IAF Capabilities vs PAF Power

[Sheroz]

Indian air force drama in 1965 war.

Air Aces Homepage

**One point particularly noted by military observers is that in their frist advances the Indians did not use air power effectively to support their troops. by contrast, the Pakistanis, with sophisticated timing, swooped in on Ambala airfield and destroyed some 25 Indian planes just after they had landed and were sitting on the ground out of fuel and powerless to escape (NOTE: PAF has not claimed any IAF aircraft during it’s attacks on Ambala due to non-availability of concrete evidence of damage in night bombing.)"

“By the end of the week, in fact, it was clear that the Pakistanis were more than holding their own.”

Everett G. Martin,
General Editor, Newsweek
September 20, 1965. **
**

**

**

**
In his memoirs written after the 1965 India-Pakistan War, Air Chief Marshal P C Lal, Chief of the Air Staff, IAF, conceded the losses suffered by the IAF during this daring attack. He wrote:"A sharp lesson … was taught by the PAF in an attack on an IAF base near Kharagpur (Kalaikunda). In one raid that it mounted, it destroyed several Canberra bombers and Hunter fighters aircraft on the ground.
**

**

**

**
**PATHAMKOT STRIKE
1705 HOURS, 6 SEPTEMBER 1965

8 F-86Fs of No 19 Squadron led by Squadron Leader Sajjad Haider struck Pathankot airfield. With carefully positioned dives and selecting each individual aircraft in their protected pens for their strafing attacks, the strike elements completed a textbook operation against Pathankot. Wing Commander M G Tawab, flying one of the two Sabres as tied escorts overhead, counted 14 wrecks burning on the airfield. Among the aircraft destroyed on the ground were nearly all of the IAFs Soviet-supplied Mig-21s till then received, none of which were seen again during the War. Tied escorts consisted of Wing Commander M G Tawab (later Air Marshal and air chief of Bangladesh Air Force) and Flight Lieutenant Arshad Sami while the strike elements were led by Squadron Leader Sajjad Haider with Flight Lieutenants M Akbar, Mazhar Abbas, Dilawar Hussain, Ghani Akbar and Flying Officers Arshad Chaudhry, Khalid Latif and Abbas Khattak (later Air Chief Marshal and CAS, PAF) in his formation.**
**

**