The below is sourced from : Howarth, P (2001). Phoenix: Undercover: The Men and Women of the SOE (Phoenix Press) http://www.amazon.com/Phoenix-Undercover-Men-Women-SOE/dp/1842122401/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258232543&sr=8-2
In 1942 it became known that a radio transmitter was providing German U-boats in the Indian Ocean with important information about Allied shipping. The transmitter was located aboard a German ship, Ehrenfels, in the harbour of Marmagoa in the Portuguese colony of Goa. As Goa was neutral territory, an officer of the Royal Navy approached Lewis Pugh, a member of Force 136, who had served as a regular officer in the Royal Horse Artillery and later in the Special Branch of the Bengal police, and asked whether he could to anything to help. A conference was held in Force 136's offices in Meerut attended by, among others, Mackenzie, Stewart and Pugh. There it was decided that an attempt must be made to bribe the German captain of the Ehrenfels to desert. The attempt failed. Stewart and Pugh then made their way to Goa, ostensibly as representatives of a trading company, kidnapped the German radio operator and his wife, and brought them to India. Shortly afterwards the transmissions began again, and it was clear that a new operator had been found. Pugh therefore devised a more elaborate plan. This called for the co-operation of reserve officers in the Calcutta Light Horse, a body which members of the British business community in Calcutta traditionally joined, not in search of martial glory, but because of the social amenities offered. What followed has been vividly described in James Leasor's Boarding Party. The Last Action of the Calcutta Light Horse. A number of the officers underwent secret training, and Pugh set about finding a vessel which could be made available to transport them to Goa. In the end he was given the use of a hopper barge, which had been built in 1912 and had a maximum speed of less than nine knots. In this Stewart, Pugh and a selected group from the Calcutta Light Horse were brought to Goa from Madras. Meanwhile another Calcutta Light Horse member of the operational party named Jock Cartwright had been sent to Goa overland. His task was to ensure that as few men as possible would be aboard the Ehrenfels on the night chosen for the assault. Cartwright did his job skilfully. He bribed a brothel-keeper in Goa to offer free services on that particular night to seamen of all nations. He then bribed a Goanese official to give a party and invite all officers connected with the port or who had ships in the harbour. When the party ended there were no taxis available to take the officers back to their ships. Members of the operational group had been carefully rehearsed in their cover-stories. If their attack on the Ehrenfels failed they were all to say they had been enjoying a celebration party when the idea had suddenly been put forward that they should attack a German ship for the fun of it. Suitable apologies could then be made to the Portuguese authorities. In fact the cover-story was not needed. The boarding party met with little opposition, and the Ehrenfels's radio transmitter, which was the principal target, was quickly put out of action. More destruction was to follow. In addition to the Ehrenfels there were two German ships and one Italian ship in Marmagoa harbour. Their crews, like that of the Ehrenfels, had been instructed to prepare for a possible attack by the Royal Navy, and their orders were to scuttle their ships rather than allow them to be captured. When the boarding party seized control of the Ehrenfels it was assumed that this was the beginning of the expected attack and the order to scuttle the ships was carried out. Not only was the toll of destruction four enemy ships, but Allied losses at sea suddenly and sharply declined. The attack on the Ehrenfels took place in the middle of March 1943. Allied shipping losses in the Indian Ocean in the second half of the month, expressed in tons, were less than one twentieth of those recorded in the first half. The raid in Goa had much in common with the raid led by Gus March-Phillipps in Fernando Po, although Cartwright's introduction of the brothel-keeper added a new feature. The total tonnage of enemy ships destroyed or captured through the undercover efforts of SOE in neutral ports was in fact appreciable, but for diplomatic reasons the facts could not be admitted at the time. Indeed after the Goa raid the story was successfuly planted that the scuttlings had followed disagreements among the crews about whether or not to make a dash for Singapore. There were also hints of differences between Nazis and anti-Nazis. Related essays and comments from Goanet archives: Cornel DaCosta http://lists.goanet.org/pipermail/goanet-goanet.org/2006-October/049384.html Mervyn Maciel http://lists.goanet.org/pipermail/goanet-goanet.org/2006-October/135863.html Mervyn Lobo http://lists.goanet.org/pipermail/goanet-goanet.org/2006-October/135668.html Also, I think there were more comments and details on Goanet from VRR, perhaps, and others re the German U-boat in the 90s. Can't find them now. - B
