AFOVA New Letter 2 of Year 2021

Section 5 – War Diary CV 2 No. 02 / 2021 Page 71 of 332 with white seat covers. The war was over for us. Mi-4s had no seat cover and besides VIPs didn’t like to fly in our cocktail shaker. However, there were large number of lesser men, and the press reporters. So I was asked to fly them to Dacca in Mi-4s. I was told that my pilots not needed for flying duties should be left behind. However I ignored the instructions – I reasoned that after risking their lives and flying to their limit, my pilots and flight engineers deserved to see this once-in-a-lifetime surrender ceremony. Therefore, all pilots and flight engineers, besides other personnel, who fought the war together with me were “smuggled” on board five Mi4s which followed the long line of Alouette helicopters heading for Dacca. A tumultuous reception awaited us. Flying Officer S Krishnamurthy , called “ Kruts” in 110, in his exuberance also managed to “photobomb” Gen Niazi signing the surrender document in presence of General Aurora and the who’s who of Indian military brass. Much to the chagrin of Gen Jacob, Kruts even had his hand over the General’s shoulder, in my opinion, a right display of camaraderie and exuberance of winning a war. We took as many reporters as we could. There were, men and women reporters from so many different parts of the world. There was no restriction. We still had no clamshell doors or seat belts for passengers- they hung on to anything they could find, or to each other, can you imagine that ? We made no passenger manifest! When we landed at Dhaka, and parked next to Pak International Terminal at Tezgaon, there were thousands of Bengalis milling about cheering us, each wanting to shake our hands or carry us on their shoulders. A multitude of cars, buses, rickshaws, cyclists, even bullock carts awaited to take us to witness the public surrender ceremony at Ramna Race Course public surrender ceremony at Ramna Race Course. It was like the movies, when the Americans drove into Paris at the end of WW2. It was a wonderful feeling of success and victory in war. There were so many Bengali peoples, with guns, firing in the air in jubilation. It is a wonder that none got shot. Less than two weeks after the declaration of war, the Pakistani army surrendered with over 93,000 troops.