AFOVA New Letter 2 of Year 2021

Section 5 – War Diary CV 2 No. 02 / 2021 Page 102 of 332 The first attack into Bangladesh was spearheaded by the Chetak aircraft piloted by Sultan Mahmud and Alam, who attacked the oil storage tanks at Chittagong and set it aflame. Simultaneously, the Otter aircraft piloted by the other Alam and Sharafuddin attacked the fuel depot at Narayanganj (now in central Bangladesh). Group Captain Chandan Singh showed remarkable leadership qualities when he tasked the all-'Bangla' crew, who were new to these aircraft, to fire the first shots to win them their freedom. On subsequent missions, the senior and more experienced Indian crew flew in these machines alongside the 'Bangla' pilots. Air Commodore Karandikar had an interesting fact to narrate about the Otter mission. "Originally, Chandan Singh had briefed the Otter pilots to attack the POL (petrol, oil and lubricants) dump at Dacca (then in East Pakistan). As the Otter was starting up for the sortie, Chandan Sir realised it would be too risky to send the aircraft to heavily defended Dacca and changed the target to Narayanganj. Do you know who went running to the aircraft to give this message? It was me!" Maybe, the lives of the Otter pilots were saved that day due to this timely decision. "From what I remember, both aircraft got lost while returning home in the pitch-dark night. Luckily, we had ATC controllers at Teliamura (in Khowai, Tripura) where the Chetak was recovered. The Otter landed at Kumbhigram (Assam) with just a few litres of fuel remaining!" In the wee hours of the morning, Kandy Sir flew his Dakota from Kailashahar (in Tripura) to Kumbhigram, with essential oils and the ground crew to recover the plane so that it was ready to fight again. Kandy Sir's Dakota was tasked with undertaking sorties on an as-required basis between Kailashahar, Kumbhigram and Dimapur. "I also flew one troop insertion sortie into enemy territory at Shamshernagar (now in Bangladesh) on December 5. The Air OP pilots -- I think it was Captain Kriplani -- flying in the area reported heavy Pakistani shelling on that landing ground to prevent any further missions by the Dakota.