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L. P. Balagalle
General Lionel Piyananda Balagalle, (15 June 1947 – 26 October 2023), was a senior Sri Lanka Army officer, who served as the Commander of the Sri Lanka Army and the Chief of the Defence Staff. He is known for formalising military intelligence operations within the Sri Lanka Army, having founded the Directorate of Military Intelligence and the Military Intelligence Corps. Early life and education Born in Colombo, both Balagalle's parents were teachers. Having received his primary education in a rural school in Ratnapura, he attended Ananda College for his secondary education. He excelled in sports winning college colours. He was a senior school prefect and a cadet. Military career Artillery officer Balagalle studied medicine before he joined the Ceylon Army as an Officer Cadet on 5 April 1965. Receiving his basic training at the Army Training Centre, Diyatalawa, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 4th Regiment, Ceylon Artillery on 5 April 1967 and was pro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
General
A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air force, air and space forces, marines or naval infantry. In some usages, the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED Online. March 2021. Oxford University Press. https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/77489?rskey=dCKrg4&result=1 (accessed May 11, 2021) The adjective ''general'' had been affixed to officer designations since the late medieval period to indicate relative superiority or an extended jurisdiction. French Revolutionary system Arab system Other variations Other nomenclatures for general officers include the titles and ranks: * Adjutant general * Commandant-General, Commandant-general * Inspector general * General-in-chief * General of the Air Force (USAF only) * General of the Armies, General of the Armies of the United States (of America), a title created for General John J. Pershing, and subsequently grante ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Commissioned Officer
An officer is a person who holds a position of authority as a member of an armed force or uniformed service. Broadly speaking, "officer" means a commissioned officer, a non-commissioned officer (NCO), or a warrant officer. However, absent contextual qualification, the term typically refers only to a force's ''commissioned officers'', the more senior members who derive their authority from a commission from the head of state. Numbers The proportion of officers varies greatly. Commissioned officers typically make up between an eighth and a fifth of modern armed forces personnel. In 2013, officers were the senior 17% of the British armed forces, and the senior 13.7% of the French armed forces. In 2012, officers made up about 18% of the German armed forces, and about 17.2% of the United States armed forces. Historically armed forces have generally had much lower proportions of officers. During the First World War, fewer than 5% of British soldiers were officers (partly beca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Deolali
Deolali, or Devlali (), is a small hill station and a census town in Nashik district of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Now it is part of Nashik Metropolitan Region. Deolali has an important army base. Deolali Camp, one of the oldest Indian military centres in the country, started the Air Force Station, the School of Artillery of the Indian Army, and other establishments in this region. Deolali has plenty of temples and tourist destinations. History British period Deolali was a British Army camp 100 miles north-east of Mumbai (then called Bombay). It was the original location of the Army Staff College (later the Defence Services Staff College of India and the Pakistan Command and Staff College). It is also the source of the British slang noun :wikt:doolally tap, doolally tap, loosely meaning "camp fever", and referring to the apparent madness of men waiting for ships back to Britain after finishing their tour of duty. By the 1940s this had been widely shortened to just ":wikt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Indian Army
The Indian Army (IA) (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the Land warfare, land-based branch and largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Commander-in-Chief, Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of the Army Staff (India), Chief of the Army Staff (COAS). The British Indian Army, Indian Army was established on 1 April 1895 alongside the long established presidency armies of the East India Company, which too were absorbed into it in 1903. Some princely states maintained their own armies which formed the Imperial Service Troops which, along with the Indian Army formed the land component of the Armed Forces of the Crown of India, responsible for the defence of the Indian Empire. The Imperial Service Troops were merged into the Indian Army after Independence of India, independence. The units and regiments of the Indian Army have diverse histories and have participated in several battles and campaigns around the world, earnin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1971 JVP Insurrection
The 1971 Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) insurrection (also known as the 1971 Revolt) was the first of two unsuccessful armed revolts conducted by the communist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) against the socialist United Front Government of Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) under Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike. The revolt began on 5 April 1971 and lasted until June of that year. The insurgents held towns and rural areas for several weeks, until the regions were recaptured by the armed forces, following strong support from friendly nations that sent men and material. Although this first attempt to seize power was quickly crushed by force, in 1987 the JVP launched a low-intensity insurgency in the island's southern, central and western regions that lasted several years. The insurrection formally began in 1971, but the first attacks took place in 1970. The JVP fought the right-wing United National Party (UNP) before launching an island-wide, militant opposition to the newly elected, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Troop
A troop is a military sub-subunit, originally a small formation of cavalry, subordinate to a squadron. In many armies a troop is the equivalent element to the infantry section or platoon. Exceptions are the US Cavalry and the King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery where a troop is a subunit comparable to an infantry company or artillery battery. Historically the remainder of the Royal Horse Artillery used the term ''troop'' in the same manner but they eventually aligned with the rest of the Royal Regiment of Artillery in referring to troops as subordinate to artillery batteries. ''Troops'' is often used to refer to the other members of one's company or cause, but because of its military connotations, it conveys a particularly altruistic type of dedicated worker. Traditionally, ''troops'' refers to the soldiers in a military. A cavalry soldier of private rank is called a " trooper" in many Commonwealth armies (abbreviated "Tpr", not to be confused with "trouper"). A re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ceylon Artillery
The Sri Lanka Artillery (SLA) is the artillery arm of the Sri Lanka Army. It is made up of ten regular regiments and two volunteer regiments. The SLA is headquartered at Panagoda Cantonment, Panagoda. The emblem of the SLA is modeled after that used by the Royal Artillery, but with the lion from both the flag and emblem instead of the crown, with the lion depicted holding the Kastane sabre. Unlike other artillery units in the Commonwealth the SLA is entitled to a strand of Colours. History Ceylon Artillery Volunteers The roots of the Sri Lanka Artillery goes back to 1888, when on 12 April 1888 the Ceylon Artillery Volunteers was formed as a gun battery under the command of Captain C.E.H Symons of the Royal Artillery to man a gun battery equipped with BL 12-pounder 6 cwt guns. By 1901 it numbered a strength of 162. In 1910, its headquarters was moved to Galle Buck Road in Colombo Fort (which is now part of SLNS Parakrama). During World War I the Ceylon Artillery Volunteers w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Army Training Centre, Diyatalawa
The Sri Lanka Military Academy () (SLMA or SLMA Diyatalawa), commonly known simply as Diyatalawa, is the oldest military academy in Sri Lanka, and trains commissioned officers for the Sri Lanka Army. It is located in the garrison town of Diyatalawa in the central highlands of Sri Lanka. It has capacity to train more than 300 cadets. History Army Training Centre Diyatalawa had been the traditional training grounds for the Ceylon Defence Force. When the Ceylon Army was raised in 1949, the need arose to recruit and train officers and soldiers of the newly formed regular army. The first batch of ten Officer Cadets were enlisted to the Army on the 10 October 1949 and were dispatched to Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. The Army Recruit Training Depot (ARTD) was formed in Diyatalawa on 6 February 1950 for the purpose of training recruits. The first batch of 114 recruits passed out from the ARTD on 2 June 1950. The ARTD was later named as the Army Training Centre (ATC). The Ceylon Army ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ananda College
Ananda College () is a Prestigious Buddhist school in Colombo, Sri Lanka. It is often known as "The Pinnacle of buddhist education " It is the largest national Buddhist school for boys in Sri Lanka, with a student population exceeding 8000 across 13 grades. It was established as the Buddhist English high school by Colonel Henry Steel Olcott in 1886, following the national renaissance which took place in latter half of the colonial Ceylon. Early history Following a meeting of Buddhists at Pettah, under the patronage of Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala Thera, an English-Buddhist school was inaugurated at 19 Prince Street on 1 November 1886 by the Buddhist Theosophical Society. The first session was attended by 37 students. In 1888, when about 130 boys were attending, it moved to 61 Maliban Street. C. W. Leadbeater was appointed the first principal of ''Ananda today.'' By the time the school was officially registered in March 1889, there were 120 students. That same year, J. P. R. W ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ratnapura
Ratnapura (, ; , ) ("City of Gems" in Sinhala and Tamil) is a major city in Sri Lanka. It is the capital city of Sabaragamuwa Province, as well as the Ratnapura District, and is a traditional centre for the Sri Lankan gem trade. It is located on the Kalu Ganga (Black River) in south-central Sri Lanka, some southeast of the country's capital, Colombo. Ratnapura is also spelled as Rathnapura. The name 'Ratnapura' is a Sanskrit word meaning "city of gems", from the Sanskrit words ''pura'' (town) and ''ratna'' (gemstone). Over 2000 years ago, when the first Buddhist monks arrived here from the north eastern provinces of India namely Bodh-Gaya, Varanasi and Pataliputra, they not only brought with them the Buddhist religion, but since their teachings were mainly in Sanskrit and Pali they also influenced the local language. While candy produced from the jaggery palm is traditionally known in this region as ''ratnapura'', it is more likely that the candy was named for the locale ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Military Intelligence Corps (Sri Lanka)
The Military Intelligence Corps (MIC) is one of the corps of the Sri Lanka Army. It is responsible for clandestine and covert operations to gathering military intelligence, counter-intelligence, cyberwarfare, HUMINT, intelligence assessment, ISTAR, military intelligence gathering and analysis, military secrets security, and SIGINT. Regular battalions *1st Military Intelligence Corps *2nd Military Intelligence Corps *4th Military Intelligence Corps *5th Military Intelligence Corps Volunteer battalions *3rd (V) Military Intelligence Corps (Formed on 21 April 2004) *6th (V) Military Intelligence Corps (Formed on 14 January 2011) Notable members *General Lionel Balagalle - former Commander of the Army and founder of the Military Intelligence Corps * [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
