Recall : Mysore In Goa

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[color=black][font=Tahoma]Almost exactly fifty years ago those of us serving in the flagship INS Mysore guessed that something was brewing. Our long refit was cut short abruptly and we were ordered to get the cruiser fighting fit. Top secret of course, but soon the washermen serving the naval officers’ flats in Colaba were in the know as hundreds of white uniform shirts and shorts poured in as no one knew how long we would be at sea. Doubtless the dhobis guessed that we were bound for Goa, that pimple on the face of India in Pandit Nehru’s derisive words. I had just proposed to a girl barely past her twenty first birthday.[/font][/color]

[color=black][font=Tahoma]Early in December 1961 the Mysore moved from the dockyard to the anchorage opposite the Gateway of India. The sea trials, taking the ammunition and stores on board and the cruiser was ready for whatever awaited us. On one of our evening walks to the Gateway - she lived not far away – I showed her how to tell the Mysore from the other warships in the harbour. Sure enough, she told me later that my ship was not there on the morning of 15th December. She must have had a premonition that made her walk to the Gateway in the morning rather than in the cool of the evening. Also to give me a birthday present of a sponge bag a day early.[/font][/color]

[color=black][font=Tahoma]Safely at sea the next morning security now assured, no satellite phones, the seals were broken and we learnt that our objective was Anjadip island of Goa. Amazingly, we had no intelligence reports on the opposition. Any fisherman around Karwar, which was Indian territory, could have told us that the garrison was just a handful of Portuguese soldiers. Equally incredible, we did not have a single seaman who spoke Portuguese. We did not have instructions from NHQ not to use our main or secondary armament. Not a sound to be heard, not a person to be seen on the island. All was quiet and ever so peaceful. Two boats launched with a few sailors in each. Lieutenant Kelman and his men were greeted with a volley from the Portuguese, unseen till then. Kelman was wounded and a sailor killed. The boats were recalled, the flagship withdrew and Rear-Admiral B. S. Soman received permission to use our 4 inch guns.[/font][/color]

[color=black][font=Tahoma]Commander Alec Collaco led an assault party after the bombardment. A dozen or so Portuguese soldiers in plain clothes came out holding a white flag. I have a photograph of them squatting on the quarterdeck of the Mysore, their hands on their head, full speed ahead to Mormugao harbour where the Admiral and a small party landed to find a ghost town, everyone fearful for their lives, hiding indoors. Abandoned cars, a strange sight for us, lined the road, the ignition key still in place in some. A signal recalled the Admiral to the ship and was ordered to proceed, full steam ahead in pursuit of a merchant ship escaping with the Portuguese Viceroy on board. The chase was in vain. It was called off. We stopped awhile at sea to bury our sailor before returning to Bombay and me to a much relieved young lady.[/font][/color]

By Cdr (Retd) Noel lobo
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