for the independence of East Timor (ex-Portuguese Timor), until then a peacefully territory. The disputes between the several Timorese political parties involves in to an armed conflict, forcing the Portuguese governor Lemos Pires to withdraw to the Atauro Island, off Dili, in late August 1975. After a request from Lemos Pires, the Portuguese Navy sent the newly built corvette NRP Afonso Cerqueira that arrives the waters of Timor in the early October 1975. In the early December, the corvette NRP João Roby also arrives the area. On 7 December 1975, the Indonesian Armed Forces start the invasion of East Timor. At 03:00, the two Portuguese corvettes, anchored near Atauro Island, detect on the radar a high number of unidentified air and naval targets approaching. They soon identify the targets as Indonesian military aircraft and warships that initiate an assault against Dili. With their crews occupying battle stations, the ships embark the Portuguese authorities and the small military detachment that were in Atauro, lift anchor and transport them to Darwin, Australia. Meanwhile, the two corvettes constitute the Portuguese naval force UO 20.1.2, with the mission to continue to patrol the waters around Timor, for a preparation of possible military action to respond the Indonesian invasion. Latter, the UO 20.1.2 becomes the FORNAVTIMOR, with the corvette NRP Oliveira e Carmo replacing NRP Afonso Cerqueira on 31 January 1976. The FORNAVTIMOR is dissolved in March, with the leaving of the corvette João Roby to Lisbon. Oliveira e Carmo however continued in the area, only leaving in May 1976. In the end of 1975, for the first time in 500 years, Portugal was again a merely European country and its Navy a merely North Atlantic navy. The Portuguese Navy had to refocus again its main efforts to the defense of the Atlantic against the naval threat from the Warsaw Pact in the context of the late Cold War. The Navy also focused in its responsibility for the patrol and control of the newly created exclusive economic zone of Portugal, the 10th largest in the world. In the beginning of 1976, the Portuguese fleet included four Comandante João Belo-class frigates, three Almirante Pereira da Silva-class frigates, six João Coutinho-class corvettes, four Baptista de Andrade-class corvettes, three Albacora-class submarines, ten Cacine-class patrol ships, four support ships and one training ship, together with a number of remaining patrol boats, mine sweepers and landing craft. Although most of