When air battles shattered an Easter Sunday’s peace
View(s):1942 Japanese air raid over Colombo
By D.L.Sirimanne
In the late 1930s, going back in time almost 70 years, Ceylon was a British colony. People were generally satisfied with the way of life though there was talk of self-government. I was happy having a good job as a stenographer at Carson & Co., Ltd., the most prestigious tea firm with its offices on the fourth floor of Chartered Bank Building. The company had a Shipping Department, a Tea Department, Estates Department, Insurance Department and an Import Department. We were paid well and got annual bonuses for Christmas. Our medical bills too were settled by the company.
Squadron Leader Leonard Birchall who spotted a flotilla of Japanese aircraft carriers heading towards Ceylon
All Government and mercantile establishments were in the Fort, and the mercantile sector was run by the British companies such as Keel & Waldock, E. John & Co., Aitken Spence., George Steuarts etc. and banks such as Chartered Bank, Grindlays Bank, Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corp., and the State Bank of India.
Cargills, Apothecaries, Millers etc. were also managed by the British and there were a few Indian merchants down York Street. The impressive State Council building was there overlooking the Galle Face with the Treasury at the rear. Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, Burghers, Borahs and Indians all lived in peace with each other. Temples, churches, mosques, and kovils were situated almost side by side with no religious problems.
The peace was shattered in 1939 when Nazi Germany invaded Poland and quickly rolled westwards conquering several European states. Finally England declared war on Germany. France, England’s closest ally, fell to the Nazi war machine. London was heavily bombed every night and the British and Allied forces too were fighting on the mainland and bombing the Nazi occupied regions. Here in Ceylon Australian and New Zealand soldiers were trans-shipped through Colombo to Europe to fight the Germans.
Businesses and mercantile shipping almost came to a standstill. Ships carrying tea, rubber and other produce were sunk by German submarines in the Atlantic and Indian Ocean. Ceylon was placed on a war footing. Most of the European mercantile managers, even those on estates left for England leaving just one or two staff to carry on the business.
Oliver Goonetilleke, who was later knighted, was appointed Civil Defence Commissioner. He helped the British to organise Colombo’s defence with Air Raid Wardens. Every building in the Fort and suburbs had an air raid shelter, and these were run with staff from each office building. I was the Air Raid Warden at Carson’s and we were supplied with white uniforms, steel helmets, buckets of sand, stirrup pumps, fire extinguishers, axes and first aid boxes. We were taught fire fighting, and were given training in first aid by St. John’s Ambulance Brigade. My air raid post was on top of Chartered Bank with telephone services to contact the Fire Department in case of an attack.
What was happening in England was duplicated in Ceylon in preparation for enemy attacks. A total black out was introduced and all windows had to be pasted with black paper; even vehicle head lights had to be covered and electric torches were prohibited to prevent a “Fifth Column” from signalling to Japanese ships. For us it was real fun the night Colombo had its first blackout. Everybody got on the streets sightseeing in the dark. Gradually our eyes got accustomed to the darkness.
All coins disappeared as the metal was needed for the manufacture of arms. We were issued with coupons with their value printed in rupees and cents. Even to buy a cup of tea a coupon was needed. Food, textiles, kerosene oil were controlled and rationed. Food Control Inspectors, Textile inspectors etc., were employed to prevent black-marketeering. Ration cards were issued and queues for food and other requirements soon became the norm- a novel experience to us.
We listened to the radio for war news in Europe. In 1941 it was announced that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbour and destroyed America’s Pacific fleet. Thus America declared war on Japan. Indonesia, Burma and the British Far East Command in Singapore fell to the Japanese forces. This led the SEAC (South East Asia Command) to move from Singapore to Colombo and Sir Geoffrey Layton was appointed Commander-in-Chief. His residence was the Queen’s House in Fort opposite the General Post Office. The Colombo Race Course was converted to an airfield with steel plates and a squadron of Hurricanes and Fulmar fighters. The Ratmalana airfield too was developed, and a number of air strips were hurriedly built all over the island for the RAF and Fleet Air Arm.The Japanese were advancing fast and almost on the doorstep of India and Ceylon. Things were getting hot for the defence of Ceylon, the last British bastion in the east.
On April 4, 1942, Squadron Leader Leonard Birchall and a crew took off from Koggala on a Catalina long range reconnaissance flight looking for enemy activity in the Indian Ocean. To his horror, he saw a huge flotilla of Japanese aircraft carriers heading towards Ceylon at a distance of about 300 miles east. He managed to send a warning radio message to Colombo, before being shot down and captured by the Japanese.
Next morning was Easter Sunday, April 5, 1942. I was at home in Kotte taking a wash at the well, when I heard a distant roar and looked up to see squadrons of aircraft in formation like the flight of ducks at about 10,000 feet below some alto cirrus clouds. I called my mother and brothers to see the beautiful formations. About 15 minutes later we heard anti aircraft gun fire and then air battles started with aircraft in dog fights flying low and firing at each other. It was hell let loose. We watched from our verandah wondering what was happening and realised it was a real aerial attack. In about half an hour everything went very quiet.
People came out on the streets in panic. I got on my bicycle and rode fast to Colombo to our office in the Chartered Bank building and saw columns of smoke rising from the harbour and the Walkers ship repair yards. Mr. Thornley, our manager had also come and he told us confidentially that a Sunderland aircraft had sighted the Japanese fleet coming to attack Ceylon and the aircraft was shot down, and it being a Sunday morning, none of our defence establishment had expected the air raid. Later we heard Trincomalee was also bombed and a number of British warships were bombed and sunk or set on fire.
Very soon squadrons of fighters and bombers arrived in Ceylon and a number of airfields were built all over the island. The Colombo Race Course was taken by the Fleet Air Arm to establish their base and the Ratmalana airfield was taken over by the RAF. Colombo became well fortified for any attack by the Japanese Fleet but that was the one and only air raid Colombo experienced.
Soon after the Easter Sunday Japanese air raid a number of Ceylonese just out from college were recruited for the RAF and were sent to England to be trained as fighter pilots. After the war, when Air Ceylon was formed they came back as pilots to fly the Douglas DC3 domestic flights. The first batches included Capt. Peter Fernando, Capt. Emil Jayawardena, Capt. M.R. de Silva, Capt. Ken Joachim, Capt. C.H.S. Amarasekera, Co-pilots P.B. Mawalagedera, G.E.L.Ferdinand, Dixon Kotalawala, and Noel Peiris.
Navigator Rohan Amarasekera who flew R.A.F. Bombers over Germany was awarded a D.F.C., and returned as the first Ratmalana Airport Commandant. Capt. David Peiris who was a pilot at TATA also came back to fly the Air Ceylon DC3s. A number of youth including myself joined the Fleet Air Arm and received training in maintenance of aircraft at the Royal Naval Air Services Training Establishment at Maharagama and were sent to different airfields in the country to service fighter and bomber aircraft of the Fleet Air Arm.
After the war these youth were sent to TATA’s in Bombay for further training in aircraft maintenance by Sir John Kotelawala who was the then Minister of Transport who had a brain wave of establishing Civil Aviation with the opening of Air Ceylon in late 1947. Bunny Molamure, an engineer at TATA Bombay joined Air Ceylon as the first Manager Engineering and with him came those ex-Fleet Air Arm Mechanics who had obtained their Aircraft Maintenance Engineers Licences. They were, M.C. Fonseka who later became Manager Engineering, B.G. de Silva, H.L.U. de Silva, Arthur Fernando, M. Christopher, W.A. Sugathadasa, Dharma, Arthur Fernando, Noel Peiris, Nanayakkara, M.M.J.S. Dias, C. Perera, Bartlett, Joe Ginger etc.
WW11 ended with the Germans surrendering in May 1945. Shortly after, America dropped two atom bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6-9, 1945 and Japan capitulated.
(The writer is an ex Air Ceylon and KLM Navigator/Radio Officer)
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