My painting on dog fight between Indian and Pakistani Air Force fighters over Kalaikunda (Kharagpur, West Bengal) in 1965 Indo-Pak war.

                On 7^th September 1965, Pakistani fighters based at East Pakistan launched a successful pre-emptive attack on our Kalaikunda airbase located at West Bengal (near Kharagpur). The Pakistani attack carried out in early morning hours had achieved full element of surprise to  set ablaze two Canberra bombers and few Vampire jets that were parked on ground. Tasting success, second wave of four Pakistani jets came to attack Kalaikunda at around 1030 hours. However, this time it was the Pakistani pilot’s turn to be surprised. Two of our Hunter fighters piloted by Flight Lieutenant Alfred Cooke and Flying Officer Mamgain were patrolling the sky between Dumdum (Calcutta) and Kalaikunda. They were immediately   directed to intercept the incoming raid. In a prolonged air combat at tree top levels between four Pakistani raiders, Cooke and Mamgain brought down one aircraft each in full view of people on ground. Cooke then latched on to the third Pakistani aircraft but by then he had finished all his ammunition. Pakistan while acknowledging their loss of two aircraft had stated that their formation was attacked by superior force of nine Indian fighters.  This itself was a tribute to courage and bravery of our pilots who challenged a numerically superior force and came out as clear winners.

                Alfred Cooke settled down at Australia in 1967 and has been keeping in touch with his squadron (14 Squadron) till date.  

                This painting of mine is an attempt to recreate the dog fight between Cooke and Pakistani pilot Flight Lieutenant Afzal Khan, who unfortunately did not survive the crash.  

                Click on the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQVRnQnpZwM&feature=player_embedded to watch a video made by two civilian enthusiasts. One of them was a student  of IIT, Kharagpur in September 1965 who had watched the dog fight live from ground.