AFVOA Newsletter 03 of 2020

Section 4 – War Diary CV 2 No. 03 / 2020 Page 46 of 167 could achieve their aim of damaging Pathankot airfield thanks to our CAP and Ack-ack cover. Self and my S.Met.O worked round the clock in providing weather input over enemy target area, moon phases and night light. There were no satellite Met reports and other aids to predict weather for war operations. In the meantime, all families were evacuated and asked to move out of the station. There was blackout during the entire period of war. Hunter squadrons did a great job and carried out precision attack on the enemy targets. They also located a Pakistani train carrying arms and ammunition and destroyed it. No. 20 Squadron was highly decorated with many VrCs. Squadron Commander, then Wg Cdr Cecil Parker was decorated with MVC. My block mate, Lt Arun Prakash (Indian Navy) on deputation to No 20Sqn, was also decorated with Vir Chakra. He later on became the Naval Chief. However, we lost a few pilots during the initial attack over Pakistan by their Ack-Ack fire. The spirit & morale of the squadrons was so high, that they didn’t give up the attack on Pakistan territory. Unfortunately, some of our pilots, were taken as POWs. They included 2 Flt commanders – Sqn Ldr Jal Mistry, Fg Officer Muralidharan of 20 Sqn, Sqn Ldr MK Jain and Fg Offr Sudhir Tyagi of 27 Sqn. Understand they are POWs and still suffering at various Pakistani jails. In spite of all this, the morale of all personnel on the Station was high. The station was taken over by then Air Cmde Katre (who later became the Chief of the Air Staff) as Operations commander at the commencement of war, with Gp Capt Dandekar as Station Commander. War operations ended on 16 th December. After the ceasefire, when normalcy was restored, Dr. Karan Singh who was the Aviation Minister was sent to Pathankot by Mrs. Indira Gandhi to thank all personnel of the station for the bravery and valour. In the dinner party, then Wg Cdr CV Parker requested the Minister whether air concession could be provided to the service personnel, to travel to their home towns to spend maximum time with family on short leave. Minister readily agreed and issued orders, immediately on his return to Delhi. It indeed was the beginning of air concession to the Armed Forces. Where ever we went in Punjab, civil community respected us. Film Theatres entertained us with free shows. It was indeed a brave show of strength and unity by the Armed Forces.