After saving Sri Lanka from the Japanese invasion, he was imprisoned for three years
Leonard Birchall, the savior of Sri Lanka
He was transferred to a work camp built in a baseball stadium. Conditions in the camp were harsh and rations were scarce.
Air Commodore Leonard Birchall of the Royal Canadian Air Force is best remembered as "the savior of Sri Lanka". He was the pilot who warned the Allied forces in Colombo about the Japanese surprise attack. This enabled them to prevent a repeat of the Pearl Harbor attack in Sri Lanka.
However, he showed the true breadth of nobility and courage in the Japanese war camps during a three-year period, where he saved many lives and beat many prisoners.
Leonard Birchall was born in July 1915 in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. From an early age he was fascinated by airplanes and flying, and after graduating from school he worked a number of jobs to pay for flying lessons.
In 1942, Birchall warned Sri Lanka of a Japanese attack before the shooting down of Royal Canadian Air Force Squadron Leader Leonard Birchall, the "savior of Sri Lanka", aboard a Catalina aircraft before being shot down and captured by the Japanese near the island of Sri Lanka.
He decided to embark on a military career and entered the Royal Military College of Canada in 1933. He was then commissioned as a pilot in 1937.
It would not be long before he saw action. The Second World War began in 1939 and Birchall was involved from the start. His first duty was flying a Supermarine Stanrair over Nova Scotia on anti-submarine patrols.
In 1940, he was able to capture an Italian merchant ship in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It was attacked while passing and the captain panicked and drove his ship onto a sand bank. Birchall landed nearby and waited patiently for the Royal Canadian Navy to arrive, who then arrested the Italian sailors.
In 1942 he joined No. 413 Squadron and shortly after was transferred to Ceylon (now known as Sri Lanka). Birchall saw action soon after arriving in Ceylon. Less than 48 hours after touchdown, he was flying his Catalina on a patrol when he sighted an Imperial Japanese fleet.
The Bristol Blenheim bomber took off from the Colombo Racecourse in Sri Lanka.
Birchall didn't have much time to act, because not only had he seen the Japanese, they had seen him too. Despite the imminent danger, Birchall flew close to gather information on how many ships and aircraft he could see.
As anti-aircraft fire began to pass him, he relayed the information to the Allied base, and Japanese fighters took off from the aircraft carriers to shoot him down.
He managed to get a few messages through the base before anti-aircraft fire tore through his Catalina and disabled the radio. Further fire disabled the aircraft and he descended and crashed into the sea. He and the rest of his crew were picked up by the Japanese and taken to one of the ships. Thus began three years of imprisonment.
Among the photos.. Royal Air Force Mechanics at Royal Air Force Center Koggala, Sri Lanka (now Sri Lanka)
As soon as Birchall was brought aboard the Japanese destroyer Isokasa, he was selected as senior officer and brutally interrogated. Despite being beaten and tortured, Birchall repeatedly denied sending any messages before his plane was destroyed.
The Japanese eventually believed him and went ahead with their attack. But they found the Allies ready for them. Their raid failed.
Birchall was later transferred to mainland Japan, where he was imprisoned in Yokohama. He was held in an interrogation camp where he was subjected to solitary confinement and daily beatings. In this camp - where he was not allowed to speak (except to answer questions) - Birchall spent 6 grueling months.
Japanese destroyer Isokase
After this he was transferred to a work camp built in a baseball stadium. Conditions in the camp were harsh. Food rations were scarce and prisoners were basically on a starvation diet. Beatings were common, and everyone was forced to work regardless of their physical condition.
Birchall immediately began to win the respect of the other prisoners by arranging a system in the camp. By which he and the officers displayed the food disposed of to them. He was free to exchange rations with the officer if he found that the officers were given better food or had more food.
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He gave up smoking and convinced the other officers that cigarettes were the only product that offered any relief to the men in the camps. He and the officers donated their cigarette rations to the recruits. He was careful not to let a heavily addicted smoker trade food rations for cigarettes.
Despite the risk of severe punishment, he argued with the guards and demanded better treatment and rations for his men. If a guard attacked a particularly vulnerable prisoner, Birchall and the other officers would attack the guards on that prisoner's behalf.
On one occasion, a guard gave a particularly ill prisoner
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