Poppies Bloom 2013

Poppy flowers arrived at the Colombo Port from Royal British Legion, through Royal Commonwealth Ex-Services League, UK which will initiate the Poppy Campaign for this year.

Air Vice Marshal KRA Ranasinghe will function as Chairman, AFRD and Poppy Committee while Major General KAMG Kularatne and Rear Admiral LD Dharmapriya as Co-Chairmen. Twenty five Committee Members are appointed from affiliated associations.

Sri Lanka Ex-Naval Logisticians' Committee meeting

The Sri Lanka Ex-Naval Logisticians Association will hold it's committee meeting on June 16, 2013 at 4 pm at the SLESA Secretariat, No 29 1/1, Bristol Street, Colombo 1.

Gajaba Veterans' Association AGM

Gajaba Veterans’ Association will hold it's Annual General Meeting on June 16 at 10 am at the SLESA Secretariat, No. 29 1/1, Bristol Street, Colombo 1.

AGM and family get-together

The Annual General Meeting and Family Get-together of the ‘Ex-Naval Friends 1968-Batch’ (The Members of SLNA who joined the Navy in 1968) will be held on June 16 at the Pensioner's Holiday Resort Reception Hall, No 30, Wedamulla, Kelaniya from 9.30 am . All members are invited to join the annual event.

Memoirs of a War Veteran

Every day every hour Abyzov spent in the German Democratic Republic was occupied with thoughts of the past. Demolished buildings which had not yet been rebuilt or completely removed, invalids (those who were too young to be in the war did not attract his attention), the names of towns and places he (Abyzov) had passed through.. Time cannot destroy the memories of the past. ‘You cannot run away from them, because you cannot run away from yourself’ thought Abyzov.

He arrived on a Saturday and all the official meetings and tours were to start on Monday. His (Abyzov) interpreters and he roamed about the city at random. Now, it was livelier in Unter den Linden. The windows of bookshops were attracting the crowds. Many people were studying posters too and quite a few were passing through the open gate of the state library. They walked over a bridge spinning a narrow spree to find themselves in the more Eagles Platz and then in Alescanderplatz.

He could not recognize anything because so many new buildings have gone up since the war. There was a lot of concrete, light coloured, light weight metal, glass, ceramics and plastics. It seemed as if only the city hall and the museum buildings had survived from the early days and their walls still bore the scars of shell splinters and bullets.

They were in the centre of Berlin. In May 1945, there had not been a single building left undamaged. There had been ruins everywhere. The streets were blocked with bricks, trees and crippled military equipment and the Germans, emaciated women, children and old people looked with bewilderment at the Russian Soldiers.

They knew who was really responsible for the war, and they were waging a relentless battle against their enemy. But they had no intention of punishing the people, on the contrary, they began to help them, almost as soon as they entered Berlin. Their field kitchens and bread vans surrounded by crowds of Germans were a common sight these days.

Soon after Victory Day, their division was transferred to a place near Liepzig. The Bogan Regiment was stationed in village called Wehrmsdorf. In the beginning the local population hid away from them (Russians) in the cellars. Hitler's propaganda had painted of distorted picture of Soviet officers and men, describing them as ‘barbarians’, were doing their hardest to get things going; to put establishments to make sure that the German children returned to school on time. Lieutenant Kiselyov, the Platoon Commander and a former school teacher, himself helped reorganize studies at schools in Wehmsdof. When harvest time came their battalions went into fields and helped the farmers gather their crops of potatoes and grain.

Their section was put up at the postman's house. He was an old man and in the beginning he was tight lipped and looking at them with hostility. They could understand him, two of his sons had been killed in Russia and the third a Wehrmacht Officer had fled to the west. But when they helped the local population gather the harvest, he said he could not understand them.