Deep into history by Ruhanie Perera

<>Shipwreck Detectives, a World War II documentary on the “Battle of Ceylon”, brings four veterans on a personal odyssey back to the shores of Sri Lanka, 60 years on “From the moment I got off the plane and got into my first tuk-tuk – I was hooked.” Julia Redwood, director of the documentary on the Battle of Ceylon which was filmed in Sri Lanka over the last month and one of the producers for the series Shipwreck Detectives sits on the terrace by the sea at the Galle Face Hotel. Her work in Sri Lanka complete, she finally has a moment to recount her experiences. The cinematic journey she describes is one that tells the story of a significant moment in Sri Lanka’s modern history – a moment that has been recorded as the “most dangerous moment” of the Second World War, the Battle of Ceylon. Perhaps it is poetic justice that this interview should have taken place so close to the sea for the focus of the film crew’s work here has been to uncover the stories of the sea… For the Shipwreck Detectives, their quests for wrecks lay emphasis on the idea that “shipwrecks are not about treasure, but about history”. The overall theme of the second series of Shipwreck Detectives, a three-part documentary on the maritime archaeology of Sri Lanka specifically centred on Galle and the Dutch colonial past in Sri Lanka, a 2000 BC shipwreck off Turkey and the Battle of Ceylon made for ABC Television and Discovery Canada, is thus about making people aware of history through shipwrecks, underscoring the significance of maritime heritage and the importance of protecting it. Julia Redwood and Ed Punchard, the principal players in the Fremantle, Western Australia-based documentary production company Prospero Productions established in 1991 have always had “a passion for telling stories and a passion for history, maritime history in particular”. Ed, a North Sea diver was involved in what was considered the world’s worst off-shore oil disaster in 1988 in the North Sea and has an understanding of being shipwrecked and of “losing mates at sea”. The natural progression of which is the great affinity the team shares for “shipwreck stories”, for the stories of “people who have survived shipwrecks and for the families and friends who have lost people at sea”. Three strands make up the Battle of Ceylon film, the working title of which is “the most dangerous moment” – the search for two shipwrecks the HMS Hermes and the HMAS Vampire, the personal journeys of remembrance made by four war veterans and the historical analysis which involved researching the question ‘why did Churchill call this the most dangerous moment’ and the exploration of the many Sri Lankan perspectives on the event through the stories of veterans and civilians who lived through the air raids of April 5 and 9, in 1942. This story of the Battle of Ceylon is thus linked to the two shipwrecks, the HMS Hermes, an aircraft carrier that was a significant British vessel and the accompanying Australian destroyer, the HMAS Vampire, which were sunk on April 9, 1942 during the Japanese air raids over Colombo and Trincomalee. Says Julia, “We discovered the story and loved it. It was tragic, dramatic and significant in terms of history, WWII history in particular and barely discussed.” Curiosity aroused, it was decided that through the Shipwreck Detectives a search would be carried out for the Hermes and the Vampire, the quest being to find the Vampire which had never been located and to relocate the Hermes which had been located off Batticaloa. Taking the lead in this adventure were maritime archaeologists from the Western Australian Maritime Museum; Jeremy Green, the head of Maritime Archaeology at the museum and Corioli Souter were no strangers to Sri Lankan maritime archaeology because of their work in the field of exploring the underwater archaeological potential of Sri Lanka with Somasiri Devendra, retired Lieutenant Commander of the Sri Lanka Navy, today a naval historian and maritime archaeologist. This project carried out under his supervision (which involves the film being released with his authorisation) saw the diving expedition in Batticaloa make the discovery that the Hermes was not located where it was on the admiralty charts. The Vampire, unfortunately, could not be found. Says Devendra, “Off the coast of Sri Lanka the continental shelf is very narrow and off Batticaloa there is a deep trench which comes very close to the shore and we think the Vampire may be there. The area is about 900 metres deep and locating it is impossible – unless we had the equipment used in the search for the Titanic.” The Battle of Ceylon story, running for the duration of one television hour, approximately 52 minutes, traces also the intensely personal journeys of four war veterans who were survivors from the vessels. Stan Curtis and Alex Rusk (HMS Hermes) and Vince Cesari and Bill Price (HMAS Vampire), returned to Sri Lanka after 63 years, having never returned after the war. For these veterans, says Julia, who are in “the twilight of their years, the autumn of their years, this could be the last time they’ll get to tell their stories”. Retracing their steps from Colombo through Kandy to Trincomalee, the journey was for most of them a moment to relive events, points out Consultant Historian for the documentary Sergei DeSilva-Ranasinghe who worked closely with the veterans. This experience, he feels, also brought about some sense of conclusion at the latter stages of their lives and it perhaps may have even raised more questions – “questions which are unanswered to this day and perhaps never will be”. At the core of the historical strand of the documentary is one haunting question, ‘why would Churchill call this the most dangerous moment’. Presenting the many perspectives on the subject is Sergei, an individual with – as Julia points out – a passion for Sri Lanka. A Sri Lankan-born Australian, Sergei brings into the film a “unique perspective because he’s an outsider but he’s from this place and he has an absolute passion and commitment to Sri Lanka”. In Colombo and Trincomalee, Sergei was brought in to explain the sequence of the tactical air raids and explain the overall strategic situation that faced Ceylon before and after the battle. “The Japanese air raid over Colombo and Trincomalee was a strategic and tactical success but the Japanese failed in their main objective, which was to locate and destroy the British Eastern fleet. The Battle of Ceylon was considered by Winston Churchill to be the ‘most dangerous moment’ of the Second World War for the British. Why? Until the first half of 1942, Germany and Japan were making steady territorial gains from North Africa, the Caucasus and the Indian Ocean. Ceylon was the weakest link in the defence perimeter. Most importantly, if the British lost control of Ceylon, they essentially lost control of the Indian Ocean, with the potential loss of India. For the British at that time everything in the East hinged on retaining the naval bases in Ceylon.” Introduced to Prospero Productions through Devendra, Sergei’s primary role was to research the Japanese air raids of April 1942. In the documentary his was an interactive role that saw him cast as an on-screen character. The research on the Battle of Ceylon, is as Sergei describes it, a “work in progress”. “It’s like trying to fit a jigsaw puzzle together with sections still missing. With limited historical information on Japanese perspectives of the operation, he is on the lookout for information on the Battle of Ceylon, by way of articles, film footage, letters, memoirs and photographs etc. He is also interested in finding out more about the role of the Ceylon Naval Volunteer Force (CNVF) and the Ceylon Garrison Artillery (CGA), that had featured prominently in the air raids. (Sergei can be contacted at sergei.desilva@optusnet.com.au or PO Box 251, Batman Victoria 3058, Australia.) This documentary sets out to do more than simply document historical fact. It tries to bring about some resolution to an intensely personal moment that climaxes with the memorial mass at sea in Trincomalee when the Sri Lanka Navy took the veterans to pay their respects to their shipmates. The moment is a conclusion of sorts, emphasising the significance of journeys, both personal and political, remembrances and the silent promise that veteran and historian make to those who were lost in this historical moment that “they shall not grow old…” (http://www.sundaytimes.lk/050911/plus/1.html)