Our Heroes need their identity back

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He made India ground its whole fleet of Vampires and Ouragans.

It was September 1965 and it was imminent that sooner or later, Pakistan and India are going to have a full scale War. Pakistan army was successfully advancing in the Akhnor Sector, crushing every hurdle in its way. Indian army was retreating after offering a stiff resistance. Airforce of both countries was supporting their respective ground forces against the enemy fire.

However, no air battle took place till that time. Indian Airforce had a large fleet of 729 aircrafts, having Russian Mig-21, Fighter Bomber Hunters, Canberra Bombers, Gnats, Ouragan and Vampires. In Contrast, Pakistan Airforce was not more than 230 aircrafts, not even half of IAF. Indians used Vampires in Akhnor Sector, as they were good for close support missions. No. 45 Squadron of IAF, comprising of Vampires was moved from Poona to Pathankot for immediate action.

It was a fateful day of September 01, 1965, this day brought a series of misfortune for both Indian Army and IAF. Pakistan Army was crushing Indian positions like Sledge hammer and Indians were offering stiff resistance, but it was not their day. A wireless message from Indian side was intercepted by Pakistan.

“Dispatch whiskey”

Moments after, the sky roared with the sound of Indian Vampires. In the words of Indian Major General GS Sandhu (Book “History of Indian Cavalry”),

“The first strike of four Vampires destroyed three AMX-13 tanks of India’s own 20 Lancers, the only recovery vehicle and the only ammunition vehicle of their own army.”

After some hours, again Indians called for Whiskey and again a formation of four Vampires was seen in the sky. According to Major General GS Sandhu,

“This IAF strike destroyed several assets and personnel of Indian Infantry, Indian gun position and several ammunition vehicles”.

However, they were spared by the further ignominy by IAF with the arrival of two PAF Saber F-86s, flown by Squadron Leader Sarfraz Ahmed Rafiqui and his wingman Flight Lieutenant Imtiaz Ahmed Bhatti.

Serving the motherland was not a new task for Rafiqui. He was a boy of 12 years when he had hoisted Pakistani flag on August 16, 1947; in the sea between France and England, while he was on a Jamboree as a boy scout. After a period of eighteen years, he was in the skies to defend his motherland. Shaking the skies of Akhnor, Sabers were in visual contact with Vampires. Taking the first pair of Hunters in the target, Rafiqui fired and churned up one vampire and moments after, the other. These unfortunate pilots were Flight Lieutenant “A.K Bhagwar” and “V.M Joshi”.
After Rafiqui, it was Bhatti’s turn.

He positioned his aircraft after the pair of other two. Dodges after dodges, Vampire tried to escape, but all in vain. Bhatti took his target in his diamond sight and squeezed the trigger, aircraft of Flight Lieutenant “S Bhardwaj” turned into a ball of flames.

The other target of Bhatti was Flying Officer “Sondhi”, who was running for his life, creating loop after loop and role after role, he tried to escape from Bhatti and lost altitude gradually in every move. Bhatti took it into the sight and fired. The aircraft started oozing trail of black smoke and dashed into the ground, however Sondhi ejected to tell the horrific tale about the destruction of his formation.

Rafiqui opened the account of Indian kills successfully and Bhatti had made a valuable addition to it. Seeing the terrible destruction of Vampires, IAF drew out it’s over 80 Vampires and 50 Ouragan aircrafts, decreasing its 35% attack power. The destructive duo of Rafiqui and Bhatti made them ground their whole fleet of vampires and Ouragans.

After that day, Indians never demanded whisky.

 

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Officers of No. 9 Squadron with their Officer Commanding Wg Cdr Zahid Qadeer - 1996.

 

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Flight Lieutenant Abid Ali Shah Shaheed During His FCU Days.

May Allah Pak Elevate His Ranks In Jannah.

 

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Assembly of the Pioneers

The month was August 1947 and amid the chaos and carnage that attended the birth of Pakistan, scattered among the millions of trans-migrants on the move, was a select band of men making their determined way to their new homeland. They were select because destiny had already singled them out to write the opening chapters of a saga of courage and honour that would have no parallel in the evolution of the newborn state. Numbering a little over 2,000 in a nation of 75 million, they were to found an institution which would become the pride of the nation because, within their own lifetimes, it would one day help snatch the fatherland from the brink of destruction. These were the stalwarts who would man the new nation's air defence machine, the Royal Pakistan Air Force. They would display a rare degree of resourcefulness, improvisation and perseverance in the fashioning of their instrument of war. They would scoff at shortages of means and manpower, and would take their handful of worn out aeroplanes to forge a dynamic flying team that would become the forerunner of a powerful 20th century air force. They would set the finest examples of courage and honour for their descendents to follow, and in so doing the latter would emblazon their institution's name on the national canvas in letters of gold. Now these pioneers converged upon their assembly points in Pakistan . They came from the farthest reaches of the subcontinent to congregate at Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Karachi, Dhaka . They came singly, in twos and threes, in small groups; some with their families, others with scarcely a handful of worldly possessions. Many of them had had harrowing experiences in road or rail journeys fraught with communal bloodshed; some had lost their all on the way, A few were lucky enough to get airlifts into Pakistan through the good offices of the Royal Air Force. Some had suffered personal tragedies in their families as a result of communal strife in their hometowns in India , others had made great sacrifices of property and possessions in order to migrate to the homeland of their choice. At this moment all were driven by the overriding urge to reach the reassuring security of an air force community. Who were these men and what were their antecedents? Uptil now they had all been members of the Royal Indian Air Force and had been serving at a score of RIAF stations all over the subcontinent. They were flyers, engineers, administrators, instructors, accountants, doctors and a whole range of other specialists who go into the making of an air force. Many had fought in WW II against the Japanese in Burma; a few were just out of flying school or some other training institution. At their destinations, some of them soon encountered old friends others searched vainly for a familiar face, but drew comfort from having arrived safely in Pakistan . In the turmoil and confusion pervading the entire country, it was difficult for them to begin to think where to start — but start they must and soon – the parting taunts of some of their erstwhile Indian Air Force colleagues were still ringing in their ears: "You'll be lucky if your Pakistani air force lasts six months!" In the vanguard of the contingent were the officers, the leaders who would constitute the hierarchy of the fledgling air force. Among the pilots, there was Mohammad Khan Janjua who, by virtue of being the senior most, could aspire to becoming the commander of the RPAF, but whose excess of ambition would soon be his downfall. Then there were Haider Raza, Maqbool Rabb and Abdul Rehman; all of whom had held senior command or staff appointments in the RIAF — Raza had flown the largest number of sorties of any RIAF pilot on the Burma front; all three in turn would reach the penultimate position as second-in-command of the RPAF. And there were Asghar Khan and Nur Khan, both destined to become commanders-in-chief of their air force and, between them, to give its foundations a permanence which nothing would be able to threaten. There were Mohammad Akhtar, 'Steve' Joseph, Khyber Khan, Abdul Qadir and Eric Hall, each of whom would in turn serve as deputy commander of the RPAF. Then came Rahim Khan and Zafar Chaudhry, who would also earn the privilege of taking the helm of their fighting machine but whose tenures would be attended by tragic upheavals. ​ With them were Masroor Hosain and 'F S' Hussain — the one who would become the personification of a 'complete officer' before losing his life in a cruel flying accident; the other who would become a living legend as a prince of pilots but whose fear of being grounded would drive him to concealment of a fatal ailment and lead him to a sad, untimely death on a hospital bed. Following them were Saeedullah Khan, Rab Nawaz and 'Mick' O'Brian, who would be the last three of the pioneers to become deputy commanders of their air force. And right at the bottom of the list was the junior most pilot of them. all, 'Mitty' Masud who, though not yet twenty, had already been court martial led and punished for breach of flying discipline; he could thus be said to be an archetypical product of the Indian Air Force's flying training system' of the time. Behind the pilots came the navigators, two of whom, Kamal Ahmed and 'T S' Jan, would reach the elevated rank of air commodore during the course of their endeavours towards the building of the RPAF. And there was air gunner Alfred Jagjivan who would before long narrowly escape death in the fledgling air force's first encounter with enemy aircraft. Then there were the engineers, pitifully few in number and with so little experience, led by 'jerry' Khan, a pilot turned engineer; he was flanked by Mohammad Mahboob, 'Chacha' Siddiq and Khalilur Razzak who would have the unenviable task of keeping the infant force’s dilapidated aircraft flying despite the absence of spare parts and proper tools. These hard core 'Tech Engg' officers were ably supported by narrower specialists, among whom was 'Musti' Khan who would play a prominent role in promoting 'electronics' awareness among RPAF hierarchy. After the engineers came an army of administrative officers, outnumbering even the flier. At the head of this contingent was Mofazil Alahdad who would become an air commodore in the process of participating in the development the RPAF. And there was Mahbub Piracha who would not only reach that rank but earn the privilege of heading the administrative branch of his air force. Then there were meteorologists Hidayatullah and Abdul Qadir who would enact the opening rounds of a long drawn out battle with the civil Met department to bring weather forecasting facilities up to mid-20th century standards. And there was equipper Nazir Rishi whose association with military aviation went further back than any of the pioneers, to 1934 when he joined an RAF stores depot in Drigh Road as a civilian. There was Riffat Mahmood who would earn distinction of becoming the first pioneering doctor to head the PAF's medical services; and then educationist Asghar Hussain whose singular services would be permanently enshrined in naming after him of the academics trophy at the PAF's flying training college. And finally there was Mohammad Aslam, the sole legal expert on the rolls. These pioneers and their colleagues, numbering 2,332 officers and men in all, would now set about bringing some semblance of order and organisation into the confusion of partition surrounding them, at least in so far as the RPAF was concerned. They had little time for leisure for the very act of achieving an independent homeland had also conferred upon them an enemy who for long years would remain committed to undoing their cherished achievement. And the first confrontation with that enemy over the Kashmir dispute was already brewing. Did this band of pioneering stalwarts have the initiative and enterprise that would be required to tackle the immense problems facing them? What were their credentials for taking up this extraordinary challenge? ​

 

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Asghar Khan briefing pioneering team at Risalpur - 1947.

[Picture Courtesy: DPR, PAF]

 

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Air Marshal Malik Nur Khan Awan awarding Sitara-e-Jurat to Flight Lieutenant Mohammad Tariq Habib Khan after September 1965 war.

Flight Lieutenant Mohammad Tariq Habib Khan was one of the pilots who struck the enemy airfield at Kalaikunda in the first strike mission against the enemy from East Pakistan. He flew three operational sorties and many other Air Defence missions and carried out these missions most courageously with success against heavy odds at great risk and in complete disregard for his personal safety. In one of these sorties, he engaged 4 Indian Air Force Hunters thus diverting their attention from other Pakistan Air Force aircraft who were attacking the enemy airfield. Later, he himself managed to evade the Indian Air Force aircraft and returned to base safely in a crippled aircraft.

During all these operations, he destroyed three Canberras and one C-119 on the ground and one Hunter in the air. Flight Lieutenant Tariq carried out all his missions with determination, courage and at great personal risk. For his act of bravery and devotion to duty, Flight Lieutenant Mohammad Tariq Habib Khan is awarded Sitara-e-Jurat.

 

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Sherdils Aeros, Risalpur, 1981.

Standing L-R: F/L Imtiaz Shaikh, F/L Arif Moeen, W/C Aamir Sharief (Leader), S/L Niaz Nabi (Reserve Leader), F/L Kaiser Tufail, F/L Amjad Rathore, Kneeling L-R: F/L Tahir Rafique, Unknown, F/L Zahid Qadeer.

 

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Great Noor Khan..... ❤ ❤ ❤

 

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"PAF Mirage III ROSE Being Loaded With Weapons"

As the sun beats down upon him, an Airman wipes the sweat from his brow, spreading the layer of grease & oil from his hands onto his forehead. Consumed by the task at hand, he remains focused knowing his jet needs to be ready to take off within the hour.
He is accustomed to such working conditions by now the extreme summer heat, freezing winter cold & pouring rain. The long hours & necessity to stop what he is doing & seek shelter are all a part of his routine. He is a fighter aircraft crew chief. What he does is not a job, it is a lifestyle.
As a crew chief, you have to enjoy working in the cold, in the heat and in the rain. You have to enjoy getting your hands dirty & putting in the long hours. Seeing your jet take off two or three times a day & return home safely each time that’s the real reward. Having that pilot climb out & say, ‘Great job chief’ makes it worth it.”
There really is a lot of work that goes into every jet on the flightline. Crew chiefs usually put in about 12 to 14 hours of work a day. But everything they do, they do as a team.They start their day together, & they end it together.

So come heat, cold, rain, endless days and alarm reds, the crew chiefs of Pakistan Air force remain focused on the mission & continue to make sure their jets take off & come back safely every day

 

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"Strapping up into an F-16 fighting falcon"

Most crew chiefs follows fighter pilots up the ladder & connect the shoulder straps to their harness & plug in their G-suit before shaking the hands & removing the ladder. After that, there's is only a seat kit, lap belt & comm cord. From there, the crew chief plugs into the aircraft's intercom system & the fighter pilot talks through the start-up sequence ...

 

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Top Gun M.M. Alam shaking hands with President Muhammad Ayub Khan, PAF Station Sargodha, 30 October 1965.

 

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Air Commodore Rtd Syed Sajjad Haider

 

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PAF Station Sargodha, 30 October 1965