The only liberation movement in the world with its own Navy
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is the only movement in the world that has its own navy (Sea Wing).
Even the world’s most famous movement, the Palestinian Liberation Movement, has never had a Sea Wing of its own. Sri Lanka has a coastline of 833 miles. Tamil Eelam has a relatively long coastline compared to Sri Lanka.
The national leader of Tamil Eelam Velupillai Prabhakaran has come to the conclusion that those who are influential in the large sea areas and coastline of Tamil Eelam, will stay in front of and forward in Tamil Eelam.
For this, the national leader decided to set up a division called the Sea Tigers. That is the most far-sighted view. Colonel Shankar, also known as Vaithilingam Sornalingam, was instrumental in the formation of the Sea Tigers in the 1990s.
Soosai (Thillaiyambalam Sivanesan) from Valvettithurai took charge as the leader of the Marine Tigers Division of 3000 fighters. People like Anthony Johnson, also known as Gangai Amaran, strengthened his arm. 300 Sea Tigers were given special training in submarine swimming in the Urikkadu area of Jaffna.
Initially, Sea Tigers roamed with the help of small boats and fishing boats. They had to flee if they saw naval warships At this point, the Sea Tigers’ boats were gradually positioned with powerful caliber rifle weapons.
In 1990, the Sri Lankan navy ship Edithara was attacked by Black Tigers at Valvettithurai. In May 1991, Sea Black Tigers attacked a command ship named Abitha. Two Sea Black Tigers, Jeyanthan and Sithambaram, collided with a boat loaded with bombs and sank. (Later a LTTE brigade was named Jeyanthan Brigade.)
In 1991, the Sea Tigers emerged as a full-fledged superpower. They began to clash head-on with the Marines in the Mediterranean. In 1992, the Sri Lankan government tried to prevent the LTTE and civilians from arbitrarily boarding boats off the coast of Galle. To this end, it set up a naval base at Nagadevanthurai.
With the support of the Sri Lankan Military it attacked and destroyed a camp of Sea Tigers at Madakal on the northwestern tip of the Jaffna Peninsula. Now is the time for the Tigers. The LTTE planned retaliation. As a part of it, Navy Admiral Clancy Fernando was killed on November 16th 1992 in the Galle Face Grounds, Colombo.
The Tigers then left the bomb-laden boat in the waters off Point Pedro, destroying the Navy’s state-of-the-art Dora Dora artillery. The Navy stopped patrolling the Gulf of Galilee in 1993 after a Dora artillery boat was wrecked by Sea Tigers on Lake Galilee.
When the LTTE attacked and destroyed the Poonakary Army Camp, Nagadevanthurai Naval Base in 1993, the role of the Sea Tigers was enormous. As a reward, the Tigers captured 2 high speed water jets from the Sri Lanka Navy.
With the arrival of these waterjet boats the strength of the Sea Tigers increased even more.
The Sea Tigers began to engage in a variety of missions, including conducting naval battles, destroying enemy cells, preventing the enemy from landing at sea, loading large numbers of tigers by sea, and unloading ground ships into the Mediterranean.
On September 20th 1994, the LTTE sank the naval vessel Sagarawardana near Mannar. Only 18 people survived, including Naval Lieutenant Commodore Ajit Poyagoda, who was a high-ranking officer on the 43-member ship.
Ajith Poyagoda, who was captured by the LTTE, was then held captive by the LTTE for 8 years. During the LTTE’s “Oyaatha Alaihal” attack on the Mullaitivu camp, the LTTE attacked on three sides by land and by sea on the fourth. The Tigers landed and attacked. The Mullaitivu camp was besieged on all four sides.
During the second phase of the “Oyaatha Alaihal – 3”, the LTTE loaded artillery in a large boat and attacked the Mannar Army camp on the island. The Mannar Army camp was stationed in the fort area on the island of Mannar. The Sea Tigers set out from the Nachikuda base via Pallimunai beach and tried to capture the island of Mannar. 7 sq km to Kilinochchi City. There was a time when Sea Tigers patrolled by boats as they came to sea in the vast Ranaimadu pond.
The Sea Tigers had a radar-enabled base in the Sundikulam area in the south-eastern corner of the Jaffna Peninsula. The Sea Tigers had set up bases in the swampy, well-watered, and shallow areas. When the enemy abandoned Poonakary and slipped away, the Tigers set up base there.
Following the landing of Normandy during World War II and the landing of Incheon during the Korean War, the Tigers made an immortal place in world history by assisting it with boats during Brigadier Balraj’s “Kudarappu Operation”.
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