AFOVA New Letter 2 of Year 2021

Section 5 – War Diary CV 2 No. 02 / 2021 Page 68 of 332 We continued our SHBO on the 12 th Dec from Brahmanbaria to Narsinghdi. First detail had 8 helicopters and they carried 138 troops and 13,820 kgs load. Second detail we had 4 helicopters and lifted 96 troops and 5600 kgs of load. A total of 35 sorties were done involving 35.15 hours flying and we carried 234 troops and 19,420 kgs of load from Brahmanbaria to Narsinghdi on 12 th Dec. On 13 th Dec, we continued our SHBO from Brahmanbaria to Narsinghdi. We did a total of 30 sorties involving 25 hours of flying. We had 10 helicopters and air lifted 282 troops and 14,850 kgs load. Over all, a total of 1331 troops and 99,470 kgs load was carried from Brahmanbaria to Narsinghdi; that involved 164 sorties and 141.45 hours of flying. On 13 th Dec morning, Sagat Singh took Chandan and went to visit Maj Gen Rocky Hira, GoC 23 Mountain Div, trying to cross Meghna at its widest part at Chandpur. Sagat was impatient at the slow progress of 23 Div, and wanted them to cross over quickly and blockade the southern part of Dacca. So it was that Sagat and Chandan planned the 4 th and the largest SHBO across the widest part of the mighty Meghna to take 23 Div across. 14-15 Dec 71 In the evening on 13 th Dec, when we returned fromNarsinghdi to Agartala, I was ordered to plan for the biggest SHBO next day from Daudkandy to Baidya Bazar and deliver 23 Div to the southern suburb of Dacca. By then the Indian army and Mitro Bahini had already reached Tongi in the north, and Demra area in South east. They had started shelling Paki army garrison in Dacca. A recce in an Alouette helicopter was carried out to locate open fields at Daudkandy and Baidya Bazar. We had 12 Mi-4 helicopters and Narsingdi