Ceylon (later known as Sri Lanka), was a British colony and a major Allied naval base. On April 5, 1942 over 300 aircraft from Japanese carriers bombed the island. Winston Churchill called it "the most dangerous moment" of World War II, because the Japanese wished to replicate a grander success of the attack at Pearl Harbor. The British ships, however, were moved to Addu Atoll, Maldives Islands, 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) southwest of Ceylon. Nevertheless, the British lost an aircraft carrier, two cruisers, and two destroyers, while the Royal Air Force squadrons on Ceylon suffered severe losses. The British fleet retreated to East Africa until 1944. The Ceylon Garrison Artillery Regiment was stationed on Horsburgh Island in the Cocos Islands, to defend it from Japanese attack. However, following agitation by the Lanka Sama Samaja Party, the regiment mutinied on the night of 8 May 1942, intending to hand the islands over to the Japanese. The mutiny was suppressed and three of the Ceylonese soldiers became the only British Commonwealth troops to be executed for mutiny during World War II. Bombardier Gratien Fernando, the leader of the mutiny, was defiant to the end. Following the Cocos Islands Mutiny, no Ceylonese combat unit was deployed in a front-line combat situation, although Supply & Transport Corps troops were used in rear areas in the Middle East. The defences of Sri Lanka were beefed up to three Allied army divisions because the island was strategically important, as a producer of rubber. Rationing was instituted so that Sri Lankans were comparatively better fed than their Indian neighbours, in order to prevent disaffection among the ordinary people. Sri Lankans in Japanese-occupied Malaya and Singapore were recruited by the Japanese for the Lanka Regiment of the Indian National Army, to fight against the Allies. While there was a plan to land them in Sri Lanka to start a guerrilla war, they never actually saw action.
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