Ex- Services – Sri Lanka Ex- Servicemen’s Association

Schedule of meetings of SLESA

The monthly meeting of the Finance, Budgeting and Planning will be held on April 17 at 10am at the SLESA Secretariat.

The Executive Committee meeting of the SLESA will be held on April 20 at 4pm at Danture Hall of the Sri Lanka Ex-Servicemen's Institute, Bristol Street, Colombo 1.

Office bearers

The following office bearers were elected for 2012/2013 at the Annual General Meeting of the Matale Ex-Servicemen's Association on March 31.

Patron: District Secretary, Matale; Vice Patrons: Commanding Officer 1st Special Forces – SLA, Commanding Officer 7th Gajaba Regiment – SLA and T M M Tennakoon (rtd) – SLN; President: C J de Silva – SLN; Vice Presidents?Lt (rtd) M Mettananda – SLN, Captain A Obeysekera – SLA and M Weeraman – SLAF; Hony Secretary: E M C Ekanayake – SLA; Hony Assistant Secretary: R M S A Wijerathna - SLA and Hony Treasurer - R M Dingiribanda - SLA

The following office bearers were elected for 2012/2013 at the Annual General Meeting of the Sri Lanka Ex-Service Personnel's Association in United Kingdom on March 3.

President: Wing Commander Sanath Sahabandu; Vice President: Major Selva Sathanandan; Hony Secretary: Flying Officer Asela Wickramasinghe; Hony Treasurer : Piyasena Seneviratne; Event Coordinator: Flt Lt Nuwan Kadurugamuwa ; Legal Secretary: Major Selva Sathanandan; Committee Members: Brigaider Nimal Premasiri, Major V B Karunaratne, Noville Jayamaha, Col Pasan Kularatne,

Captain Ravi Hewagama and Sqn Ldr Yassa Dissanayake.

Ceylon Ex-Servicemen's Association Australia Branch Inc office bearers

President: Errol Perera; Vice Presidents: Cholmondely Willenberg; Hony Secretary: Reggie Oorloff; Hony Treasurer: Chris J Lawton; Asst Secretary: Stanley Rebera; Social Secretary?: Irvine Able; Editor: Chris J Lawton and Committee Members: Elmo Wise, Wilhelm Ohlmus, Robin Edwards, Arden Perkins, Leslie Fernando and Morseth Bahar

AMENDMENTS TO CONSTITUTION - SRI LANKA EX-AIR FORCE ASSOCIATION

It was unanimously adopted at the 31st Annual General Meeting of the association on August 21 to amend the existing rules where ever necessary and the affiliated associations and individual members if any were requested to submit their proposals to the president of the Sri Lanka Ex-Air Force Association. A rules committee was also appointed. However, no proposals came in and the committee could not meet.

The Board of Management appointed a committee to review the rules and present the amended rules at the next Annual General Meeting in August for approval and adoption.

The following programme will be followed: To request affiliated associations to forward proposals if any on or before May 15, 2012 to the president, Sri Lanka Ex-Air Force Association, 447/B, Godella Watta, Malambe; the committee will meet as and when necessary to review the proposals received; on June 15, 2012, the committee will invite the president and the secretary of the affiliated associations and any individual member who has submitted proposals for discussion; after that the committee will finalise the rules and forward copies to affiliated associations and to individual members if any; we hope that this procedure will lead to the adoption of the new rules without wasting time at the annual general meeting.

World War II - Mussolini arrested

The spring and summer of 1943, were spent both by the Germans and Russians to make preparations for large offensives in Central Russia. Germany attacked Soviet forces on July 4, 1943, around the Kursk Bulge. However, within a week, the German forces were exhausted in fighting the Russian forces which were well defended. This forced Hitler to cancel the operation. This decision was also affected by the Western allies invasion of Sicily on July 9 which combined with previous Italian failures, resulted in the ousting and arrest of Mussolini, later that month.

The Soviet victory at Kursk heralded the down fall of German superiority and further counter offensives by the Russians gave the initiative on the Eastern front.

The Germans with the hastily fortified panther water line attempted to stabilise their eastern front. However the Russians broke through it at Smolensk and by the lower Drieper offensives.

The Western allies invaded the Italian mainland in September 1943, following an armistice with the allies, by Italy. This was responded by Germany by disarming Italian forces, seizing the control of some areas and creating a series of defensive lines. The Italian social Republic was created by Mussolini after he was rescued by German Special Forces. In mid -November, Western allies fought through several lines until reaching the main defensive line.

The German submarine losses in May 1943, forced a temporary halt to the German atlantic Naval Capaign, due to the allied counter measures being increasingly effective.

Franklin D Roosevelt of America and Winston Churchill of England met Chiang-Kai-Shek in Cairo and Joseph Stalin in Teheran. The former conference determined the past war return of the Japanese territory, and the latter included agreement with the Western allies, would invade Europe in 1944 and the Soviet Union would declare war on Japan within three months of the German defeat. The Chinese forced Japan to fight a costly war of attrition while awaiting relief, at the 7 week Battle of Changde, from November 1943. The allies launched a series of attacks at Monte Casino and attempted to out bank it with landings at Anzio in January 1944.

German Forces were expelled from the Leningrad region by a major Soviet offensive by the end of January ending the longest and the most lethal siege in history. The Estonians hoping to re-establish national independence aided the German Army to halt the Russian offensive on the pre- war Estonian border.

This delayed the subsequent operations in the Baltic sea Region. The Russians had liberated Crimea, mostly expelled Axis forces from Ukraine and made in roads into Romania. On June 4, 1944 Rome was captured by an allied offensive in Italy, at the expense of allowing several German divisions to retreat.