Today we must honor our Shaheeds who gave their lives so that we can live in peace. I would like to start with the following:-
A stirring tale of valour by Squadron Leader S. M. Atif Zia
In the heat of 1965 war the entire nation could see hundreds of PAF eagles, engaged in the battles of Sargodha, Lahore and Chewanda, and listened to their ongoing stories of valour, as they struck the enemy airfields to thwart off any threat in the western theatre. However, there was non who could see a distant war in which hardly a dozen of selected Hawks, who were entrusted to guard the entire eastern front by themselves and were to give a massive blow to the enemy, before whittling down to ineffectiveness, far beyond the point at which they were expected. The encounter in which these hero’s fought, placed PAF in the very high ranks of the world air forces. One of such events was the battle for Dhaka, in which No. 14 squadron, comprising of almost a dozen aircraft in total and same number of pilots who proved heavy on almost 100 enemy aircraft; including 01 Canberra squadron, 01 Hunter squadron 01 Mystere squadron, 01 vampire or so called Ouragon squadron, and a number of miscellaneous aircraft. In close proximity of this airfield were Baghdogra Base, which had at that time 2 Vampire squadrons and besides that there was 1 Hunter squadron each at the Tezpur and Chabwa bases.
On 6th Sep, 1965, the Dhaka based Pilots were at standby from 0430 hrs, when 6 aircraft were ordered to be ready for an immediate strike. But due to the 1 hrs difference of time between Dhaka and the Western theatre the strike on 6th dusk was re-planned on 7th. Despite the efforts, to avoid any escalation of the hostilities by the government in the west, in the eastern front the Indian Air Force’ Canberras penetrated from Kalaikunda into East Pakistan airspace as far as Dhaka on the night of 6/7th, and dropped bombs at random without much effect, damage or casualties on the ground. On the morning of 7th September the Indians launched a Pre-dawn offensive with widespread attacks against several targets in the East Pakistan - the airfields at Chittagong, Jessore, Lalmunirhat, Shibganj, Thakurgoan and Kurmitola, as well as Pak Army Headquarters at Rangpur. Indian Air Force, unable to find the Dhaka airfield in the low clouds and natural cover which the country was God gifted in the shape of Forestation, Instead struck Kurmitola, an abandoned airfield having the PAF’s Sector Operations Centre, the only casualties were Sergeant A R Chaudhry, and a child. In response the PAF Sabres did take off at 0537 hrs, but gave up the chase, as those aircraft were too fast for them.
These group of no ordinary people whose personalities possessed an added stuff; a quality, which was undefined or was never named. And what this ineffable quality was Well, it obviously involved bravery, but bravery not in the simple sense of being willing to risk the life. The idea behind seemed that a man should have the ability to go up in this piece of machinery, put this machine on the battle front and have the experience to pull it back and forth, and to go up again the very next day. They did not have to wait long for that day, as Kurmitola Base was still under attack when this strike element started up, in anticipation of clearance from the HQ for counter offensive action. At last at 0635 hrs the mission took off for Kalaikunda. It consisted of 5 aircraft with Squadron Leader Shabbir H Syed, the squadron Commander, in the lead. The other members were Flight Lieutenant Baseer Khan, Flight Lieutenant Tariq Habib Khan, Flying Officer Afzal Khan and Flight Lieutenant Abdul Haleem. The great moment arrived when the leader heard four confident calls of Contact with the Target. As the formation pulled up for the attack, they were rewarded with the sight of Canberra’s and Hunters Iying mostly on the airfield, as, if, the enemy probably never expected them or could have never imagined this small group of pilots to react with such swiftness and audacity. The enemy also never imagined that as these outraged hawks exited, they would pay such a disrespect to the Indian Air Force, by putting the entire Base and total of ten aircraft ablazed. Although, the Hawks landed back on 0744 hrs at their base, but not contended. Another strike was sent, but the decision was later considered imprudent, as, by then the remaining Indian Bombers were removed from the Tarmac into the protected dispersal’s presumably on the principle of better late then never.
Although the second strike had not delivered its load on to the target, still the formation had shot down 4 to 6 aircraft in the encounter as the complete formation had engaged against an enemy far more in number, having lost one aircraft, out of total two aircraft lost in the Eastern Theatre. The total loss to the enemy on that single day was 14 to 16 aircraft. In the second encounter the leader of the second pair Flight Lieutenant Tariq Habib, disengaged from three Hunters and maneuvered his dis-configured aircraft at treetop level back to the Base. For his courage and skill in fighting his way clear of the larger and better equipped enemy force, Tariq Habib was awarded a well-deserved Sitara-e-Juraat. After these missions, 14 squadron earned the nickname of ‘Tail Choppers’, alluding to the swath of bullets they used to cut the tails of Indian Air Force’s neatly lined up Canberra’s. It is said that in the West the PAF had cut off the head of the Indian Air Force, and in their two sorties on 7th, September, the pilots of 14 squadron did equally good job with the Tail of Indian Air Force. These missions were to be the last strike actions by the audacious 14 squadron. It was considered wiser at this stage to conserve their depleting resources, specially as the enemy had been sufficiently neutralized for the time being to assure the safety of the East Pakistan. A token air defence vigil was maintained, but the ‘ Tail Choppers’ had done their job well, and the enemy never showed his face again on that front as long as the war lasted.
The 14 Squadron’s offensive on 7th September was a crucial blow to the Indian Air Force morale, as it did it in conjunction with the decisive success of air operations around Sargodha in the West. The Indian Air Force continued even in this limited field to suffer from an excess of caution, and never seriously challenged the PAF for supremacy of the skies over the vital areas of the land battle. The PAF, in spite of its serious limitations, has proved to be the sheet anchor of Pakistan’s defence and has displayed its mettle in times of aggression against its sacred frontiers. All the wars that have been fought by Pakistan, our prays worthy sons of soil went on mission’s - never to return. For them we have all the praise, admiration and prayers. They went forth and laid down their lives willingly for the greater glory of the nation. They showed us the way to dare, to defy and to die in honour for the glory of their country.
http://www.nation.com.pk/spedition/2001/06sep/supp.htm
And now some eye witness accounts from global reporters.
During 1965 war, India’s General Chaudri ordered his troops to march on Sialkot and Lahore - jauntily inviting his officers to join him for drinks that evening in lahore Gymkhana. He didn;t reckon on the Pakistani troops.
“The first Indian regiment that found itself face to face with pakistanis didn’t get clobbered,” said a report in Washington DC, America. “They just turned and ran, leving all of their equipment, artillery supplies and even extra clothing and supplies behind”.
I have been a journalist now for twenty years, 'reported American Broadcasting Corporation’s Roy Maloni, "and want to go on record that I have never seen a more confident and victoroius group of soldiers than thosefighting for Pakistan, right now.
“India is claiming all-out victory. I have not been able to find any trace of it. All I can see are troops, tanks and other war material rolling in a steady towards the front … These muslims of pakistan are natural fighters and they ask for no quater and they give none. n any war, such as the one going on between India and Pakistan right now, the propoganda claims on either side are likely to be startling. But if I have to take bet today, my money would be on the Pakistan side.”
The London Daily Mirror reported: "There is a smell of death in the burning Pakistan sun. For it was here that India’s attacking forces came to a dead stop.
“During the night they threw in every reinforcement they could find. But wave after wave of attacks were repulsed by the Pakistani troops.”
“India”, said the London Daily Times, “is being soundly beaten by a nation which is outnumbered by four and a half to one in population and three to one in size of armed forces.”
In Times reporter Louis Karrar wrote: “Who can defeat a nation which knows how to play hide and seek with death”.
"… I will never forget the smile full of nerve the conducting army officers gave me. this smile told me how fearless and brave are the Pakistani young men.
"Playing with fire to these men – from the jawan to the general Officer Commanding – was like children playing with marbles in the streets.
"I asked the GOC, how is it that despite a small number you are overpowering the Indians?
he looked at me, smiled and said: “if courage, bravery and patriotism were purchaseable commodities, then India have got them along with American aid.”
“Pakistan has been able to gain complete command of the air by literally knocking the Indian planes out of the skies, if they had not already run away.”
“Indian pilots are inferior to Pakistan’s pilots and Indian officers’ leadership has been generally deplorable. India is being soundly beaten by a nation which is outnumbered by a four and a half to one in population and three to one three to one in size of armed forces.”
Sunday Times,
London,
September 19, 1965.
“Pakistan’s success in the air means that she has been able to redeploy her relatively small army – professionally among the best in Asia – with impunity, plugging gaps in the long front in the face of each Indian thrust.”
“By all accounts the courage displayed by the Pakistan Air Force pilots is reminiscent of the bravery of the few young and dedicated pilots who saved this country from Nazi invaders in the critical Battle of Britain during the last war.”
Patrick Seale,
The Observer, London,
September 12, 1965.
“India is claiming all out victory. I have not been able to find any trace of it. All I can see are troops, tanks and other war material rolling in a steady stream towards the front.”
“If the Indian Air Force is so victorious, why has it not tried to halt this flow?. The answer is that it has been knocked from the skies by Pakistani planes.”
“These muslims of Pakistan are natural fighters and they ask for no quarter and they give none. In any war, such as the one going on between India and Pakistan right now, the propoganda claims on either side are likely to be startling. But if I have to take bet today, my money would be on the Pakistan side.”
“Pakistan claims to have destroyed something like 1/3rd the Indian Air Force, and foreign observers, who are in a position to know say that Pakistani pilots have claimed even higher kills than this; but the Pakistani Air Force are being scrupulously honest in evaluating these claims. They are crediting Pakistan Air Force only those killings that can be checked from other sources.”
Roy Meloni,
American Broadcasting Corporation
September 15, 1965.
“One thing I am convinced of is that Pakistan morally and even physically won the air battle against immense odds.”
“Although the Air Force gladly gives most credit to the Army, this is perhaps over-generous. India with roughly five times greater air-power, expected an easy air-superiority. Her total failure to attain it may be seen retrospectively as a vital, possibly the most vital, of the whole conflict.”
“Nur Khan is an alert, incisive man of 41, who seems even less. For six years he was on secondment and responsible for running Pakistan’s civil air-line, which, in a country where ‘now’ means sometime and ‘sometime’ means never, is a model of efficiency. he talks without the jargon of a press relations officer. He does not quibble abobut figures. Immediately one has confidence in what he says.”
“His estimates, proffered diffidently but with as much photographic evidence as possible, speak for themselves. Indian and Pakistani losses, he thinks, are in something like the ration of ten to one.”
"Yet, the quality of equipment, Nur insists, is less important than flying ability and determination. the Indians have no sense of purpose. The Pakistanis were defending their own country and willingly taking greater risks. ‘The average bomber crews flew 15 to 20 sorties. My difficulty was restraining them, not pushing them on.’ "
“This is more than nationalistic pride. Talk to the pilots themselves and you get the same intense story.”
Peter Preston,
The Guardian, London
September 24, 1965.
“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.
“India’s barbarity is mounting in fury as the Indian army and Air Force, severely mauled, are showing signs of demoralisation. The huge losses suffered by the Indian Armed Forces during the last 12 days of fighting could not be kept from the Indian public and in retaliation, the Indian armed forces are indulging in the most barbaric methods.”
“The Chief of Indian Air Force could no longer ensure the safety of Indian air space. A well known Indian journalist, Mr Frank Moraes, in a talk from All-india radio, also admitted that IAF had suffered severe losses and it was no use hiding the fact and India should be prepared for more losses…”
Indonesian Herald
September 11, 1965.
[This message has been edited by Abdali (edited September 06, 2001).]