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Pay Attention Because I Am Going To Tell

you the most extra ordinary tale of a military operation that took place in 1943. In this video, which has been sponsored by the great courses plus, but more of that later now I want you to imagine that you are British and that you are trying to assess the situation. In say February 1943 and I’ll give you a big clue here things did not look good at all for one thing. The Congress party was kicking up a lot of fuss and stirring up revolutionary fervor in the general population around the country. There was the constant threat of disturbances and riots and so forth as people were campaigning for independence from Britain and so that was a bit of a thorn in the side of the Earth authorities but to be honest that paled in insignificance and next to.

The Considerably More Pressing Matter Of

the fact that the Japanese were just about to invade yes The Japanese had conquered pretty much all of the far east. By this point had come smashing through Burma and we’re just about to hook round over the top of India and come down and take over India and then British rule. There is all going to be over pretty soon unless something pretty spectacular were done to prevent it so you could imagine that people were rather blinded by those two problems and a lot of them weren’t perhaps paying enough attention to a third problem which was that in the Arabian Sea to the west of of India between India and Africa. An awful lot of shipping was going down. A lot of shipping was going down that used to be the haunt of Japanese submarines, but they had all gone.

East For A Bit And Had

been replaced by their allies. German U-boats. There were a lot of German U-boats in the Arabian Sea and amazingly successful German U-boats. They were thinking about a ship a day a ship a day big i’m talking about big cargo freighters, Greek freighters and Norwegian and Dutch and Danish and of course British ships were being sunk every day by these amazingly successful U-boats how were they doing this it’s as though they knew exactly when and where to be and it was worse than that they even seemed to know what the ships were carrying and how important are those cargos were to the British Because when a U-boat was presented with three targets, it would always pick the one with the the most desperately needed supplies aboard it. These ships were going down.

They Couldnt Be Replaced That Fast And

of. Going down with them? This was unsustainable something had to be done otherwise The the supply situation was going to become hopeless, but how are they getting this information? Spies presumably but yeah, but how where were these Germans In India? There are other German spies in India really they didn’t know about them well . One possibility was suggested by radio intercepts you see the British were amazingly good at triangulating from many many listening stations not just around India, but i think they also had listening stations in places like Yemen and across the water in Africa, and they could triangulate the source of a broadcast and there were these irregular broadcasts. They were common almost every day, but there would be a different time every day and they would be broadcast at a different speed. but the codes were quite definitely German and at this point in the war, the British were able to decode German signals and yes what they found were alarmingly detailed reports of exactly when and where a ship was going to be and carrying what who was getting them? This information and how well they triangulated it not to British India but to Portuguese India because on the west coast of what we today call India was a place called Goa and this was an old Portuguese colony and it was neutral because Portugal was neutral.

This Was Neutral Territory And The Triangulations

were more specific than that not only could they say they were coming from this this tiny colony of Goa, but they’re also coming from the main port Mama Goa or Mama Gao as some people called call it but Marma Goa is what the. British called it at the time, and they could be more specific even than that it wasn’t coming from the land. It seemed to be a little way offshore actually in the in the in the in the waters off the coast, How is that possible Oh right yes of course they had aerial photographs and they had intelligence reports there were in fact four Axis freighters anchored just off the um of the the docks the key sides in Marmagoa Yeah it’s presumably one of those there was an Italian one and three German ones, but pretty quickly they thought it’s the erenfels it’s the erenfels they weren’t They didn’t know but they were pretty darn sure it was the Erenfels because what had happened was that the Aaron Fels was in calcutta and they knew that one of the two top German agents in the far East codenamed. Trumpeter was aboard and the British had tried to nab him. They were hoping that he would step foot off that ship, and they’d pounce and arrest him on some pretext or other.

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They Could Think About That Later

they just had to get him, but he stayed aboard for a very long time and lots of Nazi sympathizers were going there to meet him presumably and then coming back off the ship again. They were watching intently but he never stepped foot on shore, so they couldn’t get him. They he never got off that um German boat onto British territory and of course there wasn’t a war, so they couldn’t force their way on so there was nothing they could do apart from watch and wait and hope and he never came off. But on the day that war broke out that ship without permission and without using. A harbor pilot suddenly sailed out and by a very difficult and risky sea route went all the way around India and got itself interned for the rest of the war in neutral Goa.

Along With These These Other Two German And

one Italian ship. So there they were anchored offshore anchored very thoroughly with the four big anchor chains two at stern two at the barren each so they were supposed to not be going anywhere because they were not supposed to violate neutrality that’s it they had sought refuge in a new neutral place and they were supposed to see out the war there now the Portuguese had searched the ships and had disabled their transmitters because they wouldn’t want them violating neutrality by sending useful messages to the enemies so that had been done, but ah the British were thinking well surely it’s not beyond the wit. of the Germans to have had a another a transmitter hidden craftedly somewhere else on that ship. They knew a few more things about that ship. The Erenfels was a very special ship in lots of ways.

Now When It Was In Calcutta,

an agent, a British agent posing as a fire inspector had gone on on board because he had to do a fire inspection. Make sure the ship was safe and he demanded plans of the ship just in case he needed to come aboard Later and put a fire out he needed to know where he could connect his fire hoses where his men could go where all the the bulkhead doors were and you know all the things that the fireman would need to know and so they managed to get hold of plans and he had a look around the ship and he was pretty. convinced that there were actually guns stashed very cunningly below decks more was known about the air and felt you see After World War one. The Germans had to sign various documents promising dip, dip, dip honest that they wouldn’t build more than certain number of warships or a certain warships bigger than the greater size and yes. Of course they did violate those treaties, but they were trying to stay within the letter of the law at least apparently anyway.

The Erenfels Was Designed To Be

very quick and easy to convert into a cruiser and the British knew this yes. It was a freighter at the moment, but there were spaces on the deck where you could very quickly put gun turrets. They also knew that in Singapore, which was now in Japanese hands. There were some gun turrets just like that in um now in Japanese hands. So if the Erenfels could make it to Singapore, it could very quickly become a very effective and threatening cruiser and they didn’t want that yes, so there was the trumpeter connection.

There Was The The Cruiser Design.

There was the suspicious behavior in Calcutta and Yeah it all added up, but the Portuguese were quite insistent. Oh no no no no. They said no we searched the ship and there is no transmitter there. Yeah, but according to radio intercept triangulation Yeah There was and the ships were going down at an alarming rate so something had to be done and who would you ask for the job well.

Maybe Colonel Lewis Pugh Of The Soe Thats

the Special Operations executive or Department of dirty tricks as some people referred to it now Royal Navy intelligence rather looked down on Soe, not just because it was a some upstart. a youthful organization impinging on its territory, but also because well they just didn’t play cricket. They were known to do things like plant force documents and use blackmail and even kidnapping and things that frankly the British shouldn’t be doing. Although I’d say because there was a war on most people were content to just look the other way for a bit anyway. Colonel Lewis Pugh was having a meeting in a little bungalow in Mirrat, which is not far from delhi.

This Was This Was Out In

the sticks a little bungalow out in the sticks now later on mountbatten would turn up and he would take over his commander and he would enormously increase resources to Soe and it grew into a much bigger machine. But at this point it was just a little bungalow in the sticks and the sign outside said Ministry of Economic. Warfare which wasn’t a complete lie because that was the parent organization um anyway they they did odd jobs I if you get me and most people were sensible enough not to ask too many questions, so they were thinking right it’s probably the Aaron fels. It’s probably coming from Goa and there’s this trumpeter guys probably involved in some way what can we do you see they couldn’t violate Portuguese neutrality.

This Was Very Important That Theyd

been given quite definite word from the British government. No you are not to violate Portuguese neutrality. There were meetings in Admiralty in London about this and they realized this was the same problem because they had to keep Portugal neutral at them at the time Portugal yeah it was neutral, but it was sort of leaning towards the allied side and they didn’t want it to become a spain leaning towards. The Axis side, a number of reasons for this the British were using refueling stations in the Azores thanks to Portuguese permission, which was extremely handy and could you imagine how difficult it?

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Summary

In February 1943 things did not look good at all for one thing. The Congress party was kicking up a lot of fuss and stirring up revolutionary fervor in the general population around the country. The Japanese had conquered pretty much all of the far east. A lot of shipping was going down that used to be the haunt of Japanese submarines, but they had all gone.& East for a bit and had been replaced by their allies. The Arabian Sea to the west of of India between India and Africa. British ships were being sunk every day by these amazingly successful German U-boats. They were thinking about a ship a day a ship per day big i’m talking about big cargo freighters, Greek freighters and Norwegian and Dutch and Danish and of course British ships being sunk each day. Pay attention because I am going to tell you the most extra ordinary tale of a military operation that took place in 1943. pay attention because of the most extraordinary tale of an extra ordinary story of a British operation….. Click here to read more and watch the full video