Lisbon, (APP – UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News – 22nd April, 2024) To rebuild the old 1942 Humber armored car, experts have been combining more than 1,000 parts to prepare it for celebrations marking its 50th anniversary The Portuguese Carnation Revolution.
“It’s a moving thing to see the vehicle I was in that day again… I knew after that Portugal would never be the same again,” said Jose Afonso de Oliveira, a 73-year-old retired psychologist , to AFP.
On April 25, 1974, he was leading the team aboard this British vehicle that joined the armed columns that drove into the Portuguese capital to overthrow a 48-year-old dictatorship.
“I had no idea. I could have been arrested, but the system was already on its last legs,” recalled the former second lieutenant, who was one of around 5,000 soldiers who took part in the coup.
A few days before the anniversary, he visited a workshop where a small group of enthusiasts have spent the last two years restoring armored vehicles that took part in the event.
“It’s a real jigsaw,” says Antonio Carvalho, a 41-year-old engineer who has worked on the project in his spare time.
Currently, the Humber is not yet finished, with parts still waiting to be reassembled on shelves sitting inside this military warehouse on the outskirts of Lisbon.
– Recreating a revolution –
“Fortunately we have been helped by an Englishman who sent us manuals and rare parts through the Portuguese embassy in London,” explained this history buff who is a member of the Portuguese Antique Military Vehicle Association.
As part of the official commemorations, which start on Thursday, the Humber will be one of around 15 vehicles taking part in a historic re-enactment of the columns that drove into Lisbon led by one of the heroes of the revolution, Captain Jose Salgueiro Maia, who died. in 1992.
Also inside the warehouse is a replica of the Chaimite armored car called “Bula” from Portugal which carried the deposed prime minister Marcelo Caetano, who had taken over the dictatorship several years earlier by his predecessor Antonio de Oliveira Salazar.
These vehicles for transporting soldiers, used in the colonial wars that Portugal fought in Africa between 1961 and 1974, have become one of the symbols of the almost bloodless rebellion.
The other big symbol was the red carnation. In full bloom at that time of year, red carnations were given to the soldiers, who placed them in the muzzles of their guns, eventually giving its name to the revolution.
Looking back, those who were there at the time say that things could have turned out very differently.
“Anything could have gone wrong,” reflected Jose Climaco, 75, one of the soldiers who was with Salgueiro Maia when they went out of the Santarem barracks about 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of Lisbon.
“We didn’t meet a single roadblock,” he told AFP, recalling the day he spent inside a dilapidated armored vehicle, cut off from the world because its radio didn’t work.
– ‘People wanted a fresh start’ –
Once they arrived in the capital, the situation became tense when they came across a military unit that was loyal to the regime.
“They almost shot at us,” said Antonio Goncalves, 74, another of the rebel soldiers.
“We had been given the order to shoot back if necessary” but the soldiers facing them eventually laid down their arms, he said.
After an initial stop at Praca do Comercio, the large square overlooking the Tagus River, the column then headed for the barracks where Caetano had taken refuge with several of his ministers.
Accompanied by thousands of people who came to support them, the soldiers surrounded the barracks with the aim of starting negotiations with the representatives of the regime.
“Everyone was on edge. It was clear that people wanted to start anew,” recalled Eduardo Gageiro, a news photographer who covered the historic event for a Portuguese magazine.
“We were told to break down the door of the barracks” and then “we fired a few warning shots” to force members of the government to surrender, said Climaco.
“Then they finally opened the door” and the armored car “Bula” went in to fetch Caetano and his ministers, taking them to a barracks in the north of the city.
