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The Cocos Islands mutiny was a failed mutiny by Ceylonese (Sri Lankan) soldiers against British officers, on the Cocos (Keeling) Islands on May 8, 1942, during the Second World War. The mutineers were to seize control of the islands and disable the British garrison. It was claimed that the mutineers also planned to transfer the islands to the Empire of Japan. However, the mutiny was defeated after the Ceylonese failed to seize control of the islands. Many mutineers were punished, and the three ringleaders were executed; they were the only British Commonwealth servicemen to be executed for mutiny during the Second World War. == Background == Units belonging to the Ceylon Defence Force (CDF), including the Ceylon Garrison Artillery (CGA), the Ceylon Light Infantry (CLI) and the Ceylon Volunteer Medical Corps, were mobilised on 2 September 1939, the day before Britain declared war on Nazi Germany. The CGA was equipped with six-inch (152 mm) and nine-inch (227 mm) guns. Several of them were posted to the Seychelles and the Cocos Islands, accompanied by contingents of the CLI and the Medical Corps. The full contingent to Cocos Islands of the CDF was around 75 personnel and was under the command of Captain George Gardiner, an accountant of an export firm in Colombo at the outbreak of war, he had obtained an emergency war commission. Two six-inch guns were deployed on Horsburgh Island, Cocos Atoll, as well as a platoon of the King's African Rifles. The fall of Singapore and the subsequent sinking of ''Prince of Wales'' and ''Repulse'' did to British and Imperial forces what Pearl Harbor had to the Americans: compromised their ability to defend their interests north of Australia and east of India. The Japanese raids into the Indian Ocean, resulting in the loss of two cruisers and the aircraft carrier ''Hermes'', threw Allied war plans in the entire Southwest Pacific Area into chaos. With the Japanese successes, public sentiment on Ceylon turned in favour of the Japanese; encouraged by successful Japanese-trained and directed rebellions in Indonesia and support for Japanese forces in Thailand, Sinkiang and the Philippines, many Ceylonese hoped that the Japanese there too would serve as liberators. At this time a young J.R. Jayawardene, later to be President of Sri Lanka, held discussions with the Japanese with this aim in mind, however this was immediately stopped by D S Senanayake who collaborated with the Colonial Government, being rewarded with the Premiership, being hand-picked to lead the post-colonial government after 1948. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Cocos Islands mutiny」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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