AFOVA New Letter 2 of Year 2021

Section 5 – War Diary CV 2 No. 02 / 2021 Page 62 of 332 Chandan Singh told us no flying during the night because it was too dangerous and we would be sitting ducks to the fusillade aimed at us. Perched above us in the armed Alouette, he could perhaps have seen all the bullets (and tracers) being fired at us, while we could only see the ones which came towards each of us. It was indeed very frightening. 4/5 GR had not had the time to plan for their heli-lift to Sylhet, as to who would go first and who would go next, what was to be carried with each of them, and what replenishments they required to continue fighting at Sylhet. So, when the night flying was called off, there were just 254 Gorkhas at Sylhet, without a HF radio set, with very little or no water, food or ammunition, no heavy infantry weapons like mortars, facing annihilation from 1½ Brigades of Pakis. After a lot of discussion between Quinn and Chandan, it was agreed to send one helicopter to Sylhet. If it came back safely, the SHBO was to restart from Kalura. Chandan then asked me to get one crew ready. I volunteered to go. He was sure I was going to be shot down and won’t come back. I went to meet the aircrew and asked for a volunteer to come with me. Every one of the pilot’s put their hand up. Wow, wow. Our morale was sky high. We got loaded with essential equipment and soldiers of 4/5 GR and got airborne around midnight.