AFOVA New Letter 2 of Year 2021

Section 5 – War Diary CV 2 No. 02 / 2021 Page 72 of 332 I have no recollection of how I came back to the airport from Ramna Race Course – just that we flew back at night to Agartala. After Bangladesh was formed – our helicopter kept going to Dacca and other locations in Bangladesh to help the Govt of Bangladesh and Indian Army maintain law and order. Well that is another story. The whole Bangladesh war was one of the most wonderful experience of my life. I also had the good fortune to working with Lt Gen Sagat Singh and Gp Capt Chandan Singh – two of my heroes during that war. TOTAL HELICOPTER AIR LIFT BY Mi-4s FOUR CONTINUOUS (24 X 7) SHBOs 7- 15 DEC 1971 Sector Troops Air Lifted Forward Load (kg) Lifted Sortie s Hrs Flown Kalura to Sylhet 649 13,000 113 66:15 Brahmanbaria to Raipura 1,286 12,530 57 33:50 Brahmanbaria to Narsingdi 1,570 1,00,650 166 152:05 Daudkandi to Baidyabazar 2,408 73,230 129 64:20 TOTAL 6,011 (+) 2, 02,810 (+) 465 316’:30” Notes 1. Sorties / Hrs above do not include Cas-evac & misc communication sorties flown (it is only for SHBOs). For 110 HU alone these total additional (approx.) 61 sorties / 93’:05”. There were also large numbers of Alouettes of 112 / 115 Hus, and Mi- 4s of 105/111 HUs, who did these tasks more often, about which I have no record. 2. The load indicated does not include the weight of ‘Troops’ 3. The Troops indicated include combatants of Indian army, support personal, Mitro Bahini (pioneers & combatants embedded into fighting units air lifted) – total number of heads. The figures are modest and approx, as noted by me in my pocket diary, as reported by the pilots daily in after action briefings as well as Adjutants / Despatch coordinators of army units. In reality we actually had to fly more sorties daily, than my daily flight planning figures, to ensure that we did not leave anyone or anything behind.