Calcutta Light Horse
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Calcutta Light Horse was raised in 1872 and formed part of the Cavalry Reserve in the British Indian Army. The regiment was disbanded following India's independence in 1947.
Contents |
[edit] Operation Boarding Party
Inactive since the Boer War, they are most noted for their attack (with members of the Calcutta Scottish[citation needed]) against the German ship, Ehrenfels. The operation was organised by SOE's India Mission. It was kept covert, to avoid the political ramifications of contravening Portuguese neutrality in Goa, and was not revealed until thirty-five years afterwards, in 1978. The Ehrenfels was known to be transmitting information on Allied ship movements to U-boats from Mormugao harbour in Portugal's neutral territory of Goa on 9 March 1943.
The Light Horse embarked on the barge Phoebe at Calcutta and sailed around India to Goa. After the Ehrenfels erupted in a fireball and was sunk by the team of British saboteurs, British intelligence dispatched an open message over the wire falsely warning that they would invade Goa. The crews of the other two German ships in the harbour, the Drachenfels and Braunfels, received the message and scuttled their ships in Goa's harbour in the belief that they were protecting their ships from capture by the British. Italian ships in the harbour were also destroyed. In 1951 all three ships were salvaged.
As the makers of the 1980 film The Sea Wolves said, "during the first 11 days of March 1943, U-boats sank 12 Allied ships in the Indian Ocean. After the Light Horse raid on Goa, only one ship was lost in the remainder of the month."[1]
[edit] Members
- Honorary Colonel Louis Mountbatten (1947)
- Corporal John Raymond
- Colonel Bill Grice
- Colonel Lewis Pugh
- Sir Owain Jenkins
[edit] Extrapolation
James Leasor wrote the book Boarding Party: The Last Action of the Calcutta Light Horse in 1978. The Hollywood film The Sea Wolves based on the book was made in 1980, with actors David Niven, Gregory Peck, Trevor Howard and Roger Moore.
[edit] Trivia
- The Light Horse Bar located at the Saturday Club in Calcutta, is named for the regiment. The club was founded in 1878 and is located on Wood Street. The bar houses a collection of regimental memorabilia.
- British Eventing presents a Calcutta Light Horse Trophy to the owner of the British horse gaining the highest number of points.
[edit] References
Jackson, Ashley (2006). The British Empire and the Second World War. London: Hambledon Continuum, p.260. ISBN 1 85285 417 0.
