AFOVA New Letter 2 of Year 2021

Section 5 – War Diary CV 2 No. 02 / 2021 Page 64 of 332 its gun crew & pioneers, along with first line ammo, sent by Maj Onkar Goraya BM of 57 Mtn Arty Bde to Kailashahar. In addition, Chandan got everything additional asked for by 4/5 GR air dropped by a Caribou of 33 Sqn operating from Kumbhigram. The armed Otter and Alouette remained overhead Sylhet day and night to take pot shots, targets of opportunity. Repeated air strikes were done by Hunters and Gnats during day guided by the FAC on the Sylhet Garrison and anything that moved out towards the twin bridges north of Surma. Herein lies the tale of incredible act of the depleted 4/5 GR who not only contained 1 ½ Bde of Pakis at Sylhet, but also accepted their surrender a week later. During the Sylhet ops three of our helicopters were hit by ground fire, but the crew were able to bring the helicopters back to Kailashahar and the engineers were able to fix them, nobody was injured. For having volunteered to do a dangerous mission at night, act as a guinea pig, Chandan forwarded my name for a gallantry award. I was awarded a Vir Chakra few days later. Throughout the Sylhet SHBO, all the pilots flew both by day and night. Having completed the Sylhet mission, by 1100 hours on the 9 th Dec, all the MI-4’s returned to Agartala , where other adventures awaited us. 9-10 Dec 71 The success of the Sylhet operation must have given Gen Sagat Singh the confidence to now go for the jugular, at Dacca, across the formidable obstacle of Meghna river, which neither friends nor foe had deemed possible. Our second SHBO was from Brahmanbaria to Raipura, to air lift the battalion of 4 Guards in the evening hours of 9 Dec 71, over a distance of 25 km, deep into East Pak’s under belly. Another interesting incident then happened. Sometime around 1130 hrs on 9 th Dec, Gen Sagat Singh took Brig Mishra, Col Himmeth Singh CO 4 Guards, my OC Sandhu and I, in an unarmed Alouette of 115 HU, flown by Fg Offrs Sidhu and Jitu Sahi to reconnoitre a suitable landing area across the Meghna near Raipura which Sagat / Mishra had chosen from terrain map as suitable for inserting 4 Guards – our next SHBO. On the flight out, the Alouette climbed up to 5000 feet to stay away from small arms fire. After we had selected our landing zones, two open paddy fields a km apart, about 3-4 km south of Methikanda Rlwy Stn, we returned. Half way back, abeam Ashuganj, Sagat told the pilot that Ashuganj was under Indian control and that he wanted to go low to take a look at how 10 Bihar and 18 Rajput, with 2 EBR support group were fairing. When we were perhaps 1000 feet or below, nearing a bund at Ashuganj, suddenly we heard “phut-phut –phut” noise, and there were bullet holes in the Alouette – at least a dozen if not more. Fg Offr Sidhu was hit by a bullet which had come through the