Valmiki Faleiro valmi...@gmail.com This was the valiant, even if purposeless, resistance by the NRP Afonso de Albuquerque, a medium-sized (1,800-tonne) Portuguese destroyer (an Aviso de 1ª Classe or Escoltador Oceânico, which means destroyer) that Portugal -- for reasons not clear -- called a frigate but the Lisbon media called a Cruzador or a cruiser, anchored at Mormugao. Indian intelligence relied on the Portuguese media description.
A cruiser is larger than a destroyer, and a destroyer is bigger and more powerful than a frigate. The Indian Navy took no chance. It pressed three frigates to take on what was thought to be a cruiser but was actually, in the words of Commodore Gilbert Menezes, VSM, from Raia-Salcete, a "junk" destroyer. After she was refloated and towed to Bombay, the vessel was moored alongside the training ship of then cadet Gilbert Menezes -- see a photo of him wearing a helmet of the Albuquerque before the gun turret of the INS Beas aboard which he did a brief sea sortie to Goa in 1962. [Cmde Gilbert Menezes is a pioneer submariner of the Indian Navy trained in the USSR and UK, now a veteran living in Goa. There were two Goans in the first batch of the Indian Navy's submariners trained at Vladivostok in the USSR. The other was Lieutenant Joseph DeSilva from Navelim-Salcete, brother of Vice Admiral John DeSilva. Lt DeSilva fell in love and married Olga, daughter of the Russian Naval Base Commander in Vladivostok, without taking the Indian Navy's prior permission to fall in love. He had to leave service. Cmde Menezes married a Goan and continued in the Indian Navy. His wife is daughter of Justino Barreto, a literally and figuratively tall pioneer manager of the Bank of India branch in Margao.] The Portuguese destroyer was built in the UK in 1934. After World War II she was revamped and rebranded as F470, though always accounted for in Portuguese Navy registers as a destroyer. Developing 20 knots, she had an operating radius of 8,000 nautical miles. Besides two depth-charge throwers and six multiple Pom-Pom guns (quick firing anti-aircraft guns nicknamed after the sound they produced when firing) of 80-mm and 40-mm calibre, she was armed with four 120-mm Vickers cannons, two fore and two aft, each capable of firing about one round a minute, or effectively five times a minute. The guns were manually controlled. Albuquerque was under the command of 57-year-old Captain (later Commodore) António da Cunha Aragão, who was looking forward to his transfer orders to Portugal, expected in January 1962. The three Indian frigates tasked to engage the Albuquerque were INS Betwa (under Cdr RKS Gandhi, head of the assault squadron), INS Cauvery (under Lt Cdr SV Mahadevan) and INS Beas (under Cdr TJ Kunnenkeril). Betwa and Beas, both diesel-propelled Type 41 Leopard class frigates built in Newcastle-UK in 1958/59, made speeds of 24 knots and, armed with twin semi-auto 4.5" Mark 6 turrets, could fire 16 rounds per minute each, with the latest British radar-controlled precision fire. The older Cauvery was slower, but the three Indian frigates could fire a total of 40 rounds per minute, against five of the Albuquerque, or eight times faster. Lieutenant Commander John Eric Gomes of Margao was on the Cauvery. He was later part of the landing at Mormugao (and led Christians in the Indian naval squadron for the midnight Christmas Mass at St. Andrew's Church, Vasco da Gama.) Albuquerque was battle ready at 6.55 am on 18 December 1961. Though the radio centre at Bambolim was put out of action by the IAF by 7.10 am, communications were kept open with Lisbon from this destroyer until about 10.30 am. The Indian task force of the three frigates entered Goan waters by 9 am. From around 11 am, the IAF began bombing the Mormugao harbour. Despite a shortage of personnel to man them, Albuquerque trained her pom-poms toward the IAF aircraft zooming overhead, without effect. Leader of the assault squadron, Cdr Gandhi, received orders to take on the Portuguese destroyer just before noon. Within seconds, signalling to the Beas and Cauvery to follow, he sped towards Mormugao at 23 knots, with the Beas sliding in astern of the Betwa. The Betwa fired a warning shot at around 12.15 pm from about seven kilometres and signalled to the Albuquerque by light, "Please surrender or I open fire". Albuquerque replied, "Wait". Cdr Gandhi waited precisely three minutes and then ordered, "Open fire!" As each of the three Indian frigates took turns firing, they continuously radioed in Morse calling upon the Albuquerque to surrender -- direct orders from New Delhi were to capture the warship intact. Besides facing far more rapid and superior (radar controlled) firepower and being outnumbered, the Portuguese warship was in a confined position, restricting her maneuverability. Yet, instead of surrendering, the defending warship lifted anchor and headed out to return the fire. Skipper of the destroyer, Capt Aragão, told the Naval Radio station at Alges, Portugal, "We are being attacked. We are answering." Albuquerque slid behind a Panama flag ore carrier, Ranger, docked in Mormugao. Indian naval fire hit the Ranger and "great quantities of ore started gushing out". The exchange of fire -- at a distance of about five kilometres -- continued for some 10 minutes. Portuguese sources claimed that the Albuquerque knocked off two Indian frigates that were quickly replaced by reserve frigates from the carrier group. Capt Aragão himself thought, mistakenly again, that he had hit the Betwa (F139) twice -- going by the thick clouds of dark smoke produced by diesel of Type 41 frigates when they suddenly revved up to high speeds. (Type 41 frigates were a novelty that used diesel instead of steam turbines for propulsion; only seven such warships were ever made -- four for the British Royal Navy and three for India: INS Brahmaputra, Beas and the Betwa.) Portuguese sources said the Indian frigates then used anti-personnel shrapnel bombs at about 12.25 pm. Lt Cdr John Eric Gomes rubbishes this, maintaining that no Indian frigate was hit or replaced. He said the Cauvery used only conventional ordnance (it was a 4-inch conventional shell fired by the Cauvery that finally did the Albuquerque in). Cdr Gandhi, however, says in the Indian Navy's official account of the ops that 25 per cent of Betwa's armament comprised of HE/VT (high explosive, variable time) shells filled with shrapnel and fitted with fuses that go off when only a few feet away from the target. His second broadside was a direct hit on the Albuquerque's antiaircraft gun director, which fell on the main director. Shrapnel killed and wounded several crew members of the Albuquerque, including Capt Aragão. The warship’s radio officer and four others were killed, 12 sailors were wounded. Captain Aragão was wounded in the chest (a three-inch long piece of shrapnel was later surgically extracted from his chest, just short of his heart). London’s Daily Telegraph described him as "the only hero of this whole tragic episode". Command was handed over to the No. 2, Captain José Maria Caldas Frazão Pinto da Cruz. Around 12.35 pm, the crew immobilized and wrecked the engines and boilers of the destroyer. Around 1.00 pm, the Albuquerque took a direct hit, swerved 180 degrees, and beached upright in 10 feet of water at the shore opposite Mormugao harbour. The coup de grâce was delivered by the Cauvery with a 4-inch salvo. Hoisting a large white flag, which curled around the mast (and was probably not seen by Indian naval personnel), the crew set the vessel on fire and disembarked by about 1.10 pm, swimming a distance of about 150 metres to the shore. Several of the 180 Portuguese sailors said they came under Indian naval fire when swimming ashore. Portuguese Colonel Carlos A Morais in his book, A Queda da Índia Portuguesa wrote that Indian warships continued to fire at the area where the crew took shelter. Cdr Gandhi said that moment he saw the Albuquerque had beached, he ordered cease fire and further "ordered the other two ships to withdraw and we made the necessary signals to Naval Headquarters to say that Albuquerque had been destroyed and was now lying sunk in Goa harbour." He also said, "We had received a fair amount of duff intelligence from Naval Headquarters." [That night (18 December 1961), Betwa was ordered to Tiracol, where intelligence reported the presence of a Portuguese frigate. When the Betwa got there, she saw a well-illuminated merchant ship loading iron ore at Redi port. Betwa fired a star shell to illuminate the area. Police in the village phoned Bombay to say that another Portuguese frigate was firing on them!] The Albuquerque crew was evacuated by Portuguese ground forces led by Comandante Abel de Oliveira to the Naval Club in Caranzalem. 1/Lt Mendes Rebelo evacuated the wounded in a vehicle and finally shifted Captain Aragão to the Hospital Escolar (teaching hospital) attached to the Escola Médica-Cirúrgica de Goa (forerunner of the Goa Medical College, whose edifice now houses the HQ of the International Film Festival of India) at Panjim by 5 pm on 18 December 1961. There were many unsung heroes at the Hospital Escolar. All were Goan: doctors and nurses tirelessly attending to casualties streaming in. They were led by Dr. João Manuel Pacheco de Figueiredo, Professor of Medicine and director of the medical school and hospital (later the first Dean of GMC) and Dr. Renato Fernandes, Professor of Surgery. Dr. Pacheco de Figueiredo’s son, Dr. John, a medical student at the time, recalls telling the father: "You should have been a General", to which the senior replied: "In a sense, I am; my enemies are disease and death." Four young officers of the Albuquerque had purchased a fifth-hand cream coloured Fiat 1100. They visited temples, churches and beaches and toured the hinterland of Goa on their off days in the car. Around three weeks before 18 December 1961 they took a narrow road that ended at a surprisingly beautiful palace. They must have strayed into the domain of the Lamgao Dessaiado of Rao Desai, traditional feudatory lords of a large area in what is today the Bicholim taluka. According to this author's journo friend, Anant Salkar, the palace is located about a kilometre from the Bicholim municipality, now a part of the Bicholim municipal area. The lone guard at the palace was armed with a Kropatschek. The foursome carried a machine gun, grenades and personal handguns when venturing in unchartered territory. Just then, a Rolls Royce drove in, halted, and from it emerged a man, who asked in chaste Portuguese, "Who are you gentlemen?" When the officers identified themselves, the man said, "I am the king of Bicholim." He insisted on playing host to the visitors -- overnight, a la Omar Khayyam, with wine, women and song -- at a palace the likes of which none of the four had seen before. They invited the 'king' aboard the Albuquerque and treated him to a lavish lunch about a fortnight before the hostilities. While departing, the 'king' insisted the four should visit his palace again. It was a "dinner suspended by history" (Visão História, Volume 14, 2011, Page 81). The Task Force leader, Cdr Rusi Gandhi, and Cdr Tommy Kunnenkeril, skipper of the Beas (a "very modest and likeable Malayali" in the words of Cmde Gilbert Menezes) visited Capt Aragão in hospital. Cdr Gandhi presented him with chocolates, flowers and brandy. As happens, enemy heroism, too, was recognised. The Portuguese destroyer was refloated, renamed Sarasvati and towed to the Naval Dockyard in Bombay in March 1962. Sarasvati was sold as scrap for Rs. 7.71 lakh precisely this day and month fifty-seven years ago (on 5 June 1965). Some retrieved parts are displayed at the Naval Museum in Mumbai. The sword of the Commanding Officer of Albuquerque is at the National Defence Academy at Khadakvasla in Pune. The queer historical significance of the two acts of Portuguese resistance: * Verna was the village that staged stiff resistance to Bijapuri rule in the early 16th century. Mhala Pai, a Sar Desai with sardeshmukhi rights over 28 mahals, equaling some 500 to 800 villages, constantly fought and chased Arab Muslim Navaiyats aka Rumis out of Goa. Navaiyats vented their anger on the largely Hindu natives every time Vijayanagar thwarted their sea trade of Arabian horses. Wealthy Navaiyats enjoyed the patronage of Mallik Yusuf Gurgi, the Turkish governor of Bijapur in Goa. Mhal Pai captured and held some Navaiyats. Gurgi forcibly released them and intensified persecution of natives. When frustration crept in, Mhal Pai with the help of Vijaynagar's Thimayya in Honavar invited the Portuguese to liberate Goa from Bijapuri Muslims in 1510. A Betala Sanyasi or a nude mendicant/yogi had prophesied that a foreign people from a distant land would free Goa from the Muslims. Mhal Pai knew it had to be the Portuguese who were then stationed in Cochin (now Kochi). Mhal Pai lived in Verna -- the village where, 451 years later, 450+ Portuguese troops of the Agrupamento Afonso de Albuquerque retreating from Margao to the last redoubt at Mormugao, as seen last week, offered the bloodiest resistance in Goa! * The Portuguese army formation that resisted the invading forces at Verna as well as the Portuguese destroyer that resisted the three frigates of the Indian Navy at Mormugao were named after the same man who, at Mhal Pai's invitation, liberated Goa from the stranglehold of Bijapuri Muslims in 1510 but did not, as may have been expected, take a fee and return to Cochin. He stayed back and laid the foundations for Portugal's littoral empire in Asia. His name was Afonso de Albuquerque. The incapacitated destroyer named after him had kept her four cannons ablaze until three became inoperative and she ran out of ordnance. She had fired 350-400 rounds (cannons and pom-poms) during the engagement. Her capitulation marked the end of Portuguese India. Symbolically, the Portuguese had arrived at Kapped (Kappakadavu/Kappukad) some 12 kms north of Calicut (Kozhikode) in India 463 years before (on 20 May 1498) with cannons blazing from their sail ships -- much the same way as when they were forced to depart. -- Excerpted from revised text of the book, Patriotism In Action: Goans in India’s Defence Services by Valmiki Faleiro, first published in 2010 by Goa,1556 (ISBN: 978-93-80739-06-9). Revised edition awaits publication. Photos follow: 1. Vice Admiral RKS Gandhi (courtesy: Military Wiki) 2. Lt Cdr John Eric Gomes (source: self collection) 3. Cadet (later Cmde) Gilbert Menezes aboard INS Beas (source: self collection) 4. Cmde António da Cunha Aragão (courtesy: Escola Naval, Portugal’s Naval Academy) 5. Portuguese destroyer, NRP Afonso de Albuquerque (courtesy: Visão História-Queda Índia Portuguesa, Volume 14, 2011, Page 25) PHOTOS NOT INCLUDED HERE *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- Join a discussion on Goa-related issues by posting your comments on this or other issues via email to goa...@goanet.org See archives at http://lists.goanet.org/pipermail/goanet-goanet.org/ *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-