After schooling at Loyola-Margao and graduating from Dharwar, whence he was selected to the IMA (then 'Armed Forces Academy'), Lt Col Fernandes was com. in 1951. He graduated again from the College of Military Engineering and his first posting, in 1956, was in counter-insurgency ops in Nagaland. During the 1961 Goa Operation Vijay, he commanded a motorized column of 17 Infantry Division ("Black Cat"), entering Goa from the border at Anmod. The motorized column encountered difficulty at Sanvordem and at Quepem, where bridges had been blown off by the retreating Portuguese troops - but also a warm welcome by the local populace.
At Quepem, a substantial assemblage of civilians had turned out to greet the Indian troops. After the womenfolk performed 'aartis' to the column's leader, the menfolk approached him with folded hands, proffering directions to Margao and Vasco in whatever Hindi they could muster.
Lt Col Fernandes, then a Capt, replied in chaste Konknni. The dumbstruck audience was almost floored. A Goan, and a Catholic at that, leading the mechanized column of the Indian Army? The crowd burst into jubilation! Lt Col Fernandes has several hilarious memories of those days, when he was based at Alpalqueiros-Vasco, where the last Portuguese Governor General, Gen Vassalo e Silva was held PoW.
Lt Col Fernandes visited relatives and friends, even attended the New Year ball at Clube Harmonia-Margao. He had the colonial Guv's fleet of limousines under his command, used all but abused none!
Lt Col Fernandes went with an Infantry Brigade on a UN peacekeeping mission to Congo in early 1962 - making the Chinese aggression of that year India's only armed action he did not participate in. during the 1965 war, he was on the eastern front at Agartala. In 1971, on the western border near Wagah.
Having generally served in border areas, he was deputed for a term in Tezpur with the Border Roads Organization. Lt Col Fernandes took premature retirement when serving in Bangalore in 1979, where he was the 3rd President of the Karnataka Goan Association (1981-83). Resides in Margao. From Sarzora.
Source: Pages 91-92
Showing posts with label Army. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Army. Show all posts
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Maj Cezar P F Lobo
Maj Lobo was com. into the Corps of Artillery. He was with the Air Observation Post as a pilot. Maj Lobo was the first to start the 12-gun battery at Bikaner. Hardly had he done that when, within a few days, the 1971 hostilities began. The vehicle he and his men were travelling in, in a desert area on the western front, blew up. Several died but Maj Lobo and a few survived and were rescued after about eight days of being reported missing. Maj Lobo's troubles, in fact, had begun while he was a cadet at the IMA. One of his close relatives back home in Goa was held for anti-colonial activity. A confidential note flew from the Portuguese in Panjim to the British in New Delhi. The future Maj Lobo was dismissed from the IMA.
His cousin, Maj Gerson R A de Souza, was ADC to Gen K M Capiappa, OBE. At Gen Cariappa's personal intervention, Maj Lobo was reinstated into the IMA. He settled in Goa on retirement and was in good health at age 70 in 2008, when he suddenly passed on. His wife, Maria Mascarenhas, is youngest in the brood of the famous Aldona family, sister of late Urminda Lima Leitao, Goa's first-ever woman MLA elected in 1963 and of Julio Sales Mascarenhas, India's Ambassador to several countries including Cuba and Venezuela. From Aldona.
Source: Pages 101-102
His cousin, Maj Gerson R A de Souza, was ADC to Gen K M Capiappa, OBE. At Gen Cariappa's personal intervention, Maj Lobo was reinstated into the IMA. He settled in Goa on retirement and was in good health at age 70 in 2008, when he suddenly passed on. His wife, Maria Mascarenhas, is youngest in the brood of the famous Aldona family, sister of late Urminda Lima Leitao, Goa's first-ever woman MLA elected in 1963 and of Julio Sales Mascarenhas, India's Ambassador to several countries including Cuba and Venezuela. From Aldona.
Source: Pages 101-102
Lt Col Louis Fonseca
Lt Col Louis Fonseca was com. into the 8 Armoured Regiment (equipped with AMX light battle tanks) of the Armoured Corps. He commanded the armoured column that rolled into Goa during Op Vijay in Dec-1961.
Crossing the ghats and rivers whose bridges were detonated by the retreating Portuguese (who teasingly left an empty beer bottle at the standing end of every broken bridge), he was headed for Vasco-da-Gama via Margao. He dropped off en route, and nobody knew why.
He lined up all his tanks on the Verna Church foreground, to resume journey early the following morning, Dec 19. He pined for Goan food and knowing well that not one of his tanks would be required to fire a single shell, stopped overnight at the house of his aunt, a Gama from Verna! Lt Col Fonseca was older brother of Lt Col Ernest Fonseca. From Badem, Salvador do Mundo.
Source: Pages 87-88
Crossing the ghats and rivers whose bridges were detonated by the retreating Portuguese (who teasingly left an empty beer bottle at the standing end of every broken bridge), he was headed for Vasco-da-Gama via Margao. He dropped off en route, and nobody knew why.
He lined up all his tanks on the Verna Church foreground, to resume journey early the following morning, Dec 19. He pined for Goan food and knowing well that not one of his tanks would be required to fire a single shell, stopped overnight at the house of his aunt, a Gama from Verna! Lt Col Fonseca was older brother of Lt Col Ernest Fonseca. From Badem, Salvador do Mundo.
Source: Pages 87-88
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