How was Aanayiravu (Elephant Pass) captured?
How was Aanayiravu (Elephant Pass) captured?
Elephant Pass was a fort built by the Dutch around 1750-1800 and named Bascula. It was later passed on to the British and then to the Sinhalese army.
Elephant Pass is the neck-like area separating Jaffna and the Vanni mainland. Surrounded by large salt flats, Elephant Pass is a very safe camp for the enemy.
In 1999, the American “Green Belt” officers, who came to Sri Lanka in their assessment of Elephant Pass, gave a certificate that it was an impregnable military base. They were not wrong in what they said.
According to military theory, Elephant Pass is an impregnable base. The Tigers are exceptional in this. After the Tigers captured Elephant Pass, the whole world realized that their war strategy was also unbeatable by military theory.
How was Elephant Pass conquered?
The attempt to recapture Elephant Pass, dubbed “Operation Sky and Sea”, in 1991, not only lost a large area to the enemy, but also rendered Elephant Pass untenable. Although the siege failed, the war had given the LTTE “great traditional military expertise”.
If Elephant Pass was to be captured, it could only be won if the LTTE captured the supply route to the army, Vetrilakeni, and the main supply route to Kandy. Capturing both these areas would be a suicide.
No one would try that. But that was the route that the national leader had chosen and planned. It was a suicide plan that the enemy had never even dreamed of. The national leader had faith in Leema and ordered out the plan.
The first phase of the plan was the capture Kilinochchi and Vetrilakeni areas through operation “Oyatha Alaikal -3”, cutting off the sea supply route. Now, the Elephant Pass troops were dependent on supplies coming from the A-9 Kandy Road. Their drinking water had to come from the Paranthan area and from Iyakachi.
The next major step of the plan was to land 1200 fighters by sea under the command of Brigadier Balraj in Kudarappu. To prevent them from landing, more than 15 SLN torpedo boats attacked. At the same time, the enemy also attacked the fighters from the shore with 23mm cannons.
The Sea Tigers launched a major attack on the enemy on the shore and covered the way for the landing. At the same time, the Sea Tigers’ attack team prevented the enemy torpedo boats from approaching the fighters and chased them away, so that the 1200 fighters landed safely.
The enemy’s camp for 12 kilometers from Vetrilakeni to Kudarappu was destroyed, and after establishing supply lines for our troops, the 1200 fighters took up positions in a box.
Now the main food supply route for the enemy was also blocked. Now the connection between Elephant Pass and Palaly was through the Kalaly bank. More than 20 (big and small) operations were carried out from both sides to push Balraj from there.
There were only 1200 fighters among the 18,000 to 20,000 army near Elephant Pass near Palaly. Leema was like a betel nut stuck in the middle of a betel nut. The Sinhalese could not destroy them until the end.
To help them, the Karumpulikal team that infiltrated the Palaly area entered the enemy’s artillery base there and broke 11 artillery batteries, diverting the course of the battle. The leader’s camp was captured by Leema’s team, and the main water supply was also cut off.
Now only Paranthan was providing drinking water to the enemy. Despite several attempts, the Paranthan area could not be captured. The enemy held the Paranthan area strongly. Since only if Paranthan fell would the Elephant Pass fall, the enemy used all his strength.
The longer the attempt to capture Paranthan was delayed, the more the lives of the 1200 fighters who had landed were in danger. The ranks were reorganized and, in accordance with the national leader’s advice, the Kittu Artillery Regiment and the Kuttisiri Motor Regiment were organized and moved forward.
The responsibility of capturing the Thadduvan Koddy area was given to the Jayanthan Brigade. At the time of capturing the area, the artillery under the command of Col. Raju was moved very close to the enemy and the enemy’s Paranthan guards were destroyed by ground fire. This attack was directed by Brigadier Manivannan.
The Kiddu Artillery Regiment was firing mortar shells intensively at the fleeing army personnel due to this attack. At the same time, the Sea Tigers attacked the enemy’s coast guards with 23 MM guns from the Elephant Pass seawater lake and caused heavy damage.
Until then, the attack on the Paranthan area had taken place at night. This attack was carried out during the day and the Paranthan area was also captured. After that, a concentrated attack was carried out on the Elephant Pass with artillery and 120mm motorized rifles. Unable to withstand the attack, the enemy left their weapons and fled to Palaly.
This attack was coordinated by Brigadier Banu. After the liberation of Elephant Pass, where three thousand soldiers were killed, Banu himself hoisted the LTTE flag on 22/04/2000.
The enemy liberated the Elephant Pass camp, which was about to fall into the hands of the LTTE in 199. In the same way, the LTTE created a navy that we did not have at that time and after 9 years, on March 26, 2000, on a Sunday evening, the LTTE made a landing. They liberated Elephant Pass and showed the world the bravery and warfare skills of the Tamils.
(Correction by Tamilpriya)
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