AFVOA Newsletter May 2020

Section 3 - Memoirs Newsletter No. 1 / 2020 P a g e 31 | 101 Rest of the Action On 19 Dec, I carried out one more sortie over Diu of “Offensive Recce’’ on a Vampire T.55 2-seater aircraft with Flt Lt Amio Kumar (Laddoo) Sen, also an instructor at PAI School. This was a tame affair in comparison with my first sortie as Portuguese resistance had all but crumbled by this time. One of the newspapers reported the next day - “A steam launch with ten Portuguese soldiers was fired upon by the Indian forces and destroyed. Nine of the ten soldiers were killed. The survivor was captured. The fighting raged for 16 hours.” Aftermath A few days after Ops Vijay, I left to undergo a one-year course at The Empire Test Pilots’ School (ETPS), Farnborough, UK. In Sep ’62, I received an envelope from Air HQ and, to my great surprise, found it contained letters congratulating me on the Award of ‘Ashoka Chakra - Class III’ from four big-shots - Air Mshl A.M.Engineer D.F.C, Chief of the Air Staff, Air Vice Mshl Arjan Singh D.F.C., Air HQ, Air Vice Mshl E.W.Pinto AOC-in C, Operational Command IAF Palam and Shri O.Pulla Reddy, Defence Secretary. This was the first time I heard about the award, which no doubt made me happy and proud. I wrote a short reply to AVM Arjan Singh expressing my gratitude and assurance for continued dedicated service. After my return to India, I received the Award formally from President Dr S. Radhakrishnan at the Investiture Ceremony held at Rashtrapati Bhavan on 8th Oct ‘63. Mine was the only Gallantry Award for IAF in respect of Ops Vijay. The short citation for the Award Ashok Chakra Class III (read out in full at the Investiture those days), later renamed “Shaurya Chakra” reads as below. “On 18th December 1961, Flight Lieutenant Ramachandran was detailed to lead a section of two Vampires in close support of the ground forces in Diu. While flying over the area, he noticed a patrol boat heading towards an INS Delhi which was about two miles from the shore. On his own initiative, he decided to fly low to survey the patrol boat when the Portuguese opened heavy fire at his aircraft from the boat as well as from Diu fort. Undeterred by the hostile fire, he attacked and blew up the patrol boat which was full of high explosives. During the attack, his aircraft was damaged by hostile fire. Flight Lieutenant Ramachandran displayed courage and initiative of a high order.”