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Monday,Jul22,2002

MetroPlusVisakhapatnam
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'Actionreplay'ofJapaneseairraid
Beit1942or1971,Vizag,knownforitstranquillity,wasinthethick
ofactioninboththewars.

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April 6, 1942. Any idea what happened on this day? Read the
remainingmatterinanundergroundbunkerifyouhavegotoneorat
leastquietlyslipunderyourcot.
Well folks! Vizag was bombed by the Japanese forces on that day
almostanactionreplayofPearlHarbour.
AftersuccessfullyrunningoverSingaporeandThailand,theJapanese
settheireyesonIndiaviaBurma.
Alerted,ChurchillsenttwoAmericanshipsloadedwithammunitionfor
thealliedforcesstationedinBurma.TheJapanesefleetpresentinthe
Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal stalked the ships en route to
Chittagong. To evade the enemy, the vessels took shelter in Vizag's
innerharbour.
A Japanese aircraftcarrier following them sent two of its fighter
planes around 8 a.m. on April 6th. Sensing danger, the sirens blew
and the people of the town who were already given a drill in case of

eventualitiesranforshelter.Theplanesafterafewroundsofscouting
disappeared,andtheVizagiteswererelieved.
But as the saying goes "never underestimate an enemy", they were
backagainaround1p.m.,andthistimetheycameintwoplusthree
attack formation and started pounding the coast. But the moment
they tried to enter the port area, the American ships stationed there
opened up their famous `Bofors' antiaircraft guns in staccato. The
retaliatoryfire,combinedwiththenaturalprotectionofthehillsonall
three sides, did not allow the planes to have a peep at the inner
harbour,andhadtoaborttheirmission.
In the course of strafing, they dropped three bombs near the port
area.
One of them hit a concrete pipe of five feet diameter, in which five
workershadtakenshelterandallofthemwerekilled.
Thesecondonefellonacementstorageandthethirdhitthethermal
power station that was maintained by the Government of Madras.
There were no further casualties and no other buildings were
damagedintheraid.
They made a final attempt around 6 p.m. and had to return almost
empty handed except for a bomb, which fell on one of the targeted
ships Marine Maller, which mercifully did not explode. If it had
explodedthanthatwouldhavesetupachainreactionastheshipwas
ladenwith,2000tonnesofexplosivesandVizagwouldhavegoneinto
theannalsofWorldWarIIhistory,asthesecondPearlHarbour.
The unexploded bomb `UXD HE' weighing 350 kg., was retrieved by
the missionaries of the St. Aloysius High School, which adorned their
parlouruntil1991,whenitwashandedovertotheVisakhaMuseum.
IfApril6wasanactionreplaythen,thenextdaywasacurtainraiser
to the partition time. Vizagites made a beeline to Vizianagaram in all
possiblemodesoftransportavailableincludingbullockcartsandmany
onfoot,withtheirbareessentials,fearingonemoreraid.
A few old citizens, likely Kolluru Jagannatham, still vividly remember
those days. Being a witness to the scene he narrated the incident to
thisreporter.
SUMITBHATTACHARJEE
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