Shortly before noon, two small, slow-moving specks appeared out of blustery skies and wheeled through scudding clouds over Lisbon. The T-6 Harvard trainers, familiar relics of World War II and the oldest and least combat-worthy planes in Portugal's entire air force, made a diving run toward the city's commercial airport. They dropped three small bombs on a nearby barracks housing the 1st Light Artillery Regiment, then swooped in once more for a desultory strafing run on the compound, using 30-cal. machine guns.
On the ground, 50 paratroopers in battle gear, who had been unloaded earlier from eight Alouette helicopters, took...
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