AFTER THE WAR - AN UNSCHEDULED STAY IN CHITTAGONG

Pakistan surrendered on 16 December 1971 and the war came to a joyous end for us. Spirits on Vikrant were at an extreme high and all of us looked forward to going back to celebrate with our families and friends. An aircraft had flown to Vizag and came back with a month-long awaited mail. I too got a few letters and season’s greetings and wedding cards, past and future! It was good to know that life was carrying on as usual back home.

HQ Eastern Naval Command ordered the fleet to return and Vikrant set sail for Madras. Just then we received a personal signal from the CNS to the Fleet Commander that his task was not over and that he should proceed to Chittagong and ensure that the harbour channel was clear of any mines and open for shipping. This really was not a Fleet Commander’s job nor did we have any minesweepers with us. But ours was not to question why, ours was but to do….. So the staff was herded onto a helicopter and flown to Chittagong.

At Chittagong, we were received by some Bangladesh personnel who took us to a swank hotel named Agrabad. We had a nice long bath, ate well and had a good night’s rest after a long time. 

The next day we were taken to the naval base which was totally deserted as all Pakistani personnel had been taken prisoners. There were all sorts of abandoned imported vehicles lying around but no keys! We found rooms where we could set up our offices and living accommodation. Furniture and mattresses etc. were left behind, so the bare necessities were available. The landing ship, Gharial, with its shallow draught had been able to enter harbor safely and would take care of our meals. 

Admiral Sarma did not want us to impose ourselves on the hotel and after another night, we shifted to rooms in the base. All well except that in the latter half of December, Chittagong was pretty chilly particularly at night. For clothing, all we had was two sets of summer uniform and what is known as Red Sea Rig where the shorts are discarded for trousers and a cummerbund. Remember, the summer uniform comprised of shorts at that time as trousers were introduced much later. I don’t know how we survived the cold- perhaps whisky on Gharial was the saving grace!

To get on with our task, Cdr Vyas, Fleet Operations Officer (FOO), and Lt Cdr Bikash Ghosh, Fleet Torpedo and Anti-submarine Officer (FTAS), huddled together in a room with senior sailors to decide how to minesweep without any equipment. Soon, Bikash got out and seemed to be in a rush. I asked him where he was going and he said in his heavily accented voice, “I am going to look for some ‘whair’.” I asked him what kind of ‘ware’ and he replied somewhat irritably, “Whaair, not where.” Someone then whispered to me that what he meant was ‘wire’. 

We had been told that the mines laid by Pakistan Navy were floating ones just below the surface and moored to the bottom of the sea. FOO, Bikash and their advisers decided that they would trawl a big length of wire towed by two boats in order to trap the mines and destroy them. Bikash and a few sailors accompanied by some local men went to the market to buy the wire and other equipment and requisition two boats. 

The next few days, Bikash and Lt Cdr Mohan Chandy, Fleet Gunnery Officer (FGO), went up and down the channel in the two boats sweeping the wire between them. Cdr PP Sivamani, Fleet Navigation Officer (FNO), and I kept ourselves busy sifting through publications and documents left by Pakistan Navy and writing the war report. If we needed to go anywhere, we would pick up any stranded car and start it by directly putting together the two starter cables and triggering the engine. Petrol was available from idle pumps in the base. I drove plenty of Mercedes and Toyotas in those days!

By 31 December, Bikash and Mohan had done a good number of sweeps up and down. It was decided that they would do one final check sweep on New Year’s Day and mark it before declaring the channel safe for shipping. That night, we were invited to the new year eve dance at the Chittagong Club. While the Bangladeshis sang, danced and made merry, we without partners dreamt wistfully of home and contended ourselves with the available whisky. By about 11 pm, my colleagues said they had had enough and headed back to the base. I decided that having come all the way, I would stay to bring in the new year. At midnight, Auld Lang Syne was sung and I headed back to my room looking forward to a long sleep.

When I reached my room, I found Cdr Vyas waiting for me. He said that Bikash and Mohan were going for the final check sweep at 7 a.m. They felt that a rescue boat was needed in case any boat struck a mine and an extra boat had been requisitioned for this purpose. I was required to be in that boat.

That put paid to any hope of a long sleep and I got up at 6 in the morning of 1 January 1972 and joined the others to go to the harbour. When I was directed to the rescue boat, I saw to my horror that it was the biggest of the three with the deepest draught. While the shallow draught sweeping boats could sail over the mine, the rescue vessel was more likely to hit it. However, there was no time to protest and we set off to carry out our task.

My boat in-charge was an oldish guy who could only speak Bengali. Communication was a problem as I tried to explain to him that he should keep his vessel at a safe distance behind, in the centre of the two sweeping boats. Having watched him for some time, I decided I had nothing much to do and might as well go down for much needed sleep. I was taken to a cabin and hit the hay for a few hours. At about noon, I had had enough sleep and went up to the bridge. I was stunned to see that instead of following my directions, the boat was sailing almost abreast of one of the sweeping ones on the outer side and not the centre of the boats. Some more frenzied instructions to the non-understanding man and we got back to where we should have been. For the rest of the sailing I stayed on the bridge not taking any further chances.

Fortunately, we did not strike any mines, marked the swept channel and returned safely to the jetty at about 6 p.m.

By that time, it was pitch dark and we were hungry and tired. A bus was supposed to pick us up and we waited impatiently for quite a while but there was no sign of the vehicle. I noticed there was another bus parked on the jetty which we had also seen in the morning. I offered that if anyone could start the bus, I would drive it back to the base. A number of sailors jumped to the task and did the wire trick to get the engine running. I took over the wheel and drove the bus successfully making it the one and only time I have driven a bus in my life!

The swept and marked channel was declared safe and open for shipping. No case of a mine striking any ship was ever reported although there were a few merchant ships that were struck at the harbour entrance wide off the channel.

Our task completed, we embarked on the landing ship Gharial for our journey back to Vizag. We were given camp cots to sleep in the huge tank space in what was the biggest bedroom I have ever had!