I have been supplied through private email by two Goanetters incredible information. In the interest of preserving pieces of our oral histories even if it is on the Goanet server, I have collated both their accounts and share it with you, retaining their own words. It would be great if those who have provided this first hand anecdotal information take credit for it. Here it is.
---------- Three German freighters were caught on the high seas at the outbreak of the war in 1939 and made a dash for Mormugao harbour before they could be seized by the British. There they remained undisturbed as Portugal was not only a neutral country but with undisguised sympathies for the Axis. But the ships were fed with intelligence from Bombay spies on departures of cargo ships from Bombay, which were then torpedoed by German submarines roamong the Indian Ocean, one month taking a tol of 20 ships, which led to the counteraction described in the book and film. The ships were the Ehrenfels, Dragenfels and a third whose name the sender could not recall. After the destruction of the ships the crew dispersed in Goa. There were in total about 150 of them from the ships, found camping in the Candolim area, until they found jobs in the port-towns. Walter Sedlackzek, one of the survivors onboard these ships, married a Goan girl from Candolim, lived in Vasco worked with Sesa Goa, as a mechanical engineer, until he found a job on the ship. He has his family still living in Vasco. He was a serious philatelist and his privilege leave of 15 days was spent in sorting out his stamp auctions held in Calcutta and elsewhere. He eventually learnt Konkani and spoke it at home. Hartmann, another suvivor, with a loud guttural barking voice, married a bhatkann from Siolim. He always wore Khaki shorts and off-white shirts. He, however, was too proud of his German blood and bragged that he would never leave a drop of it in India. He remained faithful to his word and to half a dozen dogs which he looked after in the Sesa yard at Major Bunder. Erwin Tiegel, probably never spoke but always seemed to shout in his gruff German voice at the mechanics, welders and helpers he employed in his noisy workshop. Nobody in Vasco ever called him Tiegel. They knew him as Tiger and his workshop’s name board Tiger Marine in Patrong, across the railways tracks in Vasco. Tiegel is survived by his son Edward, who lives near the Goa Flour Mills at Chicalim. Until his death his icon was the battered and worn out greenish Volvkswagen Beetle care. Brietkork worked with the Timblos. His family lives in Mangor Hill, Vasco. Tall Fritz Dimsak, was into watch and camera repairs, with a hole of a shop opposite the former High Court building in Panjim. Dr. Victor Dias, there were rumours about that time about his German sympathies but nothing concrete. He was a thorn in the Portuguese, being openly pro-Indian. Being a prominent medical practitioner, at his death, the Portuguese wanted to wrap his coffin in a Portuguese flag which the family pointedly refused, preferring the Indian one.
