel tanks at nearby Kolonnawa.
On 9 April 1942 the Japanese attacked the harbour at Trincomalee and the British ships off Batticaloa. Hermes, Vampire and the corvette Hollyhock were sunk. The Royal Australian Air Force lost at least 8 Hurricanes and the FAA one Fairey Fulmar. The Japanese lost 5 bombers and 6 fighters, one in a suicide attack on the Trincomalee fuel tanks. The sortie demonstrated Japanese superiority in carrier operations, but Somerville had the good luck not to be able to locate the Japanese fleet, so his own fast carriers Indomitable and Formidable were saved to fight another day. However, British prestige was brought even lower than it had been after the fall of Singapore.
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