- Navy:
- People’s Revolutionary Navy, 1963-74
- Name:
- Marinha Nacional Popular
- Career:
In 1963, the PAIGC (African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde) launched a guerrilla war to liberate Guinea-Bissau, then a Portuguese colony. The guerrillas soon captured four motor boats in the Guinean rivers (Mirandela, Arouca, Bandim, Bissau) and used them to transport troops and supplies from Guinea-Conakry. In 1964, the PAIGC created the Exercito Revolucionario do Povo, reorganized in1965-66 as Forças Armadas Revolucionárias do Povo. In 1969 they started laying mines in the rivers and were given four patrol boats by the Soviet Union. Some were sunk or damaged in a Portuguese naval attack on Conakry in November 1970. Again in 1972, they received three new P-6 type patrol boats from the URSS. Some of them were taken by the assassins of the PAIGC leader, Amilcar Cabral, at Conakry (20 January 1973) as they tried to get away, but were captured the next day by the Russian destroyer Bivaliy. In 1974 Guinea-Bissau achieved independence and the naval forces became the navy of the new state.
