Operation Trident (1963)

Portuguese troops board NRP Nuno Tristão frigate in Portuguese Guinea, during amphibious Operation Trident (Operação Tridente), 1964

A Portuguese landing craft in Portuguese Guinea, 1973.

After an initial intervention by the Portuguese Air Force, the Portuguese forces landed without meeting any kind of serious resistance in five places of the archipelago, between 15 and 17 of January. The first two intervention groups disembarked on the 15th. Group A disembarked in Caiar, in the south of the island, and then advanced to the tabanca with the same name. They arrived at the tabanca the next day, after a painful march, but they found that the village had been abandoned. Group B landed in the southern part of the island of Como, and advanced to Cauane, where the soldiers encountered resistance. After the fighting, the guerrillas took refuge in the woods, but they were then dislodged from their position by the marines of Detachment 8. Over the next two days the other three Portuguese groups landed without encountering resistance, thereby completing the siege of the guerrillas. The fighting, however, was intensifying in the Cauane area and conditions on the ground were become increasingly adverse for Portuguese forces. The Portuguese also face other problems that logistics were not prepared for. Due to the lack of fresh water on the island, Portuguese troops were forced to dig wells only to obtain poor quality brackish water, and the soldiers also suffered from having poor food and from having to operate in the intense heat under the African Sun.

Almost halfway through the operation, on 9 February, the Operation Trident Command presented a situation analysis. This analysed the reaction of the guerrillas to the activity of the Portuguese forces, which will led to the presentation of new plans. The guerrillas were characterised as numerous, well armed and educated, with a good command of the terrain, in such a way as to ensure their protection and to achieve rapid displacements that allow them to reinforce their positions when they were attacked by the Portuguese. This also allowed the guerrillas to isolate and besiege of small nuclei of Portuguese forces that had landed. Thus, in the beginning of the operation the guerrillas were to an extent able defend their positions, but they also took the initiative and launched some offensive actions against the Portuguese.

On 10 March the Special Marines Detachment and the Third Combat Group of Cavalry Company 488 made a surprise landing, striking in the areas of Cumule, Caiar, Tabanca Velha and Camuntudu, imprisoning or eliminating any elements of the guerrilla detected. However, the results obtained were much lower than expected, in addition to the apprehension of school books, passbooks and two canghangs in poor condition, of which the highlight was the destruction of about fifty tons of rice and the slaughter of cattle. Harming the supplies of the guerrillas, had a serious psychological effect on the way that the locals viewed the guerrillas in their fight against the Portuguese forces. Thereby reducing the possibility of them siding with and aiding the Portuguese forces, which was vital if the Portuguese wanted to win the war.

On 17 March, the Special Marines Detachment 7 carried out another action in the Cametonco area, because there were indications that some elements of the PAIGC, who had fled from the island of Como, were continued to collaborate with the guerrilla forces. According to these data, it was decided to carry out an operation which consisted, in the same way as the previous one, of a surprise landing with the purpose of imprisoning or eliminating the enemy elements found, by means of a siege and strike in said tabanca, where the Special Marines Detachment 7, a Parachute Squad, a Special Marines Detachment Section 2, and a fula guide should stay overnight, "to destroy anything that could provide shelter or supplies to the enemy and which can not be recovered." The mission was completed around 10 o'clock on the morning of the 18th, but the results obtained can not be considered relevant since, in addition to eliminating an element that tried to escape, only small material was captured: six cartridges of 7.9 mm; two 9 mm shells; three projectiles of 20 mm; three catanas; in addition to the slaughter of about 150 cattle and 300 other livestock animals. The destruction of local people's livelihoods, which are largely in the hands of the guerrilla forces, may mean that the hope of regaining these populations would be diminished or assumed to be out of the question by Portuguese forces, thereby attempting to minimise their support for PAIGC.

One of the main shortcomings of the operation was the lack of sufficiently credible information on the presence of PAIGC in the region. It was assumed that the guerrillas were in an unfavourable psychological situation and, despite assuming insufficient information about the guerrilla's defensive capacity, the Commander-in-Chief, General Louro de Sousa, believed that it should not to oppose the landing and occupation of the islands. On the other hand, there would be too much confidence in the technical and military superiority of the Portuguese Armed Forces. Although the number of guerrillas on the islands was unknown, ground troops had the support of the navy and the air force. These were two advantages that the guerrillas did not have. For the operation the Portuguese Air Force used in addition to helicopters, F-86 Sabre fighters, T-6 Texan light-attack aircraft, Lockheed P-2 Neptune maritime patrol planes, and transport planes.

During the operation, one plane was shot down and six others hit (5 T-6 and 1 C-47). The plane in question was a T-6 piloted by Alferes João Santos Pite, and was killed in late January in the Cauane area, while participating with another T-6, piloted by Captain Gomes do Amaral. Everything indicates that Pité was directly hit by ground fire, and quickly lost control of the plane.

The Portuguese Armed Forces were not yet fully prepared for counterinsurgency warfare, which led the high command to try to fight the war using conventional tactics and methods. The operation was motivated by political reasons rather than military reasons. The guerrillas declaring the archipelago liberated zone of Portuguese colonial power, a situation that was intolerable for the Portuguese authorities. However, Louro de Sousa was, by that time, in a very weak position in relation to political power in Lisbon. A few months earlier, the Commander-in-Chief of Guinea had told the Undersecretary of State for the Overseas Administration, Silva Cunha, the opinion that the war in Guinea was lost, which had made a very bad impression on some members of the Government. Therefore, Operation Trident also served as a demonstration of military initiative on the part of Louro de Sousa.

Despite the planning and effort developed, the truth is that Portuguese forces had not been able to completely eradicate the guerrillas in Como, although they had significantly limited their ability to operate in the area. Despite the enormous difficulties they faced in confronting Portuguese forces, the guerrillas were able to resist, not abandoning the island and the same can be said of the population. Shortly after the end of the operation, the island was visited by a delegation of the party leadership headed by Luís Cabral, who traveled the island to know how the battle had run and what needs the inhabitants and the guerrillas had.

The result of the operation would be used extensively by the PAIGC in its internal and external propaganda. This can see this in an interview that Amílcar Cabral gives in 1969 to Tricontinental magazine in Conakry, where he comments on the battle as a great victory for his movement. Cabral says that the Portuguese troops numbered around 3,000 men and that they had lost 900 soldiers and a large quantity of material, whilst being forced to withdraw and that As was still a liberated area dominated by the PAIGC. In fact, the Portuguese forces suffered 9 killed and 47 wounded and 193 soldiers were evacuated to the hospital of Bissau due to disease reasons.

However, the main consequence of this operation was the strategic change that was carried out in the political and military leadership of the territory, with the dismissal of Louro de Sousa and Vasco Rodrigues, Commander-in-Chief and Governor, respectively, single person, as had already happened in the time of Peixoto Correia. Arnaldo Schultz was the military man chosen for these functions, having arrived in Bissau on 20 May 1964, about two months after the end of Operation Trident.