Pink creeper

This is a water colour painting of a creeper wih beautiful pink flowers that bloom in autumn season in Assam and can be seen hanging from walls and fences of homes. Through vibrant colours of flowers and blooming in plentiful this creeper covers wide spaces turning an area into a spectacular sight for eyes.

My pencil sketches of aircraft

A view of a typical tea garden in Assam

This is my painting in water colour of a typical tea garden in Assam. Tea pluckers with their baskets hung on their backs moving deftly through lush green gardens, spread over acres after acres tea bushes present a beautiful sight, particularly in summer months. 

Tribal woman fishing

Some of my landscape paintings

My paintings in water colour and in oil of common flowers

Shooting down of Pakistani Jet in Indo-Pak War of 1965

On 16 September 1965, as the air war between India and Pakistan was raging on its 16^th day, a young fighter pilot from Indian Air Force (IAF) was able to draw first blood shooting down a F 86 Sabre jet of Pakistan Air Force (PAF) from his British made Hawker Hunter F 56.  Indian pilot was Flying Officer (later Air Marshal) PS ‘Pingo’ Pingale  and for him the sweet taste of victory was laced with larger satisfaction of getting his scores even with PAF in a period of less than ten days.

On 07 September 1965, Fg Offr Pingale while flying a Combat Air Patrol (CAP) mission over Halwara, Punjab was shot at by a PAF Sabre who had managed to creep  in behind unnoticed and  let go a deadly volley of machine gun fire from point blank range on his Hunter fighter. On looking back Pingale spotted his attacker behind and turned into him. But his controls were sluggish and his cockpit was already getting filled with smoke. He was left with no other option but to pull the ejection handle of his Martin Baker seat as his aircraft was plummeting towards ground with mere 100 feet to go. He did survive the ejection but experienced a severe pain in the lower back, a common injury that most fighter pilots suffer in an ejection. The injury was serious enough for any pilot to be grounded for months on health ground as another ejection during recovery period can either be fatal or result in permanent injuries like complete paralysis from waist down. For Flying Officer Pingale, spending the rest of the war lying on a hospital bed while his squadron was fighting a war was unthinkable. There was also a burning desire in his guts to get even with Pakis. Pingo managed to convince the doctors at Air Force Central Medical Establishment (AFCME), New Delhi that he was fine and fighting fit although he was nurturing a nagging pain in the lower back.  Very soon Pingo joined his squadron known as ‘Battleaxes” at Halwara. It did not take too long for him to strap into a cockpit and fly a number of interdiction missions deep in enemy territory. But while engaging targets on ground his eyes constantly scanned the sky to find an enemy fighter to even out his personal score with his enemy. 

On 16 September 1965, that opportunity arrived as the Hunter formation flown by him on an air defence mission  with  Flying Officer FD Bunsha as his wingman  was vectored by the GCI station (ground radar) for an intercept on two enemy aircraft prowling in Indian airspace at around 20,000 feet. Pingale’s made visual contact with one Sabre approaching head on and from beneath. As he maneuvered his section to get behind the Sabre it turned on a Southerly heading and carried on straight. It appeared to him that the Sabre had not spotted the Hunters at this stage and that helped the Hunters to steadily close in on the lone enemy. However, gut feeling and months of air combat training kept telling Pingale to look for a second enemy aircraft and on deepening his scan in the rear quarter he spotted the second Sabre at 4 O’clock at approximately 800 yards rapidly closing in and ready to fire.  Pingale told less experienced Bunsha to split and go for the enemy ahead as he turned on to face his adversary in rear quarter.  Pingale  crossed the Sabre head on and  reversed steeply to engage him using the vertical plane, a tactics that was well suited for a Hunter with a more powerful engine as compared to a Sabre. US made Sabre, on the other hand, was an extremely well designed fighter for a dog fight especially at low level and had an unviable record of almost 5:1 kill in favour against Russian MiGs in Korean War.  Its six browning machine guns could fire an extremely lethal envelope of bullets that could rip apart an aircraft to shreds. However, it lacked a powerful engine.  Combat advise to all Hunter pilots was never to engage a Sabre in a turning plane as it can out turn any fighter in the world at low level. Take the fight vertical and watch his performance bleed owing to a less powerful engine and then close in for a kill, it said.   

As combat with the Sabre progressed, Pingale started gaining on his adversary forcing him to make series of errors that helped him to close in further and open fire with his four 30 mm cannons spewing bullets at 1200 to 1300 rounds per minute. First burst was from 400 yards  but missed as aiming with a gyro gunsight required steady tracking for few seconds and in the excitement of the battle Pingale’s aiming had gone wild. But soon training took over and he settled down for his second shot from 200-250 yards with proper ranging and tracking. The correct aiming index in a dog fight is always the opponent’s cockpit which ensures a sure kill.  For the second salvo of bullets, Pingale had pipper of his gunsight perfectly resting on the Sabres’ cockpit He eased back the pipper a bit behind the cockpit hoping the rounds would not hit the pilot and pressed the trigger for the second time and watched the Pakistani jet literally explode in front him.

(My painting tried to capture on canvas the precise moment  Fg Offr Pingale releases the trigger as the Sabre is about to explode in front at probably 150 yds from him)

 Pakistani pilot was young Flying Officer Shaukat Ali, who managed to eject unaware that a fellow pilot’s benevolence had saved his life. Shaukat spent rest of the war in an Indian POW camp.

 While combating with his Sabre, Pingale had noticed Bunsha gradually loosing his hold in his battle with the first Sabre and warned him to be careful. But to his dismay, he saw the Pakistani getting better of Bunsha and Hunter going down spewing smoke. He yelled at Bunsha to eject but there was no response from Bunsha’s aircraft as it continued to go down. By now Pingale’s Sabre was a ball of flame and he instantly put his Hunter in a turn towards the Sabre who had continued to fire at the stricken aircraft of Bunsha. Bunsha did not to eject as cannons shells from Pakistani pilot seemed to kill him instantly.  As Pingale turned into Sabre on Bunsha’s tail, it gave up firing and turned sharply to face him. Both aircraft crossed head on at high speed and Pingale immediately reversed hauling the Hunter around half expecting to find the Sabre doing the same. But he was in for surprise. The Sabre choose to fly away at high speed from the fight on a homebound course. An indignant Pingale gave chase diving steeply with an aim to close in behind the running Sabre. As ground rushed in Pingale pulled hard to recover from his steep dive he was in  and immediately felt a shearing pain from his back injury suffered during his recent ejection.  High ‘g’ force also blacked him out completely. As he was recovering his wits about, the Sabre made a clean get away.  Later it was confirmed that one who got away was none other than ace of ace of Pakistani Air Force, Squadron Leader MM Alam. Alam claimed both the Hunters, Bunsha with guns and Pingale with a Sidewinder AAM..and Pakistan Air Force obliged its hero with two more Hunters to his credit.

Satisfied at shooting down of a Sabre and sad at losing Bunsha, Pingale flew back to his base under radar cover. Back at the base his gun camera footage was analysed to grant him the kill of Flying Officer Shaukat Ali’s aircraft and that earned him a Vir Chakra.

An IAF MiG-21 firing a K-13 AAM over the sea of Saurashtra.

An IAF MiG-21 firing a K-13 AAM over the sea of Saurashtra.

Mi 4 helicopter of IAF

Painting of a Mi-4. One of the earliest helicopter IAF operated of Russian region that became the workhorse in both 1965 and 1971 wars with Pakistan.

Gnat Vs Sabre : clash of the titans

FIRST AIR BATTLE POST KOREAN WAR

                                                                                                            

Manna Murdeshwar

           

            When dawn unfolded on the morning of 1^st Sept, 1965, on the Green Fields of Ambala  airport, we of No. 23 Sqn. AF did not realize what was in store for us.  The “buchi woochies” ( hairy caterpillars) of Green Fields had crept onto our flying overalls and ‘g’ suits and we were busy brushing these off when word was transmitted to detach 4 Gnats to Halwara for ORP duties.   ORP duties were routine in those days, so not many eyebrows were raised.  Sikand, Pat, Gill and Kitcha were accordingly instructed “to get there!”

            On 2^nd Sept, 65 at about 1000 hrs, instructions received from WAC named Johnny Greene, Manna Murdeshwar, AJS Sandhu and Trevor Keelor  to fly four armed Gnats to Pathankot.  Johnny and Sandhu, thus became attached to No. 23 Sqn.  We took off in the afternoon of the same day in a low level abreast formation . 

            We landed at Pathankot, at sunset and while taxiing to the dispersal I was greeted by dejected and sad looking faces of course mates & others standing alongside the taxiway.  It was only when we all walked out to the Technical Area, that we learnt of the four Vampires that had been  shot down on their attempt to neutralise the large scale Pak Army’s thrust towards Akhnoor.

      

          We were unaware of this major Pak operation and the consequence of Indian Army’s SOS to the IAF for air support that resulted in the rather misguided deployment of the ineffective Vampires from Pune.  This , if I may call it, was a foolish endeavour, as it resulted  in the loss of four Vampires and three  pilots (one bailed out).  The apparent intention of the Pak Army was to make  a rapid thrust from the Chamb-Jauhria sector to the Akhnoor bridge, thereby cutting off  J & K State from India.  The unfortunate decision of deploying Vampires against well- armed Pak  forces was a reflection of the poor analysis and decision making abilities of our then, rather naive leadership.

            When we assembled at the temporary makeshift office given to us, we were pleasantly surprised to find Sikand and his team also present.  On their landing at Halwara, they were redirected to Pathankot.  Thus, there were eight of us comprising the No. 23 Sqn. Dett.  Sikand, though senior most, realised he was not an experienced combat pilot and therefore graciously asked Johnny to become the leader of the Dett..

             The so called brief  given to us on 02 Sept late evening, was only to develop any suitable tactics that would result in at least one Sabre casualty.  Two Mystere  Squadrons based at Pathankot could also be included to evolve any tactics that would yield the desired results. Johnny with the concurrence of  the Mysteres’ Commanders drew out a plan that would draw the Sabres onto the Mysteres flying at about 20,000 ft. whence they would paint on the Pak radar. The Gnats at tree top heights, would then climb up to engage the Sabres. That would be the indication for the Mysteres to swoop low and return to base. 

            On completion of the plans, we trudged along to the Officers’ Mess where we learnt that no rooms were available for us.  It was already about 2130 hrs so we had our dinner, pulled a few charpoys  outside a room and slept in our flying overalls.  At about 3 am we were woken up, and clutching  our flying  gear,  sleepily trudged along to the dispersal with no vehicle, bearer,  or tea in sight!  “Wheels up” was scheduled at 0600 hrs.  After the  Met briefing, all eight of us  taxied  out and  waited for the Mysteres  to get air borne. We then took off in formations, fully armed with guns and drop tanks to cater for the low level flight and air combat, that was likely to ensue.

            It must be appreciated that the Pak radar was far superior to ours.  While the  Sabres were always within sight of Pak radars, our 230 SU at Amritsar and the 501 SU at Barnala, were not as efficient to control and guide or warn us of any threat that could develop.

          As we arrived at the Chamb sector, the Mysteres at height, were picked up by Pak radar and as foreseen  the Sabres arrived to meet them.  At 501 SU’s warning, the Mysteres, dropped height and both our Gnat formations  moved up to engage the Sabres.

           We were in a finger  four  a/c formation, led by Johnny and self, as No.2, Sikand No.3 & Pat No.4. The rear formation were spread out abreast, as normally done, led by Trevor, with No,2 Gill, No.3 Sandhu, & No.4 Kitcha.

          In the combat that followed, a lone Sabre was spotted behind me prompting Trevor to call a starboard ‘break’.  Siki,  unable to maintain position,  fell off, and disappeared from sight. Pat, who also ‘got out of phase’, spotted a F104 & turned into him hoping for a possible engagement, but without success. Both Johnny's & my ‘ break’ made the Sabre fall out, placing it in front of Trevor who successfully fired at the Sabre. Sandhu who followed, also fired  a few more shots, for luck!

           Johnny & I landed together, with Pat & the rest following at intervals. Siki unfortunately was not with us and we learnt later that he had landed in Pakistan. That brought to a close the first day's air battle.   

            The shooting down of a Sabre brought much joy to WAC. Trevor was recommended for a Vr.C which  was promptly announced in the evening’s News Bulletin over All India Radio. ( But much after the hostilities were over, we learnt that the ‘shot down Sabre’ had purportedly, landed at its base full of bullet holes).  Nevertheless, it was a memorable air battle and the kudos were rightly earned, since it raised the morale of the Service  and the country!

(As an aside I  would like to state that the late AVM Johnny Greene Vr.C., did not receive all the credit he deserved. To my mind he was one of the top combat pilots that I have had  the opportunity  to fly with. Not only was he an excellent flyer but also a good combat instructor who could explain  and demonstrate each manoeuvre very lucidly. I was fortunate to learn more about combat flying from him at the mini DFLS Course, he conducted at Ambala. God bless his soul.)

(I would also like to place on record that I had the occasion to engage in a couple of more air to air combats with the PAF Sabres. Without holding back any punches, let me state that I developed a professional respect for the PAF pilots’ flying abilities. On both  my engagements with them, they were initially in an advantageous position. But as they lost the advantage during the gradual descent to lower heights, they managed to ‘notch a  flap’, half roll & rapidly disappear.  We, in the Gnats, devoid of flaps, could not half roll at those heights, thereby remaining at a disadvantage.) 

Attack on Tiger Hill : Kargil Ops 1999

This is my painting on attack of Tiger Hill by Mirage 2000 of Indian Air Force (IAF)  with Laser Guided Bomb (LGB). The painting has been composed purely on my visualisation of the attack after some detailed discussions with officers that planned and executed this daring operation that will certainly go down in records as exemplary integration of ideas and efforts by pilots and engineers of IAF to achieve brilliance in time of actual operation.  

I do not know if I can reveal all that I know on integration of the LDP with the weapon and with weapon delivery system of Mirage 2000 that was so vital for success of the mission. Few of my good friends who were test pilots in IAF and now retired had assisted me with the facts with a request to record the event on canvas. As I am not at all familiar with a Mirage 2000 it took me almost two years to get the   photographs of the trainer aircraft with the actual configuration (LDP +LGB+Remora+ Magic 2+ Wing Tanks). CO 7 Sqn was quite generous with his help. I also bought a scale model of a Mirage trainer to plan my composition.

I am sure those of you that have flown Mirage 2000 or have worked on ground may find quite a few mistakes/errors in the painting. I will be grateful if such errors can be pointed out. The paint is still wet and all minor of major defects can be attended to with minimum hassel.

Finally, on the sortie itself, what can be better than a narrative provided by the pilot himself. A write-up on the attack by AVM R Nambiar, which is available in public domain, is attached. To me it was one of the “Finest Hour of IAF History”. I also must add that I have read a blog by a PAF historian Air Cmde Kaiser Taufail (Retd) and he says that use of LGB by Mirages was the actual game changer.   

From Air Mshl Bhojwani

Initially WAC started with 57mm rockets fired by Type 96 and MiG27s, but these had virtually no effect - the cine films showed these weapons to hit the hill side/valley and their blast getting blanketed by the snow! They were terribly inaccurate too because after our Canberra was hit by a Stinger (21st May 99) we had to keep a minimum vertical separation of about 5000 ft between the aircraft and the hill tops (which themselves were about 20,000 ft amsl).  No one had fired RPs at that altitude and so the errors were large.  We then tried S24s, but these also didn't prove successful, and at least one MiG27 suffered a flame out as a result of firing this weapon, which had been cleared by the Russians only up to 5km amsl.

It was in these circumstances in late May 99 that the idea of using LGBs from Mirage 2000 came to my mind.  However, having followed the trials being done at ASTE, with help from the Israeli team, for integrating the new LDP on Mirage, I knew that the team had gone back to Israel for the summer with the trials having been left half undone.  Nevertheless, the CAS  jumped at the idea and asked for immediate completion of the trials. You can imagine the amount of work that everyone at Bangalore and Gwalior had to put in to complete the task. As you are aware, the Mirage systems are digitally interfaced and integrated very closely indeed.  Unlike earlier generation of aircraft, even if a weapon could physically fit on the Mirage hard point, the computer will not accept it  There would therefore be serious problems in flying the aircraft in such an un-programmed configuration.  For instance, the FBW system would not recognise the weapon, nor make the necessary adjustments to the control laws to keep the aircraft (artificially) stable, nor allow release of such a weapon.  I think our TPs, engineering and logistics people did a great job in mating the LDP and bomb and 'fooling' the Digicomp into believing the 1000lb bomb (with LGB kit) was a 'valid' weapon.  Even when the aircraft was cleared for the task about 20 days later, there a few minor tweaks left over to make the system work 100%, but it was decided to use it anyway. The fact that the system worked well enough to achieve the end result was a credit to all the guys who worked behind the scenes and flew the missions.  I don't think the IAF really gave recognition to all the brilliant people who made it happen.

Vampires over Chamb – Indo Pak War 1965

This is one of series of paintings that I am doing in an attempt to recreate some of the major encounters of Indian Air Force in Indo-Pak War of 195.

This painting is about the very first day IAF was called into action to blunt a massive armoured thrust across the IB by the Pakistani Army on 01 September 1965 code named “Operation Grandslam”. Main objective of the Pakistani thrust was to cut off Kashmir supply line from the rest of the country by taking the bridge at Akhnur.

As Pakistan offensive with nearly 70 tanks and two infantry brigades crossed the IB towards Indian Army forward positions at dawn of 01 September 1965, Indian Army was completely outnumbered and asked for air support at 1100 hrs. So far both countries had not declared war and hence use of Air Force had to be cleared only by the Cabinet. Defence Minister gave the approval at close to 1800 hrs and first formation of Vampires of four aircraft lead by Sqn Ldr SK Dahar took off from Pathankot at 1719 hours. Two more formations armed with rockets and guns took to air at interval of 10 minutes each with last formation attacking the enemy positions at fading light.

Vampires pounced on Pakistani armour with rockets and guns doing repeated attacks unmindful of intense ground fire and possible air threat from Pakistan Air Force (PAF). Second Vampire formation was bounced by a pair of PAF F 86 Sabres. Faced with threat from a superior aircraft the right action for the obsolete Vampires should have been to hit the deck and get out of the area at the fastest. However, from account now available from a PAF Sabre pilot including of a gun camera photo taken from his aircraft, it has been confirmed that far from running away, Vampires tried to give a fight to the Sabres. In the completely uneven duel, three gallant Indian pilots lost their lives.

Vampires were followed by Mysteres into the battle area. In this very first action by IAF in 1965 war it claimed 13 tanks, 2 guns and 62 soft-skinned vehicles destroyed and most importantly IAF was able to prevent a major Pakistani breakthrough.

Tuskers raid Peshawar: Indo-Pak War 1965

This is an account of a few audacious Canberra crews who flew almost 600 NMs into the enemy territory at night, trailing one another at near medium levels without any escort and without any radar cover, to bomb a very formidable airbase of Pakistan Air Force (PAF) in 1965 war with Pakistan.  

 Unlike IAF in 1965, PAF with its US built F 104 Starfighters equipped with Sidewinder AIM 9B missile had night intercept capability and vintage Canberras practically were sitting ducks against this supersonic, state of the art interceptor. PAF also was fortunate to receive from US an effective radar chain for early warning purposes. Against this background, planning a mission to Peshawar for Canberras was suicidal   as it entailed flying to a target at its extreme flying range, through the enemy heartland with no allowance of fuel for any tactical routing. Fuel constraint also meant limited payload.  

 Attacking Peshawar became important for India as PAF had moved bulk of its attack force to its rear airfields and almost the entire B 57 ac bomber force was shifted to Peshawar immediately after IAF carried out retaliatory strikes on most of PAF bases with its Hunters and Mysteres on 07 Sep 1965. PAF considered Peshawar to be outside the range of Indian strike aircraft and hence a safe haven for its strategic force of US made B 57 long range bombers. Yet, as night fell at Peshawar on 13 September 1965, 08 (Eight) Canberras of 5 Squadron stealthily approached Peshawar. The typical profile of a Canberra raid was to approach to a pre –calculated pull up point between 200 and 500 ft AGL, pull up steeply to about 12,000 feet to drop the load and then climb progressively to 40,000 ft, to escape from Pakistani territory.

As Canberras closed in to their target, the ack -ack batteries opened up signaling raiders have been detected. PAF pilots and ground crew ran to take shelter in trenches and they had the rare privilege of seeing the first Canberra drop flares to illuminate the airfield and then thunder down the main runway at 200 feet, before pulling up at its end in an wingover to turn back and drop its bomb load at the end of a dispersal of parked aircraft. Had luck favoured the Tuskers, they would have wiped out the entire strategic strike component of the PAF with a single blow as the entire force of sixteen B 57s were lined up wingtip to wingtip on a dispersal. Unfortunately for IAF, the single 4000 lb bomb that fell closest to the parked B 57s hit soft soil and its explosive force was dissipated. However, bombs dropped from other members of Tusker force found their marks as fuel dumps were set ablaze, ATC building was flattened and aircraft on ground were damaged.

As Canberras set course for home, the inevitable happened. A lone Starfighter was vectored for an intercept on to the retreating bomber force. Canberras did all that was possible to do to prevent a massacre. Sqn Ldr Gautam saw a streak of flame appear in the darkness and made its way towards the bombers as the Starfighter launched its missile. However, luck favored the brave and the missile exploded harmlessly, possibly due to its proximity fuze malfunctioning. All eight Canberras landed safely at Agra.

The raid shook the PAF out of its complacency. No airfield or town was out of range of Indian bombers. No one in Pakistan had thought that the IAF would bomb Peshawar with impunity. The raid also forced  the Americans (USAF),  that had  maintained a full- fledged Signal Intelligence base about 20 miles South of Peshawar,  to evacuate all its personnel with families through Iran and return only after cessation  of hostilities.

Tuskers raid of Peshawar will certainly go down as one of most audacious bomber attack in history of military aviation. The significance of the raid was a symbolic gesture, less material damage.  Even John Fricker, the PAF commissioned hagiographer was moved to an effusive turn of phrase in describing the raid as, ‘the most effective Canberra attack of the war’.

The real heroes of the raid were undoubtedly the Navigators whose chances of survival without an ejection seat for them in Canberras    were very close to nothing.  It is, therefore, rightly so that Navigators Sqn Ldr SN Bansal and Flt Lt P Dastidar were awarded Vir Chakras for their acts of exceptional gallantry and Commanding Officer Wg Cdr PP Sing was decorated with a Mahavir Chakra, country’s second highest gallantry award.  Other members of the raid were  Sqn Ldr JC Verma (Leader), Flt Lt Deshpande, Wg Cdr PP Singh, Sqn Ldr CR Mehta, Sqn Ldr VC Godwin, Navigators Ahluwalia and S Kapoor.

My painting “Tuskers raid Peshawar” was inspired by the account I read in the book “The India-Pakistan Air War of 1965” by Jagan/Samir duo.   So it was initially composed entirely on impressions created in my mind of the attack as it was narrated in the book.   I was very fortunate to have received more inputs from Capt Vivian Goodwin who was one of the members of this fateful raid of 1965 war. I am also glad that Canberra gang of veterans has appreciated my painting. I am told that they are an extremely close knit lot and thick as thieves. It was wonderful to interact with few of them through e mail and very sincerely hope the painting evokes some memory for those remaining ‘Few good men’ of 5 Squadron and JBCU of September 1965.