Operation Royal Amethyst

The Operation

The operation began at 11:50 pm north. The first contact with the forces of the PAIGC was triggered by the Bombox Group after initial aerial bombardment by Fiat G.91 aircraft.

At 5:30 am on 19 May, the column's head reached the route that supported the Cumbamori base, the main objective of the operation. The Bombox Group passed north of the road, the Centauro Group occupied positions to the south and the Grouping Romeu was installed in the rear, in a small town.

At 8:00 am and 8:00 pm, air strikes were conducted by Fiat G.91 fighter-bombers, which destroyed the base's bunkers, and the guerrillas munitions were on fire for a period of time.

At 9:05 am the Bombox Group performed the initial assault, causing the first contact with the PAIGC forces. This fighting took place from the 14th and 10th, when the commander of the operation ordered the Centauro Group to support a rupture of contact between its forces and those of the PAIGC. It was an operation of great difficulty, because the fighters on both sides were very close to each other. The Centaur Group commander was wounded.

At 14:30, the Commando Battalion began to move to the collection base, and at 6:20 pm its first elements arrived in Guidaje. On 20 May the battalion left Guidaje for Sinta, on foot, leaving there their wounded and the military who were not in conditions to continue the march. In Sinta, the battalion embarked on an LDG to return to Bissau.

Aftermath

During the operation, the Battalion suffered ten troops killed, twenty-two troops seriously wounded, and three troops missing, estimated to have caused sixty-seven deaths, among which, according to information later obtained in Senegal, a Cuban physician and surgeon and four Mauritanians.