AFVOA Newsletter of Year 2021

Section 5 – War Diary CV 2 No. 01 / 2021 Page 55 of 123 delayed but four of the twelve Sabres developed technical snags, as a result of which only four F-86 Sabres could be earmarked for the attack on Amritsar radar. At dusk, the four F-86Fs led by Wing Commander Mohammad Shamim took off from Sargodha, accompanied by an RB-57B of No 24 Squadron, PAF. As it was important to have the pin-point location of the radar for an accurate attack, Pakistan Air Force had decided to use one of its two RB-57B Electronic Intelligence (ELINT) aircraft to home on to the radar and lead the Sabres. A word about the RB-57Bs. The United States had for long operated from Peshawar to carry out surveillance missions over the Soviet Union but had stopped them when the U-2 piloted by Gary Powers had been shot down in 1960. This cessation of high-altitude flights had led to an intelligence gap for the US – and it needed to be urgently filled up, sooner rather than later. Meanwhile, US Navy mission operating out of Peshawar to monitor Soviet missile test ranges, especially the Kapustin Yar range, had been evicted by Pakistan Government after repeated US Navy violations of Indian and Afghan airspace. This had also left a critical US intelligence void. It was in this context that US Air Force (USAF) approached General Dynamics in March 1962 with a contract to study and develop a re-configured B-57 for high-altitude missions. As the new configuration aircraft was being developed, Pakistan agreed to resumption of surveillance flights on the conditions that the flights would be flown by Pakistan Air Force crewwith aircraft provided by USA and that aircraft be similar to or identical to one of the aircrafts in Pakistan Air Force inventory. It was for this reason that B-57 was selected for the mission code named Little Cloud and Pakistan Air Force received two RB-57B to continue with the surveillance mission. These aircraft were based at Peshawar and were operated by No 24 Squadron, PAF. Coming back to the raid. As the Sabres F-86s rendezvoused with the RB-57B and approached the IB, the onboard electronic equipment of the RB-57B developed technical snag and the mission had to be aborted. The second RB-57B was, luckily for PAF, airborne at that time and it was decided to use this second RB-57B instead for the strike mission. The F-86F’s, low on fuel, refuelled at Sargodha and rendezvoused now with the ELINT aircraft. The RB-57B led the F-86’s to the radar and as it approached the site, the Anti-Aircraft guns opened up, filling the sky with lethal fire. The intense anti-