Chennai, earlier called Madras, was the only city in India that got bombed in both the World Wars.
World War I
The evening of September 22, 1914, in Madras was typical. German light cruiser SMS Emden, under Captain Karl von Müller, made a stealthy approach to the port city of Madras, located on the Indian peninsula’s southeast coast. In later writings, he stated, “I had this shelling in view purely as a demonstration to create interest among the Indian population, to impede English business, and to erode English prestige.” The city didn’t know that a raider was being guided to the coast by her brightly glittering lights and well-lit buoys as she got ready for bed. When Emden was roughly 3,000 yards from the pier heads, she turned on her searchlights. Close by was the white with red stripe-painted oil tanks belonging to Burmah Company. According to the first lieutenant of Emden, “a few shells fired in that direction, a quick upleap of bluish-yellow flames, streams of liquid fire pouring out through the holes left by our shots, and an enormous black cloud of dense smoke caused the enemy’s property sent into the air, which was valued at several million dollars.”
There were about 130 shots fired. Two of the five oil tanks that were hit caught fire. A steamer in the harbor was destroyed by several rounds, while additional shots slightly damaged the city. Madras shook. Numerous people ran away out of fear, which sparked anarchy and looting. In the Bay of Bengal, shipping operations ended. The economy was halted. The cost of necessities skyrocketed. Emden left Madras behind in the smoke and moved toward the Aden-Colombo and Colombo-Penang-Singapore routes.
Emden had already achieved sudden fame. Müller didn’t mean to damage the Indian people when he bombarded Madras; instead, he sought to frighten the residents and degrade the British. The horrors of World War I were first — and last — experienced in an Indian region. Soon, the word “Emden” would appear in both Tamil (Emden) and Malayalam (Yamandan) dictionaries to denote a variety of concepts, including “strict and authoritative,” “daring and capable,” “big and powerful,” and “manipulative and clever.” Older adults would utilize mythology to frighten young children, and songs would be written about Emden’s adventures.
World War II
Legends have developed around the German ship Emden’s bombing of Madras in 1914. Still, nothing is known or remembered about the difficult times the city experienced in 1942 and 1943 when it lived in constant terror of Japanese aircraft. In actuality, Madras was bombed by a lone Japanese scout in October 1943.
World War II was still raging at the time. The Japanese air force and navy took Singapore and the Andaman Islands from the British through daring strikes in the eastern seas. In retaliation, American aircraft that took off from the Indian air base destroyed Japanese ships in Port Blair. The Bay of Bengal was under evident and immediate threat.
The first assault took place in Colombo, which is closer to home. On Easter Sunday, April 5, at around eight in the morning, 75 Japanese planes dive-bombed the harbor and surrounding regions and started firing machine guns. According to the British, the onslaught was successfully repelled. Speaking in Tamil, Sir Andrew Caldecott, Governor of Ceylon, pleaded with business owners close to the harbor not to become alarmed. He tried to soothe people by saying that the death toll was only 50, “far less than the everyday casualties from the street accidents in London.”
A single Japanese plane bombed Cocanada (Kakinada), a port city 700 miles north of Madras, on April 6 at around seven in the morning, hitting two ships and killing one person while injuring five others. There would be more. A few planes struck Vishakapatnam, another port city, at 1.45 in the afternoon. At five o’clock in the evening, they made a second attack. There were around 20 bombs dropped, and the officials acknowledged that five people died and forty were injured.
On April 7, around 4.35 in the morning, an air-raid alert forcefully awakened everybody up. The next hour was possibly the most agonizingly painful the city had ever experienced. No bombs had been dropped, and no guns had been fired when the “all-clear” signal was issued at 5.55 a.m. Although there was no damage, Madras was in a frenzy. Every day, about 50,000 people leave the city. The trains were crammed to the gills. Those who arrived at the station in the evening discovered no lights on the platforms. Some people were concerned that the station’s noise would prevent them from hearing the alerting siren. To get a seat, anxious males “pushed their ladies and children through the windows like bundles.” Chaos and bewilderment reigned. People hastily left, leaving their doors unlocked in their homes. Restaurants and hotels were shuttered, and the streets were deserted. Special trains were used to transport inmates to jails in Andhra Pradesh, and wild animals in the zoo were slain as a precaution. The frantic city turned itself into silence.
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