Operation Eagle (Portugal)

The military in the Cabo Delgado area was centered on and around Mueda, the traditional capital of the Macondes plateau, which is the point of convergence of all major communication routes:

• The road that connects the plateau to the sea, coming from Mocímboa da Praia.
• To the north, to Tanzania, through Mocímboa do Rovuma.
• To the south, towards Montepuez and Pemba (Porto Amélia).
• To the interior of the plateau, for Nangolo and Muidumbe.

Grouping 23 was formed to carry out the operation, which consisted of two battalions of hunters, the 558 and the A (Battalion of Hunters of Nampula) and by a battery of artillery of 8.8 mm guns. The guerrillas first sought to hinder the military’s actions, by conducting ambushes of patrols and actions of flogging columns

On 1 July, Miteda base was attacked by the guerrillas. On 2 July, the Portuguese were ambushed. On 3 July, an attack against the Portuguese military base of Muatide occurred. These ambushes resulted in heavy casualties for the Portuguese forces, four were killed and eighteen were wounded.

On 8 July the guerrillas triggered a Portuguese artillery and aviation bombardment on the Mitea-Nangololo-Muatide triangle, accompanied by ambushes on the likely lines of withdrawal of the guerrillas. On 12 July an Auster aircraft targeted guerrilla positions. On the 14th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 20th, 21st, 22nd, 29th, and 30th of the same month, Portuguese columns were ambushed.

On 31 July six soldiers were killed and twenty-seven soldiers were wounded. At the end of July, the operation was broken up into smaller units with the designations of White Eagle, Yellow Eagle (Águia d'Ouro and Águia Vermelha) thus continuing until 6 September, when the operation officially ended.

• Operation Eagle, at guerracolonial.org^[usurped]