India and Pakistan have been warned four times – 1947, 1965, 1971 and 1999. These struggles have revealed many stories of bravery and strategically to defeat the enemy. But something strange happened during the 1971 Bangladesh liberation war, which proves the skills and cleverness of the Indian Army. This included condoms, which no one can ever add to war. The book called Operation X written by Captain MNR Samanta and Sandeep Unnithan gives details of guerrilla operation. It states that the Indian defense forces had sought thousands of condoms for strategic purposes. It was before the beginning of the actual war begins. The Indian Navy decided to conduct a secret operation to dent Pakistan’s plans before the fulfillment of a full war between the two countries.
Pakistani ships targeted in operation
So the authorities decided to perform a secret operation by targeting Pakistani ships. The Pakistani army had already made its base in Bangladesh and needed food, weapons and other things. Traders and other ships were used to bring these items from Pakistan. The Navy decided to target these ships using Navy mines to break the network. However, these mines needed to be pasted downwards and only skilled divers could do this work. The Indian Army had only a handful of people who could swim for kilometers. At that time, Pakistan was already torturing Bangladesh, due to which the residents there were entering India. The Indian Navy decided to help some of them choose to select and implement their plan to train them to float for a long time and destroy ships. At that time, they had to use limpet mines, which is an indigenous weapon that can blow ships. Therefore, a team of marine divers was formed, who were trained to swim by tying a mine on their body. Several batches were made and about 300 people per batch were trained to swim up to 5–10 km. When the training was over, the Navy had a major dilemma.
Limpet mines problem
Limpet mine had a soluble plug that indicated the burst of the mine within 30 minutes of touching the water. When consulting the way to solve the problem, the Indian authorities thought a strange solution – covering the plug with a condom. At first it did not seem reliable. But he tried and tested it. It remained effective. He then started sending orders in bulk for condoms. Navy headquarters became concerned about the mass order of condom. The entire situation was explained and the plan was carried out in the knowledge of only a few people.
Each diver tied four to five mines on his body and pasted them on the base of the ships. In this operation, Pakistan lost many of its ships, even other countries hesitated to send their ships to the region. This interesting story about condoms is not known to the world very well.
Like the army, the Navy also used condoms in the 1971 war. It happened that the Chittagong port was surrounded by the Navy. To target Pakistani ships, the Navy planned to target them with limpet mines. These landmine are placed under the enemy’s ship and later exploded at a certain time that destroys the ship. The problem was that Limpat Mine was exposed to the water within half an hour as soon as it came in contact with water. In such a short time it was difficult to make the enemy’s ship to apply and then get out safely. In such a situation, the trick of condom was adopted. Limpet mine was made waterproofing by condoms and then used to destroy enemy vessels. A report of ‘The Print’ also mentions the use of condoms to make the limpt mine waterproofing.
