Cocos (Keeling) Islands

The Cocos Islands Mutiny was one of many among British Commonwealth forces during the Second World War. However, it was the only one that led to the execution of mutineers. Source: http://www. ... Flag of the Commonwealth of Nations The Commonwealth of Nations is a voluntary association of independent sovereign states, most of which were once governed by the United Kingdom and are its former colonies. ... Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ...

Background

Units belonging to the Ceylon Defence Force (CDF), including the the Ceylon Garrison Artillery (CGA), the Ceylon Light Infantry (CLI) and the Ceylon Volunteer Medical corps, 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. September 2 is the 245th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (246th in leap years). ... Mid-19th century tool for converting between different standards of the inch An inch is an Imperial and U.S. customary unit of length. ... To help compare different orders of magnitude this page lists lengths between 10-3 m and 10-2 m (1 mm and cm). ...

The feelings of the Sri Lankan troops had been excited by the anti-war work carried out by the pro-independence Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP), both before the war and during it. They had volunteered to fight the racism of the fascists and had found institutionalised racism in their regiments. They dreamed of a Sri Lanka where the colour-bar did not exist and where they were not treated as second-class citizens in their own country. Even the Burghers, who were of European ancestry, were discriminated against. The Lanka Sama Samaja Party (Sri Lanka Equal Society Party - LSSP) is a trotskyist political party in Sri Lanka. ... Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler Fascism (in Italian, fascismo), capitalized, refers to the right-wing authoritarian political movement which ruled Italy from 1922 to 1943 under the leadership of Benito Mussolini. ... Burgher is the name of a Eurasian people and, less commonly, a Creole language based on Portuguese. ...

The fall of Singapore and the subsequent sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse, punctured forever the myth of British invincibility. Whatever remained was ripped to tatters by the sinking of the aircraft carrier Hermes and the cruisers Cornwall and Dorsetshire off Sri Lanka in early April 1942; accompanied at the same time by the virtually unopposed bombing of the island and bombardment of Madras (Chennai). Such was the panic amongst the British in Sri Lanka that a large turtle which came ashore was reported by an Australian unit as a number of Japanese ambhibious vehicles. Anti-British sentiment increased accordingly and hopes ran high of liberation by the Japanese. The Battle of Singapore was a battle of the South-East Asian theatre of World War II, from January 30, 1942 – February 15, 1942. ... The Sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse was a World War II naval engagement which illustrated the effectiveness of aerial attacks against naval forces that were not protected by air cover and the resulting importance of including an aircraft carrier in any major fleet action. ... An aircraft carrier is a warship whose main role is to deploy and recover aircraft—in effect acting as a sea-going airbase. ... Three ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Hermes, after Hermes, the messenger god of Greek mythology: The first Hermes was a converted cruiser that was used as an experimental seaplane tender by the Royal Naval Air Service shortly before World War I. She was sunk by a... The USS Port Royal (CG-73), a Ticonderoga class cruiser. ... Six ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Cornwall after the county of Cornwall. ... Three ships of the British Royal Navy have been named HMS Dorsetshire, after the traditional county of Dorsetshire. ...

Mutiny

Indian troops, who made up the majority of the garrison on Christmas Island, rose up against the British troops and killed them in March 1942, before surrendering to the invading Japanese.[1] March is the third month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of seven Gregorian months with the length of 31 days. ... This article is about the year. ...

The Ceylon Garrison Artillery on Horsburgh Island in the Cocos Islands mutinied on the night of 8/9 May, intending to hand the islands over to the Japanese. The plan was to arrest Captain Gardiner, the British Battery Commanding Officer and his second-in-command, disarm the troops disloyal to Sri Lanka, turn the 6-inch guns on the CLI troops on Direction Island, and signal the Japanese on Christmas Island. However, the soldiers all proved to be poor shots with small arms - one soldier was killed and another wounded. The rebels' one Bren gun jammed at a crucial moment, when Gratien Fernando, the leader of the mutiny, had it trained on Gardiner. The rebels then attempted to turn the 6-inch guns on Direction Island, but were overpowered. May 8 is the 128th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (129th in leap years). ... May 9 is the 129th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (130th in leap years). ... Bren is also a commune of the Drôme département in France. ... Gratien Fernando (1915 – 1942) was the leader of the Cocos Islands Mutiny, an agitator for the freedom of Sri Lanka from the British and a hero of the Sri Lanka Independence Struggle. ...

The mutiny was suppressed and three of the mutineers were the only British Commonwealth troops to be executed for mutiny during the Second World War. [2] Messages sent by Fernando were received in Sri Lanka, indicating that there was co-operation between him and the both CLI troops and the Australian signallers on Direction Island. He declared he had surrendered on condition that he would be tried in Colombo - it may be that he intended to give a speech from the dock to inspire his compatriots.

Fernando was defiant to the end, confident of his place in the annals of history as a fighter for freedom and refused a commutation of punishment. He was executed on 5 August 1942 at Welikada Prison, and two other mutineers shortly thereafter. They were the only British Commonwealth troops to be executed for mutiny during the Second World War. Fernando's last words were ‘Loyalty to a country under the heel of a white man is disloyalty’. August 5 is the 217th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (218th in leap years), with 148 days remaining. ... This article is about the year. ...

Consequences

No Sri Lankan combat regiment was deployed by the British in a combat situation after the Cocos Islands Mutiny. The defences of Sri Lanka were beefed up to three British army divisions because the island was strategically important, holding almost all the British Empire's resources of rubber. Rationing was instituted so that Sri Lankans were comparitively better fed than their Indian neighbours, in order to prevent disaffection among the natives. A division is a large military unit or formation usually consisting of around ten to fifteen thousand soldiers. ... Rubber is an elastic hydrocarbon polymer which occurs as a milky emulsion (known as latex) in the sap of a number of plants but can also be produced synthetically. ...

The LSSP's anti-colonial agitation now included references to the Cocos Islands Mutiny. Public disgust at British colonial rule continued to grow. Sir Oliver Ernest Goonetilleke, the Civil Defence Commissioner complained that the British commander of Ceylon, Admiral Sir Geoffrey Layton called him a 'black bastard'; this was merely an expression of continuing white-supremacism. However, it was grist to the mill for an increasingly angry middle class that this was the attitude of their rulers who had been bested in Hong Kong, Malaya, Singapore and Burma by Asians. |Admiral Sir Geoffrey Layton (20 April 1884 - 4 September 1964), was a British Naval Officer. ...

Sri Lankans in Singapore and Malaysia formed the 'Lanka Regiment' of the Indian National Army, directly under Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. A plan was made to transport them to Sri Lanka by submarine, to begin the liberation struggle, but this was abortive. The Indian National Army or Azad Hind Fauj was an auxiliary force to the Imperial Japanese Army in its southern mainland campaign during the Second World War. ... Netaji poster in Thiruvananthapuram Subhas Chandra Bose (January 23, 1897 - August 18, 1945) also known as Netaji, was a Orissa born and Bengal based Indian leader of the movement to win independence from British rule. ...

Mutineers

The men who were condemned by the Court Martial were:

• Bdr Gratien Fernando - Death (Executed on 5 August 1942)
• Gnr Carlo Augustus Gauder - Death (Executed on 7 August 1942)
• Gnr G Benny de Silva - Death (Executed on 8 August 1942)
• Gnr R S Hamilton - Death (Commuted to penal servitude for three years)
• Gnr Gerry D Anandappa - Death (Commuted to penal servitude for three years)
• L/Bdr Kingsley W J Diasz - Death (Commuted to penal servitude for four years)
• Gnr A Joseph L Peries - Death (Commuted to penal servitude for four years)
• Gnr A B Edema - Imprisonment for one year without hard labour
• Gnr M A Hopman - Penal servitude for three years
• Gnr F J Daniels - Penal servitude for seven years
• Gnr Kenneth R Porritt - Imprisonment for one year with hard labour

Gratien Fernando (1915 – 1942) was the leader of the Cocos Islands Mutiny, an agitator for the freedom of Sri Lanka from the British and a hero of the Sri Lanka Independence Struggle. ... August 5 is the 217th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (218th in leap years), with 148 days remaining. ... This article is about the year. ... August 7 is the 219th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (220th in leap years), with 146 days remaining. ... This article is about the year. ... August 8 is the 220th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (221st in leap years), with 145 days remaining. ... This article is about the year. ...

References

• Arsecularatne, SN, Sinhalese immigrants in Malaysia & Singapore, 1860-1990: History through recollections, KVG de Silva & Sons, Colombo, 1991
• Crusz, Noel, The Cocos Islands Mutiny, Fremantle Arts Centre Press, Fremantle, WA, 2001
• Muthiah, Wesley and Wanasinghe, Sydney, Britain, World War 2 and the Sama Samajists, Young Socialist Publication, Colombo, 1996