75th Independence
Easter Sunday 1942: A centenarian remembers
View(s):By D. L. Sirimanne
In the late 1930s, going back in time almost 75 years, Ceylon was a British colony. Everybody was satisfied with the way of life except for some who were talking of self-government. I was happy having a good job as a stenographer at Carson & Co., Ltd., the most prestigious tea firm with its office on the fourth floor of the Chartered Bank building. Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, Burghers, Borahs and Indians all lived in peace with each other. Temples, churches, mosques and kovils were almost side by side with no ethnic problems.
'The Saviour of Ceylon': Leonard Birchall aboard a Catalina aircraft
The peace was shattered in 1939 when Nazi Germany invaded Poland and quickly rolled westwards conquering all the European states. Finally England declared war with 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 and Berlin, both day and night.
Here in Ceylon, shiploads of Australian and New Zealand soldiers trans-shipped through Colombo to Europe to fight the Germans.
Businesses and mercantile shipping almost came to a standstill. Shipments of tea, rubber and other produce were sunk by German submarines in the Atlantic and Indian Ocean. Ceylon came under a war footing. Most of the European mercantile managers, even those on estates, left for England leaving one or two in each firm to run their business.
Oliver Goonetilleke who was appointed Civil Defence Commissioner and Food Controller in Colombo helped the British to defend Colombo with the formation of Air Raid Wardens. Every building in the Fort and suburbs had an Air Raid Shelter 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 firefighting, and 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 blackout was introduced and all windows had to be pasted with black paper. Even vehicle headlights had to be covered and electric torches were prohibited to prevent a “Fifth Column” from signaling to Japanese ships. 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 its 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-marketing. Ration cards were issued to every person and queues for food and other requirements were introduced – a novel experience to us.
We listened to the radio for war news in Europe. Then in 1941, came the news that the Japanese Navy had attacked Pearl Harbour and completely destroyed the American Pacific Navy fleet. Thus America declared war on Japan.
Indonesia, Burma and the British Far East Command in Singapore fell to the hands of Japanese forces. This caused the SEAC (South East Asia Command) to move from Singapore to Colombo. 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 was established. 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 at a rate from the East and were almost on the doorsteps of India and Ceylon. Things were getting hot for the defence of Ceylon – the last British bastion in the East.
On 4th April 1942, Squadron Leader Leonard Birchall and a crew took off from Koggala on a Catalina long range reconnaissance flight for enemy activity in the Indian Ocean. To his horror, he sighted a huge flotilla of Japanese aircraft carriers heading towards Ceylon at a distance of about 300 miles east and managed to send a warning radio message to Colombo, before his aircraft was shot down and he himself captured.
It was Easter Sunday and I was at home in Kotte taking a wash at the well, when I heard a distant roar and looked up to see beautiful 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 sight. About fifteen 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. Watching from our verandah, we realized 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 to keep it confidential 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 for its defence 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. 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 were, 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 and was awarded a D.F.C., 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 aircraft maintenance at the Royal Naval Air Services Training Establishment at Maharagama. We were sent to different airfields in the country to service fighter and bomber aircraft of the Fleet Air Arm.
After the war these youths were sent to TATA’s at Bombay for further training in aircraft maintenance by Sir John Kotalawala 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.
WWII ended with the Germans surrendering in May 1945 and Japan capitulated after an American B29 bomber dropped two atom bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 15,1945.
Thus World War 11 which involved almost the whole world lasted six years whereas our own war in a small island dragged on for over 30 years.
(The writer now, 102 years old, is a former Radio Officer and Navigator, Air Ceylon and KLM.)