Operation Green Sea

The Operation Green Sea (Portuguese: Operação Mar Verde) was an amphibious attack on Conakry, the capital of Guinea, by between 350 and 420 Portuguese soldiers and Portuguese-led Guinean fighters in November 1970. The goals of the operation included the overthrow of Ahmed Sékou Touré's regime, capture of the leader of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), Amílcar Cabral, destruction of the naval and air assets of the PAIGC and its Guinean supporters, and the rescue of Portuguese POWs held in Conakry.

The attackers withdrew after rescuing the POWs and destroying some PAIGC ships and Guinean air force infrastructure, but failed to capture Amílcar Cabral, the leader of PAIGC guerrillas, or to topple the regime of Guinean dictator Ahmed Sékou Touré.

Read more about Operation Green Sea:  Background, Attack, Recollections of Portuguese Soldiers, See Also, Additional Reading

Famous quotes containing the words operation, green and/or sea:

    Human knowledge and human power meet in one; for where the cause is not known the effect cannot be produced. Nature to be commanded must be obeyed; and that which in contemplation is as the cause is in operation as the rule.
    Francis Bacon (1560–1626)

    And a man of tan engages
    For the springtime of her pride,
    Eats the green by easy stages,
    Nibbles at the root beneath
    With intimidating teeth.
    Gwendolyn Brooks (b. 1917)

    So all were lost, which in the ship were found,
    They in the sea being burnt, they in the burnt ship drown’d.
    John Donne (1572–1631)