There is a story that Erlich came to Goa as a civilian, a few months before the invasion, to spy the layout of the land. And as a civilian, he was allowed practically free access to the Dabolim airport, tarmac and all, which was then a civilian airport. Don't know if this story is true or false.
Having seen the airport, that was free of any military aircraft and fortifications, wonder why there was a perceived need, on part of the IAF/Navy, to bombard the place. In any case, at least one civilian aircraft took off from the damaged airport under the cover of darkness (piloted by the very guy who was in charge of the airport, as he knew every inch of it), so bombarding it only made it impossible for the IAF/Navy to land any planes at Dabolim (they were circling around overhead for most part of the day on the day after the invasion - yep I saw them). And if Goa was indeed "liberated", why is the airport still in the hands of the Navy? BTW, some of those photographs have been on the supergoa.com site for years now. As to the other photograph, which you made a reference to me somehow, please note the following observation in a published report... "During the first two days following the conquest, of course, there were a few Goans, especially among the Hindus, who joined the renegade supporters of the integration movement and others who had come to Goa as camp-followers of the Indian army, singing hosannas to the conquerors and to their all-powerful patron in New Delhi. Inevitably, there was some flag-waving and cracker-firing, even if it was not spontaneous."... Check also the news in the TIME magazine of the period. --- On Sun, 21/9/08, Francis Rodrigues <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > From: Francis Rodrigues <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: [Goanet] Nostalgia #8 > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Received: Sunday, 21 September, 2008, 3:39 PM > Nostalgia Pic #8: > _____________ > > 1961: A portrait of Goan Air Vice Marshal Erlic Pinto, the > Indian Air Force's > Operations Commander-in-Chief (Western Air Command), who > was in overall > command of the IAF's Goa Operations during the December > 1961 Liberation of > Goa. Powerful air-cover sweeping from Diu to Pune provided > a secure canopy > for the invading Indian troops. Sadly, this great son of > Goa perished exactly > 45 years ago this year, in an helicopter crash on November > 22nd 1963. > > http://2008goanconvention.com/nostalgia.php > > > FR. > _________________________________________________________________ Make the switch to the world's best email. Get Yahoo!7 Mail! http://au.yahoo.com/y7mail
