大象传媒

My father was recalled to the Navy in 1938 and appointed to Ceylon as Naval Officer in Charge at the naval station of Trinco on the outbreak of war in September 1939. After the fall of Singapore in February 1942 the Japanese fleet entered the Bay of Bengal with a massive fleet of aircraft carriers, destroyers and some 150 aircraft. It was thought that they would attempt to capture Ceylon and thus cut off the Allied route to Australia and harass the shipping of oil from the Middle East. Sir James Somerville the Commander-in-Chief of the Eastern fleet was secretly warned that they would enter the Bay of Bengal at the beginning of April. I actually decyphered the vital message which came from a Catalina who had just sighted the fleet before being shot down. It told the alarming message giving the strength of the enemy fleet and ending with the sentence'Destination Ceylon.' The fleet attacked Colombo on Easter Sunday then sailed round the island to attack Trinco hoping to effect a second Pearl Harbor. I was on watch at dawn on 9 April in the Inner Yard of the Naval Base when I heard the sound of many aircraft.'Good' I thought 'I didn't know we had so many planes' The next moment I saw the first bombs fall in the sea to my right. I dived under a desk with an officer and the other cypherette, as we were called. (WRNWS only came to Trinco the following year). The planes went up and down the Inner Yard at low level and all the windows of the office blew in. Every other building in the vicinity was hit. After half an hour they flew away. The officer told the other girl and me to try and seek shelter. Actually I do not think there were any shelters. As we came out of the building dead bodies and wounded were lying everywhere. I saw a casualty station and asked the sickberth steward if he wanted any help. He gratefully accepted and we went into a warehouse. We asked for some water and bandages and the wounded were brought to us. I am afraid we were not good but at least we could help and try and comfort them. Very few could speak English as they were mostly Tamils from India. After a little an ambulance came and took them away and our reliefs, as well as my father, arrived and I went home. We all thought that the Japanese planes would return, but according to reports I have read since, they had had enough and their formidable fleet never returned to the Bay of Bengal. Churchill said afterwards that it was probably the most dangerous moment of the war. It has been little recalled because ,happily it was unsuccessful. (See my book A Tale of Two Sisters, by Anne Harden. 拢9.45)

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