India and Pakistan have been at war four times - 1947, 1965, 1971 and 1999. Numerous tales of bravery and strategically beating the enemy have come out of these conflicts. But something odd happened during the Bangladesh liberation war of 1971, which proves the skill and tactfulness of the Indian forces. It involved condoms, something one would never associate with war. 

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A book titled Operation X by Captain MNR Samant and Sandeep Unnithan details the guerrilla operation. It states that the Indian defence forces asked for thousands of condoms for tactical purposes. This was even before the actual war started. The Indian Navy decided to carry out a covert operation to put a dent in Pakistan's plans before a full-blown war started between the two countries.

Operation targeted Pakistani ships

So the officials decided on a secret operation targeting Pakistani ships. The Pakistani military had already set up base in Bangladesh and needed supplies, like food, weapons, among other things. Merchant and other ships were used to carry these items to them from Pakistan.

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The Navy decided to target these ships using naval mines to break the network. However, these mines needed to be stuck to the bottom, and only skilled divers could perform the task. 

The Indian force only had a handful of people who could swim for kilometres. At the time, Pakistan was already carrying out atrocities in Bangladesh, leading the residents to enter India. The Indian Navy decided to pick some of them and train them to swim for long durations and help implement their plan of blasting away the ships. 

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At the time, they had to use limpet mines, an indigenous-made weapon that could blow up ships. So, a team of marine divers was created who were trained to swim with the mines tied to their bodies. 

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Several batches were made, and nearly 300 people per batch were trained to swim for 5-10 km. When the training was over, the Navy was faced with a major dilemma. 

The problem with limpet mines 

The limpet mine had a soluble plug that signalled the mine to blow up within 30 minutes of it touching the water. While brainstorming how to solve the problem, the Indian officers came up with a strange solution - covering the plugs with condoms. At first, it didn't sound convincing. But they gave it a shot and conducted trials. It worked. 

They then started sending orders for condoms in bulk. The Naval headquarters became concerned about the mass orders of condoms. The entire situation was explained, and the plan was executed with only a few people in the know. 

Each diver would tie four to five mines to his body and stick them to the base of the ships. Pakistan lost several of its ships in this operation, even making other countries hesitant about sending their vessels to the region. This interesting story about the condoms is not quite well-known to the world.