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Ceylon, or Sri Lanka as it is now, was administered as part of the British Empire and, as such, had naval, army and air bases. In early 1942 those bases were bombed by Japanese carrier-borne aircraft as part of a strategy to destroy as much of the British naval strength as possible. Some ships were sunk but most were moved south-west out of danger. The Japanese Navy were not able to do this again because of their losses in the western Pacific in May and June 1942.

Later many newer ships and aircraft were based in Ceylon as the allies started to recover from their first setbacks.

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13y ago

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