History of Goa - The Second World War

The Second World War

Because Portugal stayed neutral in the Second World War, Goa was too. As a result, at the outbreak of hostilities a number of Axis ships sought refuge in Goa rather than face the likelihood of interception by the British Royal Navy. There were three German ships, the Ehrenfels, the Drachenfels and the Braunfels, as well as an Italian ship. The British discovered that the Ehrenfels was transmitting information on Allied ship movements to U-boats in the Indian Ocean, with extremely damaging consequences for British shipping.

Because Portugal was neutral the British was unable to take any official action against these ships, however the SOE Indian mission organised a covert raid using members of the Calcutta Light Horse, a part-time unit made up of civilians who were not eligible for normal war service. The Light Horse embarked on an ancient Calcutta riverboat, the Phoebe, and sailed round India to Goa, where they sunk the Ehrenfels, and the other ships scuttled themselves, fearing that they were about to be seized.

The story of this raid was the subject of James Leasor's book, Boarding Party, which in turn was made into a film, The Sea Wolves, starring Gregory Peck, David Niven and Roger Moore in 1980. Because of the potential political ramifications of the fact that Britain had violated Portuguese neutrality, the raid remained secret until James Leasor's book was published in 1978.