World War II With the outbreak of
World War II, he joined the
Ceylon Light Infantry and was commissioned as a
Second Lieutenant in 1940 with the wartime expansion of the regiment within the
Ceylon Defence Force. Thereafter, he served in the 1st, 3rd and 4th
Battalions of the Ceylon Light Infantry and undertook several infantry courses in Ceylon and India. He was promoted to the
temporary rank of
Captain on 1 January 1943. In November 1943, he was transferred to the
British 14th Army operating in the
Burma Campaign on secondment with the
British Army. There he served with the
7th Battalion, 2nd Punjab Regiment which was under the
7th Indian Infantry Division in
Arakan, on the eastern side of Mayu Range. During the
Arakan campaign, he was captured by the Japanese and held in a
POW camp until the end of the war in 1945. After the war, he was demobilised and returned to work as a school teacher.
Ceylon Army With the formation of the
Ceylon Army in 1949, he transferred to the
regular force with the rank of
Major in the 1st Battalion, Ceylon Light Infantry which was briefly named the Ceylon Infantry Regiment. He also served as the Chief Security Officer of the
Ceylon Government Railway from 1949 to 1951. He then served as the Army Recruiting Officer and Commanded the Recruit Training Depot. In 1956, he was serving as the
Garrison Commander, Diyatalawa when he was dispatched to
Ampara after
communal rioting broke out with a detachment of Ceylon Light Infantry to assist the police to subdue the riots. Later he served as the Coordinating Officer for
Batticaloa. Promoted to
lieutenant colonel, he served as the
commanding officer of the 1st Battalion, Ceylon Light Infantry from November 1959 to November 1962. In February 1961, he was dispatched to
Jaffna with the 1st Battalion, after the
Federal Party launched a
Satyagraha against the language policy of the government. The government having declared a
state of emergency under the
Public Security Act had Udugama break up the protest and arrest its leaders. Establishing a command headquarters, in the
Jaffna Kachcheri, Udugama now promoted to the rank of
colonel, was appointed Garrison Commander, Troops Jaffna in command of all army units in the Jaffna District which included the Ceylon Light Infantry and the
Ceylon Sinha Regiment to ensure that the civil unrest by the Federal Party was stopped. He remained in Jaffna until February 1962, when he was recalled to Colombo to take up the post of
Chief of Staff of the army following an
attempted coup d'état by senior army and police officers.
Army Commander Although not connected to the attempted coup, Army Commander Major General
H.W.G. Wijeyekoon was forced to retire by the government of Prime Minister
Sirima Bandaranaike on 31 December 1963. Bandaranaike appointed Udugama to succeed Wijeyekoon with the promotion to the rank of
Brigadier on 1 January 1964. Brigadier Udugama became the first
Sinhalese Buddhist and combat experienced officer to be appointed as Army Commander. Given that the officers connected to the attempted coup were all Christian, Bandaranaike had preferred appointing Udugama over the more senior Colonel
Bertram Heyn, given that he was a Buddhist and kinsmen from a Kandyan Radala family. He increased the intake of Buddhist officers to the army and increased the focus on jungle warfare training, having established links with
Yugoslavia. He also encouraged sports within the army. He was later promoted to the rank of
Major General. ==Later years==