Ceylon Planters’ Rifle Corps in the First World War — By the dawn of the 20th century Ceylon was a prosperous colony. Tea and rubber plantations produced a great deal of the island’s wealth. Spread mainly in the misty highlands, on land seized by the Crown and sold to British investors at nominal rates, the sprawling estates were originally planted…

The D163 is a quiet rural road in eastern France that runs from the village of Auchonvillers east towards the small town of Beaumont-Hamel. This is farm country, in a ‘department’ (shire) named after the river Somme which flows nearby. Tranquil and bucolic, the region’s many ridgelines are marked with…

The Big Push July 1st 1916 was the date selected by General Haig to launch his ‘big push’ and break through the German lines. To this end there had been continuous shelling of the German trenches for a week. Haig was assured that this unprecedented bombardment would have killed most of the German…

Sometime in late 1914 the four boys from Trinity College embarked on a ship to Britain. We do not know how supportive the families of Albert Halangode, Frank Drieberg, Ajit ‘Jick’ Rudra and Richard Aluwihare were of their intention to fight for King and Country. But they must not have…

The Great War By the summer of 1916 Europe, after almost a hundred years of peace since Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo , was once again embroiled in a huge continental war. The invading armies of the German Empire and the Allies were fighting a conflict billed as a ‘World War’, but it was…

Propliners Guest Column by Capt. G.A. Fernando — Evacuation flights and a near miss This story dates from August 1977. It was 13 months before Sri Lanka’s ‘long war’ effectively began with the country’s first experience of aviation terrorism, when a bomb destroyed one of Air Ceylon’s two Hawker Siddeley (Avro) HS 748 aircraft. A landmark election held just a few weeks earlier in…

Guest column by Peter (‘Purps’) Greenfield — The days went by with lots of Combat Air Patrol (CAP) sorties out in the middle of the Tasman Sea. On one of them the controller requested my fuel state and I gave the reply “Lamb”, meaning that I could stay on station until Charlie (landing) time, but did not…

Guest column by Peter (‘Purps’) Greenfield — The McDonnell Douglas A4 Skyhawk was the only aircraft I flew where I felt that I was in it, rather than occupying it. The cockpit was tight, to the point that your helmet ‘bonked’ the canopy in your struggles to see behind. You had to know where the switches were…

Guest column by Peter (‘Purps’) Greenfield — We were young, full of testosterone and living the dream. The year was 1976 and I was selected to fly the McDonnell Douglas A4-G Skyhawk fighter off the RMAS Melbourne, Australia’s only aircraft carrier. All of us had flown the CAC Aermacchi MB-326H jet trainer, known affectionately as the ‘Macchi’…