Bravery: Bareilly to Britain – Distinguished Flying Cross ties two generati

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This is the story of the boy from Bareilly who managed to fly a broken Chinook helicopter under enemy fire in the bad lands of Afghanistan – and was last week awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross in Britain for proving himself to be among “the bravest of the brave”.

But in a sense the uplifting story of Flight Lieutenant Jonathan Arvind Singh, born in Uttar Pradesh of an Indian father, Arbinder Singh, and an English mother, Margaret Bhore – “my mother was teaching in India and she met my father there” — goes back a couple of generations.

Singh, now 31 and attached to 18 Squadron, was brought to England when he was only 10 weeks old and joined the RAF 10 years ago.

But flying — especially flying under fire — seems to be very much in Singh’s DNA.

It so happens the “Distinguished Flying Cross” was also awarded more than six decades ago to Singh’s maternal grandfather, Flying Officer David Bhore, who flew reconnaissance missions over Burma during the Second World War in Hurricane aircraft.

“Yes, absolutely,” declared Singh, “my mother’s father — my grandfather — was a British man flying for the Royal Indian Air Force in the 1940s in what was then the Royal Commonwealth Air Forces.”

On June 24 last year, two British Chinook helicopters, including one commanded by Singh, were each required to drop 30 troops near a spot where the Taliban had established a bomb making factory. The Taliban’s improvised explosive device (IED) has taken a terrible toll among the more than 400 British servicemen and women who have died in the conflict in Afghanistan over the past decade.

Despite Taliban fire, Singh put his Chinook down and emptied his helicopter of the troops inside in 30 seconds flat but even this time period was long enough for Taliban sharpshooters to rake it with gunfire, rending the machine “almost unflyable”. Singh was very lucky himself — one bullet passed barely two inches below his right foot.

The Chinook’s control rods were damaged and it also lost some of its electrical and hydraulic systems so that the ramp at the back of the helicopter was stuck in a downwards position — further hindering take off.

Singh and his three-strong crew, including his female co-pilot, Flt Lt Laura Nicholson — British servicewomen have won the right to die on the frontline — were practically sitting ducks. But displaying “exceptional courage” as well as “exceptional captaincy”, Singh used all his skills to get his helicopter airborne and fly it for eight minutes and put it down in a farm.

“I had to use both hands and all the strength in my arms to push forward and get some speed and the aircraft flying away,” Singh recalled later. “Normally it’s very easy to handle. It’s a bit like driving a car with power steering, while this was like hauling a bus with no power steering.”

He and his crew were rescued, his Chinook removed on a giant lorry — he was the first to fly it again after it had been repaired by RAF engineers at the main British base, Camp Bastion — and the Taliban’s arms factory was destroyed.

It all ended well for Singh but on another day he might easily have been killed.

The boy from Bareilly was not in least boastful, though. “It is a huge honour to accept any recognition on behalf of the crew and the support guys who fix the aircraft. I wasn’t there alone. I was very much part of a crew. We fight as a crew, we fly as a crew, and we live together as a crew on deployment.”

Given six British soldiers died in a single incident in Afghanistan recently, he might have added: “We sometimes die together as a crew.”

But over centuries the British military and military families have learnt to take such deaths as part of “the great game”.

When The Telegraph was taken aback to learn he was on his fourth deployment in Afghanistan, Singh was asked if his mother had ever been tempted to read him the riot act (as any Bengali mum, for example, would have done): “My blood sugar is high — you are coming straight back home. You are going to do a safe office job.”

Singh laughed loud and long and said: “It doesn’t quite work like that.”

His mother, who lives in Plymouth — “my parents are divorced” — “knows this is the career I have chosen. She is more than happy.”

He admitted: “I am not really an office guy so I like being out and doing things. I was always interested in flying when I was a kid and the air force seemed a good idea — it’s a chance to travel the world and have some adventures and, if you fly, it’s great. Well, I’m in the RAF and with that come certain tasks and responsibilities.”

Had he been scared when his Chinook came under sustained Taliban fire?

Singh nodded. “Anyone is scared in that situation —actually, when you are on the ground it is pretty terrifying.”

Nevertheless, his perspective on Afghanistan is slightly different from the one painted in the media. “It is obviously a country that has had its problems over the last few years but when you fly over it, it is a really, really beautiful place with incredible landscape.”

More than 400 British deaths, mostly of servicemen in their teens or early twenties, were sad, conceded Singh.

But he believed in the wider British philosophy. “The work goes on and ultimately it’s about making the country better for the people of the whole of Afghanistan.”

Deep down he also had a desire to discover more about the land of his birth. “India is a fascinating country which I have enjoyed visiting. I was raised in Britain and feel very much connected to Britain but, definitely, India is a country I would like to explore much more in the future.”

Bravery: Bareilly to Britain – Distinguished Flying Cross ties two generations | idrw.org

Great job!!!