As Naseer rammed the 4.5″ shell into the breach he saw his friend grinning at him. He grinned back, sweating and panting, "Combat, Asim! Actual combat!".
The two were part of the gun crew working B turret on the Pakistani Naval Ship Shah Jahan, which translated as ‘Emperor of the World'. Tonight they felt she was; she may be an old ship, a hand-me-down World War 2 vintage destroyer from the British, but tonight as the gun captain pressed the foot pedal that fired the gun he could not have felt more alive. The concussion from the explosions thumped at his chest, he was breathless, exhilarated.
But then there was shouting, "Cease firing! Cease firing!"
There was something in that voice that sounded off; there was something wrong. The gun captain, was straining to hear the shouting on the bridge just above them. Naseer and Asim looked at him anxiously, "What is it, Mohammed? What are they saying?"
* * *
Saturday the 4th of December was the 50th anniversary of Operation Trident, the audacious Indian attack on Karachi harbour in the 1971 war. So successful was it, that the date is kept as India's Navy Day: that night the Osa missile boats of the ‘Killer Squadron' accounted for two Pakistani warships, severely damaged another and caused an ammunition ship to explode.
On the day of the anniversary the lad and I replayed the battle to mark the occasion and I'll be honest straight away – in this refight, with me as the Indians, I didn't do nearly as well!
Full report here: link
Nick