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.
Read more about this topic: History Of Goa
Famous quotes containing the words the second, world and/or war:
“Behind every individual closes organization; before him opens liberty,—the Better, the Best. The first and worse races are dead. The second and imperfect races are dying out, or remain for the maturing of the higher. In the latest race, in man, every generosity, every new perception, the love and praise he extorts from his fellows, are certificates of advance out of fate into freedom.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Man is made of the same atoms the world is, he shares the same impressions, predispositions, and destiny. When his mind is illuminated, when his heart is kind, he throws himself joyfully into the sublime order, and does, with knowledge, what the stones do by structure.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“... children do not take war seriously as war. War is soldiers and soldiers have not to be war but they have to be soldiers. Which is a nice thing.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)