Ceylon in World War II After the outbreak of the Second World War , in the British Crown Colony of Ceylon ( modern - day Sri Lanka ) , the government of Sir Don Baron Jayatilaka assured the British king and his majesty ' s government of its continued support . Preparations for war . The British had occupied the coastal areas of the island since 1796 , but after 1917 the colony had no regular garrison of British troops . The Ceylon Defence Force and Ceylon Navy Volunteer Reserve were mobilized and expanded . The Royal Navy maintained naval installations in Trincomalee and the Royal Air Force ( RAF ) had established an aerodrome in China Bay , Trincomalee long before the war . After the fall of Singapore the Royal Navy ' s East Indies Station was moved to Colombo and then to Trincomalee . Admiral Sir Geoffrey Layton was appointed Commander - in - Chief , Ceylon with Air Vice Marshal John D ' Albiac Air Officer Commanding and Admiral Sir Sir James Somerville appointed commander of the British Eastern Fleet . The fixed land defences consisted of four coastal batteries at Colombo and five at Trincomalee , these were established just before the war . Air defenses where expanded starting in 1941 with the RAF occupying the civil airfield at Ratmalana near Colombo with its station headquarters set up at Kandawala . Another airbase was rapidly built at Koggala near Galle and several temporary airstrips were built across the country , with the largest at Colombo Racecourse Airstrip . Several RAF Squadrons were sent to Ceylon . Several Commonwealth units were also stationed in Ceylon for the duration of the war . Ceylon Volunteers . As with other British Colonies conscription was not implemented in Ceylon , however Ceylonese were encouraged to volunteer for service . Many volunteered throughout the war , most joining the Ceylon Defence Force , which was expanded from a reserve unit to a mobilized force of 10 infantry battalions , 3 artillery regiments and support units . For the first time Ceylonese units were deployed outside Ceylon in formation until the Cocos Islands Mutiny after which deployment overseas of Ceylonese units was stopped with a few exceptions . Ceylonese continued to volunteer and joined the British Army , RAF and the Royal Navy . They were supplemented by personnel of the Ceylon Defence Force who requested transfer to front line units of the British Army . They served in the Burma and later in Malaya . Ceylonese served in the Royal Engineers in Italy and with the Royal Army Service Corps in the Middle East and North Africa . The 1st battalion , Ceylon Corps of Military Police served in Malaya till 1949 . Several of those who served with Commonwealth Forces during the war went on to serve in the Sri Lankan Armed Forces after Ceylon gained independence in 1948 ; these include General D . S . Attygalle , Major General Anton Muttukumaru , Major General Bertram Heyn , Major General Richard Udugama , Major General H . W . G . Wijeyekoon , Rear Admiral Rajan Kadiragamar and Air Vice Marshal Edward Amerasakera . Ceylon Navy Volunteer Reserve . The Ceylon Navy Volunteer Reserve was taken over by the Royal Navy . Cutting its teeth on the Port Commission Tugs " Samson " and " Goliath " , it later manned and operated trawlers and Antarctic whalers converted as Minesweepers and fitted out with guns , submarine detection equipment and anti - submarine weaponry . They were H . M . Ships " Overdale Wyke " ( the first ship to be purchased by the Government of Ceylon ) , " Okapi " , " Semla " , " Sambhur " , " Hoxa " , " Balta " and H . M Tugs " Barnet " and " C405 " . In addition it manned several Motor Fishing Vessels ( MFV ) and miscellaneous auxiliary vessels . All were manned exclusively by CRNVR personnel . These ships were meant to sweep and guard the approaches the harbours but were also often used on extended missions outside Ceylon waters . In the course of these operations , the ships came under enemy fire , recovered essential information from Japanese aircraft shot down , sailed to Akyab after the Burma front was opened in two FMVs for harbour duties , and was called upon to accept the surrender of the Italian colonial ship " Eritrea " and escort her to port with a prize crew on board . Cocos Islands Mutiny . The sinking of the battleship and the battlecruiser , and the subsequent fall of Singapore , punctured forever the myth of British invincibility . Against this backdrop , and on the agitation of the Trotskyist - inspired Lanka Sama Samaja Party , soldiers of the Ceylon Garrison Artillery on Horsburgh Island in the Cocos Islands mutinied on the night of 8 May 1942 , intending to hand the islands over to the Japanese . The mutiny was suppressed within an hour , however , and three of the mutineers were later executed — the only British Commonwealth soldiers to be executed for mutiny during the Second World War . Following the mutiny the use of Ceylonese combat troops was discontinued by the British , although a number of supply and transport units were used in the rear areas in the Middle East . The defences of Ceylon were reinforced by the 7th Australian Division and elements of the 1st ( African ) Division because of the island ' s strategic importance , holding almost all the British Empire ' s resources of rubber . Rationing was instituted so that Ceylonese were comparatively better fed than their Indian neighbors ; a measure taken to prevent their disaffection . Japanese attack on Ceylon . The " Easter Sunday Raid " was the air raid carried out by Japan on Easter Sunday ( 5 April ) 1942 on Colombo ; a few days later Trincomalee was also attacked . These were undertaken as a part of commerce raiding and the harassment of the British Eastern Fleet in the Indian Ocean . Although the military effect of the raids was substantial - it resulted in the sinking of several ships including two cruisers and an aircraft carrier , the effect on the Ceylonese population was far greater as it had heard of the Nanjing Massacre s and of the act of brutality of the Japanese in occupied countries . The civilian population began a panicked fleeing of Colombo and of Ceylon by boat to India following the raid . Such was the panic amongst the British and Ceylonese that a large turtle which came ashore was reported by an Australian unit as a number of Japanese amphibious vehicles . Anti - War movement . There was resistance to occupation , both against the Axis powers and against the colonial power , the British . This was done completely by the Trotskyist Lanka Sama Samaja Party , which supported the independence movement and led the anti - war movement , made it clear that it did not side with either the Axis powers or the Allies and considered the war an internationalist one . The Communist party of Ceylon too supported the anti - war movement as they saw it also as a war of imperialists , but in 1941 when Germany attacked the Soviet Union they joined the war movement in support of the British calling it a peoples war . There was some opposition to the war in Sri Lanka , particularly among the workers and the nationalists encouraged by the Lanka Sama Samaja Party , many of the latter of whom hoped for a German victory . But much of the populace dreaded a Japanese victory . Among Buddhists , there was disgust that Buddhist monks of German origin were interned as ' enemy aliens ' whereas German and Italian Roman Catholic priests were not . Two young members of the Governing Party , Junius Richard Jayawardene ( who later became President ) and Dudley Senanayake ( later th 3rd Prime Minister ) , held discussions with the Japan ese with a view to collaboration to oust the British , these discussions did not go further since the much older D S Senanayake ( later th 1st Prime Minister ) stopped them . Independence agitators turned to opposition to the Ministers ' support for the British war effort . The local Ministers brought motions gifting the Sri Lankan taxpayers ' money to the British war machine , which were opposed by the pro - freedom members of the State Council . Propaganda was carried out among the troops , Australian and British as well as indigenous with little effect . Starting in November 1939 and during the first half of 1940 there was a wave of spontaneous strikes in the British - owned plantations , basically aimed at winning the right of organisation . There were two main plantation unions , Natesa Iyer ' s Ceylon Indian Congress and the All - Ceylon Estate Workers Union ( later the Lanka Estate Workers Union , LEWU ) led by Samasamajists . In the Central Province the strike wave reached the zenith in the Mool Oya Estate strike , which was led by Samasamajists . After Mool Oya , the strike wave spread southward towards Uva , and the strikes became more prolonged and the workers began more and more to seek the militant leadership of the Samasamajists . The Trotskyist leader N . M . Perera addressed a large meeting in Badulla on 12 May , and the police were powerless to act , although it was banned . At Wewessa Estate the workers set up an elected council and the Superintendent agreed to act in consultation with the Workers ' Council . An armed police party that went to restore ' law and order ' was disarmed by the workers . The strike wave at last was beaten back by a wave of terror by the police , aided by floods which cut Uva off from the rest of the country for over a week . However , the colonial authorities were finding that the independence struggle was getting too powerful . After Dunkirk , the British colonial authorities reacted in panic ( as revealed in secret files released many decades later ) and the LSSP State Council members N . M . Perera and Philip Gunawardena and others were arrested on 18 June . The Samasamajist press was raided and sealed . Regulations were promulgated which made open party work practically impossible . Public disgust at British colonial rule continued to grow . Among the elite there was irritation at the colour - bar practised by the leading clubs . Sir Oliver Ernest Goonetilleke , the Civil Defence Commissioner complained that the British commander of Ceylon , Admiral 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 . 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 LSSP leaders were able to escape , with the help of one of their guards . Several of them fled to India , where they participated in the struggle there , underscoring what had been established before the war , that India ' s and Sri Lanka ' s freedom struggles were interlinked . However , a sizable contingent remained , led by Robert Gunawardena , Philip ' s brother .