A  LEGENDARY  SUBMARINER

- RADM  ARUN  AUDITTO  

Of all the branches of men in the Forces, there is none which shows more devotion and faces grimmer perils than the submariners. – Sir Winston Churchill

We shall never forget that it was our submarines that held the lines against the enemy while our fleets replaced losses and repaired wounds. – Adm Chester Nimitz

Sleep well tonight because somewhere in the Ocean’s depth someone is protecting your freedom.

 – A  Submariner

RAdm Arun Auditto, AVSM, NM(G),(00176-Z) (NFMC, L-45) a Legendary Pioneer Submariner was the first Flag Officer of the Submarines of Indian Navy, India’s War Hero, an avid writer who revealed to us the secret that prevented USS Enterprise and the Seventh fleet from entering the Bay of Bengal to rescue the 1Lakh Pak troops from East Pakistan during the 71 War.

          In keeping with our foundation’s ‘meet and greet campaign’  to honour our Senior Veterans, Cdr Vijay Vadhera, President NFMC suggested me to call on our pioneer Submariner, RAdm Arun Auditto. I contacted Mrs Ranjana Auditto a day prior and fixed up our programme of call-on at 6pm for 17^th Nov at their Malabar Hill abode. She had instructed the ‘White House’ sentry for guiding us to the Parking slot as I and Meena wheeled into the compound. The ‘White House’ enclave represents two rows of beautiful white Bungalows either side of a straight descending concrete stairway on the Malabar Hill’s southern slope. The stairway was adorned with wonderful Sculptures and a Ganesha Idol. Meena leisurely got herself snapped with her favourite Ganesha as we nonchalantly stepped down to reach the wooden gate to the Admiral’s palatial heritage Bungalow on the right, overlooking the Sea limited towards the east by the horse-shoe shaped glistening Queen’s necklace of Chowpati.  

   

         Even before we could press the Bell, we were greeted by the fluffy Lara (Cocker Spaniel) wagging her tail. Adm Arun Auditto, Mrs Ranjana and the charming bubbly Mondira (their elder daughter) greeted us smilingly at the door. We warmly exchanged salutations and handshakes as Meena & I presented the glorious couple with a set of white carnations that Meena had crafted during our drive from Borivali. We were escorted to the ornated drawing room of the Heritage Bungalow that had a special corner designated as the Kursura corner adorning a Lifebuoy from the same Submarine that the Admiral commanded during the 71 War. The drawing-room that was akin to a museum, had a study table on the opposite corner displaying various memorabilia and the Adm’s Flag reminiscent of his glorious service to our fine nation. Adjoining the drawing-room was the balcony suite facing the sea and overlooking the Queen’s necklace, high rises of the Nariman Point and the Cuff Parade. We all entered this room and comfortable settled down on the Sofa and caned chairs.

            Adm Auditto told us how the original ‘Aditya’ or ‘Adito’ a Bengali Surname, got modified altogether to suit the British pronunciation ‘Auditto’. The Admiral went into his family history and told us that his father Shri Gyan Chander was an English Lecturer in Govt College Lahore, before shifting to Allahabad. Adm Arun was born in Allahabad on 24 Jul 1934. His elder brother Cdr Dilip Aditya joined the Indian Navy in 1940 and was from the first batch of Shivaji marine engineers. Young Arun passed out of Boys’ High School, Allahabad with 5 distinctions from Senior Cambridge. He then enrolled in Ewing Christian College for a year before his selection for JSW, Dehradoon. He’s from the 5^th NDA (1949) and Gen Bipin Joshi is his coursemate. After the JSW, Cadet Arun Auditto was posted to INS Tir (1954) for his cadetship and midshipmen training followed by  Subscourses and Watchkeeping on board Godavari. After a little over 2 yrs tenures onboard Tir and Cannanore, Lt Arun Auditto was selected for Long TAS.

        During his long course, he met beautiful Rajana. daughter of an Army officer, Brig Victor Longar at the US club and they tied the knot on 21^st May 1961. (Her younger brother Sanjiv Longer joined the Army and retd as a LtGen to head the Armed Forces Tribunal at Delhi and is regularly being invited as a Guest Speaker at the Armed Forces institutions (DSSC/NDC/War Colleges).  The couple is blessed with a Son Devashish (settled in Gurugram) and two adorable daughters Mondira and Gayatri. While Gayatri is settled in Pune and doing medical transcription in Hinjewadi, Ms Mondira has dedicated herself in taking care of her parents.

        On completion of Long TAS Lt Auditto was handpicked for HMS Dolphin to undergo Submarine specialisation. On return, he was posted as sqn TAS Offr onboard INS Khukri for almost 2 yrs followed by an instructional tenure in TAS School. In 1965 he was promoted to the rank of LtCdr and underwent Russian language course and crew training for the first submarine Khanderi to be inducted from Russia. LtCdr Auditto was the commissioning ExO (1968-69) of Khanderi, that was brought around the cape of good hope. He was promoted to the rank of Cdr and deputed to Russia to commission S/M Kursura as its Commanding Officer (Aug 1969-Mar 1972). His exploits of the Submarine during the War narrated below. Adm’s career timeline after the War :

1972-76: ExO Virbahu,

1976-78: CO Virbahu.

1978-1980: CO INS Trishul.

1980-84   : NHQ Director S/Ms and ACNS(Ops)

1984-85: COS ENC

1986-87: FORTRAN

1987-Jul 1988: First FOSM (Vizag).

        Post-retirement RAdm Auditto was absorbed by VAdm KR Menon in his company AVC Dubash as its Chief Operations Officer for 8 yrs. He then headed the Bashir Associate’s Marine Insurance Company for another 8 yrs before retiring from his second innings and taking over as President Navy Foundation Mumbai Chapter for two terms as President from 2011-2017, before handing over reins to RAdm RM Bhatia. 

GOA LIBERATION: 1961

               RAdm Auditto was a young just married Lt on Trishul when the ship was being readied for deployment for Goa liberation. He writes in ‘Periscope- Dec 2017’: "On the evening of 17^th Dec’61 Fleet Commander RAdm BS Soman got himself transfer by Jackstay on Trishul. I explained to him my plan of Landing on a small beach SE of Anjadiv, nicknamed Ladies beach being used for ship’s picnics prior to the outbreak of hostilities. We would then ascend the plateau and proceed northerly to a position of strength overlooking their Garrison to capture it.’ The Admiral agreed to the plan. Next morning Lt Auditto and Lt (SD) Neol Koleman (2 oic) and their team were all set for the assault on Anjdip. Lt Auditto and his team landed on the Ladies Beach and sent the Boat back to get Lt Koleman and balance of the Landing Party. As the boat loaded with remaining troops were approaching they came under heavy machine gunfire. The ships firing silenced the machinegun but Lt Koleman had received gunshots on both his thighs. 5 sailors had been killed and some wounded. The young sailors, mostly seamen gunners were stunned into inaction initially when the boat beached.  Lt Aditto shouted and asked them to disembark quickly, and ordered the boat to return to the ship with the dead and the injured. He then mustered his men and carried out the assault lining up his contingent line abreast and advancing leapfrogging from cover to cover.   

           During the advance, Lt Auditto was himself hit by a bullet on his left shoulder, but with field dressing, he continued the assault. Although they were pinned down, he contacted Trishul on the walkie-talkie and requested them to bombard the hilltop with 4-inch guns. A couple of salvos were enough to scare the daylights out of the Portuguese troops, who knowing that they were outnumbered came out and surrendered. The assault ultimately was successful, albeit with some casualties. One man was grievously shot in the abdomen with guts spilling out. He was carried on a stretcher to the Mysore boat along with and other injured. Adm Soman himself received the injured troops at Mysore’s gangway. The sailor couldn’t be saved as he’d lost a lot of blood. Lt Auditto despite his own gunshot injury, stood beside him holding his hands in his last moments, the sailor requesting for his family to be cared for. Lt Auditto assured him that it was his bonded duty to do the very utmost. 

          RAdm Auditto writes, “The very next day we were paraded on the Flight deck of Vikrant for CNS address to our team. The CNS came to Lt Koleman on a stretcher and shook hands and praised him.” Lt Auditto and his contingent were accorded a Hero’s welcome in Cochin, where he continued his TAS course and was informed of his selection for HMS Dolphin. The Republic day awards of Jan 1962 announced a Kirti chakra for Lt Koleman and CNS commendation for many others.

       VAdm BS Soman took over as CNS in 1962. He made sure to award NM(G) to Lt Auditto for the Anjadip Operation. The citation reads, “for the calmness, ingenuity and courage displayed by you during the Anjadiv Operation on 18^th Dec 1961. The Navy is proud of the fine example you set on this occasion and the qualities of leadership you displayed, which contributed to the ultimate success of the operation.”

THE SECRET OF 1971 

           The Hero of 1961 Goa liberation was in command of Kursura since her commissioning in Aug 1969 in Russia. Although based in Vizag as part of the 8^th S/M squadron, they spent most of the time working up the Western Fleet in anticipation of the conflict. We sailed early November for Patrol and were deployment in Area for a month’s time. On 03 Dec they received instructions from WNC to return to Base, to be relieved by Karanj, being commanded by Cdr VS Shekhawat (later CNS). The R/V given was the entrance of the Persian Gulf. Writes RAdm Auditto,” We stayed at Periscope depth with DF operating. Sure enough, we detected Karanj on surface proceeding towards R/V totally unaware of our presence. We, therefore, decided to give them a shock treatment by surfacing abreast of them for handing/taking over. As their deep freeze motor had packed up we transferred the item by Bow to Bow jackstay. Meanwhile, we could manage our requirements with stock in cold storage. We returned to base and got readied for deployment in the Bay of Bengal. The US had planned to rescue about 1 Lakh Pakistani troops trapped in East Pakistan. The US enterprise group had entered Malacca straits for proceeding towards Chittagong. The Ghazi was expected by us to to be deployed off Vizag for a blockade and thus prevent our Carrier group from entering the Bay of Bengal. We had however preempted their plan and our Vikrant Carrier group was operating off Chittagong. The US group however never entered the Bay of Bengal.”

        “Many years later when Adm Goroshkov was on his farewell visit to India and I was his LO on his very 1^st visit too, he had a soft corner for me, so as a parting gift he confided in me the information about the USSR’s role in the 1971 War in his Private suite at the Ashoka Hotel over our last toast with the traditional neat Vodka.”

      “Admiral Goroshkov heading the USSR Armed Forces had planned to disrupt the US plan by positioning a nuclear S/M in the Bay of Bengal and when the US satellite passed over the surfaced Russian S/M  thereby warning the US of her presence. Thereafter the Russians sent an uncoded signal to NHQ recommending that Khanderi carryout a Torpedo attack on Enterprise in posn____.(This was meant to and was intercepted by the US thus knowing that US would not be able to blame the USSR of any action). Of course, the US was not knowing that Khanderi was nowhere near the Enterprise! The plan worked resulting in the unconditional surrender of Pakistan.”

     The above-detailed info was not known to anyone in our Navy at that time and we wondered what made the powerful USA to withdraw from the Game.   

  

CMDE  MV SURESH  WRITES  ABOUT THE LEGEND

        Admiral Arun Auditto was one of the Pioneers of the Indian Naval Submarine Arm. Some men are born to be Submariners, he was one of them. I had seen his palm, he had a strong mountain of Jupiter, a thumb jutting out declaring firmness and independence. Mount of Venus soft and developed, making him intelligent, bold and sentient. He was my first S/M Commanding Officer. Some people do not retire in thought and deed. He is one of them. He is 5’5” tall, but when he speaks he stands 7 feet tall. The office of the Captain Submarine, was awesome, not in size, but the power of the chair, the Aura, the decisions made on lethal deployment of submarines. The management of a thousand men, thousand brave Souls. When you meet him at his home, he hugs you as an elder brother, the soft Venus at play. In the office, it’s the Thumb that’s predominant. His nose stands straight, his eyes not only look at you but also bore through you.”

       Very true Cmde MV Suresh Sir, having personally interacted with RAdm Aun Auditto, one thought that has come to my mind, “Although Leaders may be made, but Legends are Born”.

      We at NFMC wish our Legendary Submarine Admiral many many more glorious years ahead with his good lady Ranjana and his loving Family.

Shano Varuna. Jai Hind.   

About the Author

Commander Rajinder Dutta (Retd) has been a Naval Pilot and a Qualified Flying Instructor with about 3000 hrs of flying on various fixed-wing Aircraft of Indian Navy, viz HT-2, HPT-32, Kirans, Islander, Super Connie, Fokker F-27 and IL-38.

 He is the Hon Secy of NFMC, a Master of Ceremonies and an avid blogger. 

 http://rajdutta26.blogspot.com/