AFVOA Newletter August 2020

Section 5 - Memoirs CV 2 No. 02 / 2020 Page 96 of 237 Japanese aircrafts over Madras The lone bombing I also recall the Madras floods in 1943, after a cyclone, when severe rains had lashed Madras and the city was draped into utter darkness at that time, which was when “a lone Japanese aircraft on reconnaissance flew over our city and dropped arsenals. And no one knew that the city was bombed for about a week! Newspapers couldn’t report it because of the inflicted power cut,” Venkatesh Krishnan adds in his narration of Madras in war years. I reminisce how we practised mock drills every day alerting to rehearsals of sirens sounding and taking shelter, in the air raid shelters and the safety trenches built in the school that I went to. In school and in public places, it was always the Anthem, God Save the King, that was sung, and in cinema theatres every one stood up to sing together the benediction. The theatres were few and there were hardly any ceiling fans in many of them. The halls would be full of troops, on transit from Europe and from the colonies of the British Empire. The sight of them in their uniform and their authoritarian displays would chill us with fear. Then there was the evacuation of the city. My family was also one of the evacuees when two-thirds of the city was empty as people fled. Says, Venkatesh, “While the humans in the city could flee and escape, animals in theMadras zoo were shot dead, fearing bombings and what would happen with wild animals on the run. Buildings were to be painted grey and newspapers were pasted on glass windows. People including fishermen, who hid under their boats, in Marina after 6 pm were caught and fined/arrested.” Though the war happened miles away, it touched several lives. “The awareness about Madras’ participation in the war is zero. People only remember the evacuation. But, the participation reshaped the city, politics, movies, medical facilities and what not,” he adds. I do not remember Paramasiva Prabakar Kumaramangalam‘ fighting from Libya then and being held a prisoner of war in Italy and Germany, and who later