campaign, Cold War

Operation Trident (1963)

Name: Operation Trident (1963)
Location: Portuguese Guinea, Guinea-Bissau

Operation Trident (1963) was a campaign fought in 1963 at Portuguese Guinea, in what is now Guinea-Bissau. It was part of the Portuguese Colonial War, which ran from 1961 to 1974. The recorded result: Portuguese victory.

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Fought1963

WherePortuguese Guinea, Guinea-Bissau11.135N, 15.274W

OutcomePortuguese victory

BelligerentsPortugalagainstPAIGC

Part ofPortuguese Colonial War1961 to 1974

Where it sits in the Portuguese Colonial War

6 placed engagements of the Portuguese Colonial War in time order; taller ticks are more widely documented. Each tick is a link.

Record

Date	1963 (year precision)
Place	Portuguese Guinea, Guinea-Bissau 11.135N, 15.274W
Kind	Campaign, Cold War
Territorial change	PAIGC presence mostly removed from the region
Strength	760 soldiers; 1 destroyer (NRP Vouga); 1 frigate (NRP Nuno Tristão); 7 patrol boats; 8 landing craft; 1 Alouette II; 2+ F-86 Sabres; 5+ T-6 Harvards; 3+ Dornier Do 27s; 1+ Lockheed P-2 Neptune; 1 C-47 skytrain; PAIGC claim: 3,000 soldiers	300–400 guerrillas
Casualties and losses	9 killed; 47 wounded; 193 evacuated (due to illness); 1 T-6 shot-down; 4 T-6 damaged; 1 C-47 damaged; PAIGC claim: 900 killed	40+ killed
Commanders	Louro de Sousa	Amílcar Cabral

The recorded site, with the nearest other engagements in the atlas. Present-day coastlines, rivers and borders; towns from Natural Earth.

Nearest engagements

Operation Royal Amethyst 1973, 156 km N
Action of 7 February 1813 1813, 247 km SE
Operation Green Sea 1970, 249 km SE
Battle of Porédaka 1896, 353 km E
Battle of Logandème 1859, 375 km N

In the same war

Before: Annexation of Goa 1961
After: Portuguese incursions in Zambia 1966
All 6 engagements of Portuguese Colonial War

Elsewhere in 1963

Operation Trident (1963) is one of 4,429 engagements of the 20th century in the atlas and one of 2 in present-day Guinea-Bissau.

Sources

Identity, coordinates, dates and the war from Wikidata Q10293069, released under CC0. Result, belligerents, commanders, strength and casualties from the infobox of the English Wikipedia article Operation Trident (1964), revision 1372117578, read 2026-11-15, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; the article's text is not reproduced here. Present-day country and state from Natural Earth. Dates before 1582 follow the Julian calendar as recorded.