On 16 September 1965, as the air war
between India and Pakistan was raging on its 16th 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.
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