205842 Pte. Kanchana Senerat Kadigawe MIDBritish Army 5th Btn (Scottish) 2nd Independent Parachute Brigade from:Sri lanka Private Kanchana Senerat Kadigawe was the only Sri Lankan to win the Oak Leaves
This is a tribute to SSP Senarat (K.S.) Kadigawe who passed away recently at his ancestral home in Kandy after a distinguished career in the Sri Lanka Police. He was the only Sri Lankan to win the ‘Oak Leaves’ in the British Army during World War II. His death took my mind back to 1976 when for the first time he revealed to a journalist his World War II experiences as a paratrooper in Nazi-occupied Europe. He was then SP (Transport) and I was doing the 'police beat' for the Sunday Observer. At the time Kadigawe was residing at Police Quarters, Keppettipola Mawatha, Colombo, with his family. It all began when he told me that he liked to know the whereabouts of a Greek family that had befriended him during the war. Responding to his request, I had a short news item published on the Sunday Observer front page stating that Kadigawe wished to contact the family of Constantinades who lived in the city of Piraeus. But there was no response to it from anyone, though all details were given. This story is how Kadigawe came into contact with this Greek family. Born in the Wanni, he was one of many young Sri Lankans who had enlisted in the British Royal Army Service Corps at the outbreak of WWII. Having arrived in the Middle-East as a RASC soldier he applied to join the Red Berets. After rigorous training he earned the paratrooper's `wings' thus becoming the only `colored' combatant in the Fifth Battalion (Scottish) 2nd Independent Parachute Brigade.
On July 31, 1944, the now defunct Times of Ceylon ran the following news item under a picture of him in the uniform of the British `Red Berets.' CEYLON MAN AS PARATROOPER SERVING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN THEATRE Pte. K. Senarat Kadigawe is, if not the only Ceylonese parachutist fighting in this war, one of the few. He is the only coloured man in the 5th Battalion (Scottish) 2nd Independent Parachute Brigade,doing service with the Central Mediterranean Forces… Around this time Greece had fallen to the Germans following a Nazi `blitzkrieg' (lightening attack) in April 1941. By the middle of May, the country was under joint occupation by three Axis powers: Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and the Kingdom of Bulgaria. They brought about terrible hardships for the Greek civilian population. Over 300,000 civilians died from starvation, thousands more through reprisals, and the country's economy was ruined.
In 1944 the Red Berets were ordered to go on a mission to Piraeus. Their target was a power station which supplied electricity to search lights that helped German anti-aircraft gunners to spot British and American planes over Greece. The soldiers including Private Kadigawe boarded a Dakota C-47 transport plane, which took off from their base in North Africa with its lights switched off. The night was pitch-black and the plane was now flying over the Mediterranean. Soon the aircraft was over the `drop zone' in Greece and the green light inside the plane came on. From the open side door the paratroopers dived into the darkness one by one. After landing they studied a map that showed the power station and set off separately on different paths to reach the target lest the enemy captured all of them together. Even so it was no easy task to avoid being caught by German army patrols looking for curfew violators. Destroying the power station however turned out to be easier than the Red Berets had anticipated since it was lightly guarded. Probably the enemy did not expect a ground attack on it and assumed that anti-aircraft defences were sufficient to protect the installation. Two army engineers among the paratroopers cut an opening in the high barbed fire fence and entered the premises while Kadigawe and others covered them, ready to open fire if the two German soldiers guarding the place spotted the intruders. But everything went smoothly and the engineers succeeded in planting two time bombs inside the station. They were set to go off within 24 hours giving enough time for the attackers to flee from the place – or so Kadigawe thought. He and his comrades had been ordered to reach the Greek coast and meet at a designated spot from where a British Royal Navy ship would pick them up.
The real fireworks – both literally and metaphorically – however began when the bombs went off completely destroying the power station. The enraged Germans began combing the entire area like mad dogs looking for the attackers. But the Greeks, except for Nazi collaborators, were thrilled. They were willing to give whatever assistance the British paratroopers required. And it was Kadigawe who needed it most since he was on the verge of being captured. But luck was with him. A Greek Bank official, Constantinades residing nearby came to his help and asked the Sri Lankan soldier to quickly move into his house. Kadigawe was then taken to an upstairs room where he was told to hide. The room belonged to one of Constantinades' daughters. The girl's father told her to pretend to be very sick, get into bed and cover herself with a sheet. Bottles of medicine were placed on a small table near the bed. Kadigawe was then told lie motionless on a very narrow stretch of the floor between the bed and the bedroom wall. A bed sheet fully covered both sides of the bed so well that anyone peeping under the bed could see no soldier between the bed and the wall. The Sri Lankan soldier asked Constantinades why he and his family were risking their lives to protect him. If he was captured the Germans would very likely send him to a POW camp under the Geneva Convention rather than shoot him. But the fate of a Greek civilian found giving shelter to a British soldier would be quite different. The Germans would execute the civilian and perhaps his entire family on the spot in as a `lesson' to others. But Constantinades would hear none of it. He firmly told Kadigawe that it was their patriotic duty to protect all foreigners fighting to liberate Greece from the Nazis. So the paratrooper had no alternative but to follow his instructions.
Soon the Germans were all over the place. Uttering the usual warning through loud hailers, they began searching the houses in the neighbourhood for the escapees. Kadigawe was lying motionless but the tension was unbearable. He could hear his own heart beat. His real fear was for the Greek family. Constantinades' daughter was on the bed pretending to be seriously ill and moaning in `discomfort and pain.' At the Constantinades home the Nazis first began searching every room on the ground floor. Then Kadigawe heard the sound of jackbooted feet The Germans were climbing up the stairs. After thoroughly inspecting every room on the upper floor, they came to the one where Kadigawe was hiding. As the Nazi officer in charge stepped into the room, Constantinades fervently appealed to him to avoid disturbing his very sick daughter. She was in great pain he said. For moment, the German stood there looking hard at the girl, who turned out to be a good `actress.' To her, Kadigawe and Constantinades those few seconds seem like an eternity. Then the officer turned back saying `okay' and climbed down the stairs with his men. Kadigawe did not know how to thank the Greek family.
Soon afterwards he managed to reach the coast where he joined his comrades before the British Navy ship picked them up.
A year later when Kadigawe met the Constantinades family again it was his turn to reciprocate. They were then in very dire circumstances. Following the German surrender and the end of the World War in 1945, Greece found itself in the throes of a civil war between the government and communists who resorted to terrorist acts. Hunger and starvation was widespread. The Allied occupation troops had opened soup-kitchens to serve the hungry masses. The Red Berets were called into assist the Greek authorities in dealing with terrorism. One day, Kadigawe passing one of the food queues was shocked find two very familiar faces. They were the daughters of Constantinades. Talking to them the Sri Lankan soldier learnt that the civil war had made their father bankrupt. They were given prompt assistance by Kadigawe and his comrades in a generous gesture of gratitude.
Kadigawe earned the Military Medal for an act of gallantry by killing two terrorists and maiming two others in the Greek civil war. Seven months after the end of World War II, on November 24, 1945, Lt. Colonel D.R. Hunter Commander of the 2nd Independent Parachute Brigade awarded Kadigawe a certificate for having won the confidence of his superiors and for acts of gallantry a distinguished service. But his proudest moment came when he resigned from the army and joined the Sri Lanka Police as a sub-inspector. At an inspection parade of SIs at the Police Training School the then Inspector-General W.T. Brindley, saluted Kadigawe on seeing the Oak Leaves and Military Medal on his uniform.
By Janaka Perera, Asian Tribune Sat, 2008-09-13.
|