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VI(ZA)GNETTES

An evening seven decades ago

Seven decades ago Vizagapatam was a small town with the port just being operational.

Here it is, how an evening in those days was, from the diary of Kolluru Jagannadha Rao.

"We were living in Chinnamvari Street in the Old Town area and everyday at around 5 p.m. we would see Peketi Appa Rao and Gundala Narayana Murthy both working as engineers in Visakhapatnam Port return home after duty on their bi-cycles wearing suit and pith hats.

"A flower vendor from Madhavadhara area would visit each home and place a packet of `sampanghi' flowers on the doorstep on a payment of Rs. 2 a month. Most of the houses in those days were constructed with a small verandah in front of the house and the menfolk would sit there and interact with the passerby to update the latest happenings in the town.

"Most of the women would go to a house belonging to an officer from the Telegraph department to listen to the `Harikatha' that was recited by him."

Vizag bombing

We all know that Japanese fighter planes bombed the city during World War II on April 6, 1942. But only a few might know how and from where did the planes come. It is certainly not possible for the small fighter planes to fly all the way from Japan. Here is a well-researched explanation by Cpt. Jacob.

"The fighter planes that took part in the raid were all aircraft carrier-based planes and the carrier was well-supported by a full-fledged cruiser squadron accompanied by a pack of U-Boats (Submarines). And the entire fleet was positioned in the Bay of Bengal and during that raid the carrier was positioned just 20 km. away from the Vizagapatam coast. This was as per an account given by the captain of a 60-footer Sumatran ship, Hin Lee. The ship had 18 crew members and it was attacked and disabled by the Japanese naval ships. Disabled she wandered with her crew in the Bay for 18 days before being attacked once again somewhere near Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). Hin Lee sank this time but her crew was rescued by another British oil tanker SS Anglo Canadian.

"The Japanese during their stay in the Bay sunk a number of merchant and British Navy ships like Indora, Harpasa, Atoalycus, Malda, Dardanus, and Gandara. The Japanese held their sway over the Bay of Bengal during that period and the Royal Navy hardly had any say. After the 1942 bombing the British set up a small airbase in December 1942 and it still continues to serve the Indian Navy and the domestic flights."

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