National Experiences - British Commission for Military History

240 ai r p o w e r in 20 t H Ce n t u ry do C t r i n e s a n d em p l o y m e n t - nat i o n a l ex p e r i e n C e s
abandonment of this enterprise. Still in 1961 an attack on S. Domingos took place
which resulted in four injuries and another attack was held in Tite, opposite Bissau
with a military casualty. The effort of the rebel movement was initially directed
towards its internal organization, staff training of political and military leaders, for
the recruitment of combatants, for its deployment on the ground, for ideologi cal
indoctrination, for military training, for the isolation of some areas cutting its access
routes, with mines and abatis; in the early years of its existence, the expression of
the rebel force was not very visible from the outside. The violent actions were too
few. On the contrary of what happened in Angola, there was only one movement;
immediately after the initial phase of rebellion, the African Party for the Independence
of Guinea and Cape Verde, which initially had another name, set aside other
movements with the less international support, which had meanwhile appeared, and
from now on had hegemonic position.
The Portuguese air power in the province was less than rudimentary, in 1961; it
consisted of a small number of T-6G and of Auster planes. In the face of potential instability,
the Air Force sent to Bissau 8 F-86F aircraft and its weaponry. The “ferry”
of these aircrafts, which consisted of an im portant operation with some risk attached
to it, began on 15th August 1961, using the Spanish base of Gando, in the Canary
Islands, and the airfield of Sal in Cape Verde, and was supported by P2V5, C-54 and
DC-6 airplanes and by Navy vessels, in support of navigation, search and rescue
and trans port of support equipment. In the planning of this mission three hypotheses
were considered for intermediate support points: Porto Santo – Canary Islands - Sal;
Canary Islands - Sal; and in a direct flight from Montijo in mainland to Sal. For all
the plans it was considered the use of four external fuel tanks, a configuration that
had never been experienced earlier; the last possibility (direct flight to Sal) considered
the compulsory ejection of the four external tanks during flight, after the fuel
was used up, with the ulti mate part of the route to be flown at 42,000 feet. At the end
of the study, the latter solution was chosen, with transit through the Canaries, which
was the safest solution.
These aircraft began immediately to implement actions of sovereignty with flights
over the entire territory, patrol of river and land communication routes, demonstration
of presence in the air, constituting themselves as a deterrent force of great importance.
In the meantime the ground forces organization was expanding, with installation
of ground units, made with great caution, but with no serious difficulties during
the deployment operations, besides the problems with obstacles, minefields and
traps placed in their respective accesses. In a relatively small area of about 32,000
square kilometres, flat, covered with forest for the most part, cut by numerous rivers,
sea inlets and channels, over eighty bases of ground forces were constituted, which
number continued to increase, and over seventy air strips for the operation of light
aircraft were prepared. On the contrary, the F-86F operated during its stay until mid-
October 1964 (withdrawn from the theatre of war by American imposition) from