40. Daring Escape by the Civvies

The IAF’s bombing of Dabolim had succeeded in creating only some craters in the runway. Facing uncertain future, Portuguese officials in Goa anxiously sought to send their wives and children to safety – after the evacuation by commercial flights and by the overloaded ship Índia on 12 December 1961.

There were two operational civilian aircraft at Dabolim. As darkness fell, some of the runway craters were quickly patched.

Governor General/C-in-C Major General Vassalo e Silva permitted the Lockheed Martin Super Constellation of the Portuguese national airline Transportes Aéreos Portugueses (TAP) and the Douglas DC-4 Skymaster of the local airline Transportes Aéreos da Índia Portuguesa (TAIP) to take off from Dabolim, despite commencement of hostilities and Goa being surrounded from land, sea and air.

The two aircraft were readied with the wives and children of Portuguese officials, important documents of state, and the gold pawned by Goans with the Banco Nacional Ultramarino. All dispensable stuff onboard – including extra seats – was offloaded to reduce aircraft weight.

With lights switched off and throttles at the minimum to avoid visual and sound detection, the two aircraft had their tryst with destiny – first making a daringly short but a highly risky take-off over just 700 metres of the bombed runway in complete darkness and using only a part of the engine power around that midnight (18/19 December 1961), and then dodging enemy radars all the way to the point of destination.

The first to take off was the TAP’s Super Constellation piloted by Captain Manuel Correia Reis and his navigation and engineer cockpit crew (the same aircraft that ferried the sausages and female paratroopers just the previous night). The Super Constellation’s loud engines drew shots-in-the-dark from Indian warships arrayed offshore in the general direction of Dabolim.

In quick succession, TAIP’s DC-4 Skymaster piloted by Major Austen Goodman Solano de Almeida, a Portuguese Air Force pilot from the Lages Air Force Base in Azores, Portugal, on deputation with the local airline as its director of operations, took off in complete darkness and least sound. [Portuguese army (Exército) and air force (Força Aérea) ranks are common land military ranks; only their navy (Marinha) has traditional naval ranks.]

The two aircraft were headed for Karachi, the nearest friendly airport, at a distance of about 1,300 kilometres (700 nautical miles) by the normal aerial route. But times were not normal and instead of flying northwards along the coast, the two aircraft sped out west, seaward.

Before they got out of Indian airspace, they were spotted by IAF radars. The two aircraft split in different directions as a diversionary tactic. An IAF Vampire NF54 Night Fighter was scrambled from Poona to intercept the Skymaster flown by Major AG Solano de Almeida, but could not make contact.

Both the civilian aircraft flew a circuitous and longer route at a very low altitude (“almost at tree-top level”) to avoid radar detection all the way to Karachi. On arrival, the crew received a standing ovation for having undertaken such a daring mission.

Major Solano de Almeida, later a Lieutenant Colonel, was married to a girl living in Goa, Celeste Vidigal, and post retirement flew Boeing 737s with Air Malta in the 1980s. He lived in Lisbon, close to the house of a friend of this author, António Palhinha Machado.

Other than Air Vice Marshal Erhlich Wilmot Pinto and Group Captain Trevor Joseph Fernandes already mentioned before, air force Goans who participated in Op Vijay-1 were Wing Commander Vishwanath Balkrishna Sawardekar of Sanvordem and “Top Gun” Wing Commander Mervyn (“Osprey”) Jude Pinto of Socorro, Porvorim, but their specific roles in the ops are not available. Flight Sergeant (later Wing Commander) Remegius (“Remy”) Victor Paul of Tivim flew in Liberator bombers of 6 Squadron from Poona. Other Goans did connected duties elsewhere – for instance, Wing Commander Raul da Silva Rodrigues of Cavelossim, a fighter pilot, was posted at Dum Dum to guard the borders with East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) – as it was feared that Pakistan would intervene militarily in favour of Portugal.

Air Ops went smoothly over Goa, save two aberrations, both involving ground forces of the 50 Para Brigade.

Afternoon of 18 December 1961, Tactical HQ Southern Command lost contact with Brigadier Sagat Singh perhaps due to the unexpectedly swift advance of his 50 Para Bde. Tactical HQ sent an IAF Harvard of 122 Squadron from Sambra, Belgaum to literally ‘drop’ a message to the Brigadier. The aircraft did not have the IAF markings painted on the underside. Unable to identify the aircraft as friend or foe, troops of 2 Sikh LI fired with small arms at the Harvard, puncturing two holes in the aircraft’s belly.

In the second case, IAF repaid the compliment when four Vampires scrambled to attack Portuguese armoured recce vehicles, instead “put in a set piece rocket attack” on artillery vehicles of 50 Para’s 17 Para Field Regiment near Piliem – fortunately, with no casualties (quoted words are of Major General VK Singh, author of History of the Corps of Signals). Captain George A Newton rushed to his radio relay set, opened communications with Belgaum, and frantically radioed: “Request the IAF to cease and desist”.

Later, All India Radio (AIR) sought the Army’s help to salvage the equipment of Emissora de Goa, the Portuguese broadcasting station. On directions of the Military Governor, Captain George A Newton was made available to AIR. From 25 to 29 December 1961, he and the AIR engineers rigged up a 5 Kilowatt transmitter at Bambolim (Singh, History of the Corps of Signals, Volume III, Chapter 3).

Around the time, two powerful Phillips radio transmitters bought by Goa’s Cosme Matias Menezes group (CMM), deployed at the Bambolim radio centre, bombed by the IAF, were being ferried by the Indian armed forces. Both transmitters were lost in River Mandovi due to a mishap. CMM sued the Government of India, won the case, and was paid the cost of the transmitters with interest (Teotónio R. de Souza, Goa in Retrospect in Portuguese Literary & Cultural Studies, Dartmouth: University of Massachusetts, 2010, Page 158).

— 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. AOC-in-C Operational Command Air Vice Mshl EW Pinto (courtesy: Bharat-Rakshak)

2. Portuguese Air Force Major Solano de Almeida (courtesy: Archivo.Pt vide SuperGoa and Gabriel de Figueiredo vide Francisco Monteiro of Lisbon)

3. Wg Cdr Raul da Silva Rodrigues before a MiG-21 when the USSR-made supersonic fighters were first inducted in the IAF (colour photo, source: self collection)