Sri Lanka Independence Struggle - Second World War - Cocos Islands Mutiny

Cocos Islands Mutiny

The fall of Singapore and the subsequent sinking of the battleship Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser 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 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 mutiny took place partly because of the agitation by the LSSP. 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. Gratien Fernando, the leader of the mutiny, was defiant to the end, confident of his place in the annals of history as a fighter for freedom.

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 comparatively better fed than their Indian neighbours, in order to prevent disaffection among the natives.