AFOVA New Letter 2 of Year 2021

Section 5 – War Diary CV 2 No. 02 / 2021 Page 66 of 332 the Meghna river, about one kilometre apart. I was to go across the river, land to discharge the troops and their cargo. And after take-off, turn left to come back to Brahmanbaria. My group of 4 helicopters was to followme 2- 3 minutes apart. The other group following was to take off and land on the right field and after take-off – go right and come back to Brahmanbaria the same way. The briefing was “no over shooting”. If the preceding helicopter was still on ground, those following were to slow down, or land slightly to one or the other side. All this was to be in fading light and in pitch darkness afterwards 4 Guards, fighting a battle on the outskirts of Ashuganj, were ordered to withdraw to Brahmanbaria. So it was about 1600 by the time they got back and loaded the Mi-4, within half an hour. They were an outstanding organised and feisty bunch, adept at SHBOs into Bhutan in their earlier days with 111 ex Hashimara, as also with 110 in Mizoram prior to 71 war. I was in the first helicopter on the left, with Chandan, and Coy Cdr Alpha Coy Maj Chandrakant with his troops from Alpha Company. Also on board was FAC Fg Offr Dinky Shaheed with his GRU radio set. I got airborne, crossed Meghna and landed at Raipura. 4 Grds jumped out quickly, and I was just going to pull up my collective, but my instinct told me to wait. Thirty seconds later, sure enough I saw the helicopter behind me overshoot, right on top of me. If I had pulled up, I would have gone straight into him. Very lucky day for Chandan returning with us. I didn’t blink either, such things do happen in the excitement of war. We used 8 helicopters, did 27 sorties, and ferried 4 Grds Alpha Coy and their load from Brahmanbaria to Raipura . In total, we ferried 309 troops and 2200 kgs. The FAC had quickly heaped two straw mountains and set fire to it. It burned and smouldered all night and acted as a beacon. Between 9 at night and 10 in the morning of 10 th Dec, we continued the airlift, now we had 10 Mi-4s and we ferried 347 troops and 6000 kgs of load. At about 0300, when we were loading up our helicopters at Brahmanbaria for the next shuttle across Meghna, one pilot called up on radio to say he had no load, then another, a third one and the 4 th one too. I told everybody to shut down and have a break. I went to meet CO 4 Guards Lt Col Himmeth Singh, who accepted my request and started loading up and we continued our flights. We kept flying the whole night and finished the mission of ferrying the entire Battalion of 4 Grds, Bengali pioneers, and their loads, to Raipura and returned to Agartala . That was just the beginning. Sagat and Chandan now wanted us to cart half of IV Corps cross Meghna supported by Arty and run to Narsinghdi. That was to be our next destination, for our third SHBO from Brahmanbaria to Narsinghdi to lift 10 Bihar, 18