AFOVA New Letter 2 of Year 2021

Section 5 – War Diary CV 2 No. 02 / 2021 Page 60 of 332 The pilots and flight engineers were all amazing. I was 30 then, and most were in their 20’s. What a pleasure it was, to have all these wonderful motivated folks, toiling with me cheerfully. Wherever we landed, the local ordinary Bengali folks, would turn up in large numbers to help unload the helicopters, and offer simple food and water from their own mud pots. We were available 24/7. We slept an odd hour here and there, wherever we could find place, whenever there was lull in activity. We ate whenever there was food available. All pilots were eager to fly, not one pilot refused a sortie, and I don’t remember anybody complaining of hunger, thirst or sickness. Wherever we landed, there were arms and ammunition lying around, abandoned by fleeing Paki army. In their youthful exuberance, I saw some of my pilots walking around with grenades tucked into their belts. It dawned on me that it was very dangerous, and I had to order the pilots to hand over the grenades to our army. I had no problem with the pilots collecting weapons or mementos as long as they were not armed. On 7 th Dec 71, five Mi-4s of 110 positioned ourselves at Kailashahar by 0900 hrs. Three more Mi-4s from 105 HU, joined us at Kailashahar before noon. By then, to our big relief, Fg Offr Arun Karandikar, started positioning both patrol and kerosene fuel, as well as oil drums 15 x 200 ltr, in each shuttle, between Agartala and Kailashahar. Brig Bunty Quinn, with Chandan came around 1100 hrs in a Chetak and took Sandhu and I for reconnaissance of suitable landing sites at Kalura and Sylhet. We chose large paddy fields at both places. The landing site at Kalura was just north of the railway station, adjacent to the rail and road. At Sylhet, the landing zone was about two km south west of the railway station, and two important bridges across river Surma, which led to the town and military garrison well to the right. During the reconnaissance we carefully avoided going near the railway station, town or military garrison. Brig Quinn perhaps had complete intelligence briefing, and did caution us, that the Railway Station and bridges are well defended, and that we are to keep well away during the troop induction. We decided to follow a straight line tack to and fro between Kalura and Sylhet, based on the assurance of Brig Quin and the fact that we had not spotted any enemy activity during the reconnaissance. Sylhet was approx 41 km to North West from Kalura. Past noon we moved from Kailashahar to Kalura and waited for 4/5 GR troops to arrive. The landing ground was fairly even and hard. The 4/5 GR troops started arriving around 1430 hours, with sunset expected around 1730 hrs. My briefing to all the pilots, was to fill up the helicopter and get airborne keeping a gap of 3 or 4 minutes from the