If you go looking for IAF History, you will find it...

...Pennsylvania edition....

Watch in HD

Visitor's to the Mid-Atlantic Aviation Museum's yearly "World War Two Weekend" event would never guess that one of the Star attractions - an airworthy Supermarine Spitfire Mk XVIII (S No SM969) is an ex-Indian Air Force aircraft. The aircraft was flown in by its owner Jim Beasley, and gave an splendid display of aerobatics. This Spitfire is local to Pennsylvania, with its homebase at Coatesville. In a departure from other aircraft, this aircraft was displayed without any ropes cordoning it off.. so visitors could walk straight upto the aircraft, look inside the cockpit, see it ..up CLOSE..

I had captured the start up and taxing on High Definition Video, which can be seen above. Hit the maximise button to see it in all its glory. Watching an ex-IAF Spitfire made my day - and a photo of myself next to it is my now official mugshot on facebook!.

Spitfire SM969 started off with the IAF as HS877 in 1949 (there is a story about it serving in the RIAF Before and getting involved in an accident.. but are now easily disproven). Probably towards the end of 1957, When No.14 Squadron was converting to Hunters and got rid of the Spitfires, this aircraft was flown to Delhi and kept on (semi) permanent display at Western Air Command HQ.

Pic Copyright: Peter Arnold

In 1978, it was one of the numerous Spitfire airframes auctioned off to the West, it was recovered by Haydon-Baylie, and after numerous stops and owners, is currently owned by Jim Beasley Jr , a Vintage aircraft fanatic from Philadelphia - who flies a P-51 and now the Spitfire. (Just in case you were wondering, Jim Beasley is an Attorney, a Medical Doctor and accomplished "Super Lawyer in PA)...

The Spitfire is based out of the airfield at Coatesville, PA, at the Chester County Airport. Thats reason for me to file this post under the "If you go looking for IAF History, you will find it... PA edition".

A Mystery 8 Squadron - Pursoot's Badge from UK

The latest acquisition off eBay - a lovely wooden plaque with the badge of 8 Squadron fixed on it. Two metal plates with the inscription "The the Memory of" , "Jack Foster". The Seller was from UK and he apparently got some items from the Glouchestershire RAF Association. The origin of this plaque is a mystery - my guess is that this was made to honour an RAF WW2 veteran who served in SEAC With 8 Squadron .

Anyways - another procurement to be filed under "if-it-says-Indian-Air-Force---must-buy---"

Ten Years Old : The History of the Indian Air Force

This is the story of another find on ebay a couple of months ago. I recognised the cover straight away . It was a booklet published for the 10th year anniversary of the Indian Air Force. Infact in a very famous photograph showing the three Engineer Brothers (Below) Aspy Engineer is shown carrying copies of the booklet when he flew down to Risalpur for a reunion with his brothers - Minoo and Ronnie.

To cut a long story short, gotta have it, and yes, i did get it.

Its a 30 page booklet. With a sprinkling of photographs but mostly text oriented throughout. While most of the pictures have already been elsewhere, they appear to be printed with better quality in this booklet. Atleast one photograph was a first - dating from Oct 41 shows Sqn Ldr Majumdar escorting the Governor of NWFP at Peshawar during his inspection of No.1 Squadron. I havent seen it elsewhere.

Once again, I have to make a survey of known copies . One is certainly there at the British Library in the UK - Its record can be accessed here . Other copies? I am not so sure.

The "infamous" Burhan-ud-din of Chitral?

Among the various photos of No.1 Squadron, Indian Air Force from the late 30s, early 40s is this gentlemen - always wearing a uniform that is of a slightly different colour than the rest of the squadron - my take is that he is one of the Indian Army deputed officers who were part of the Squadron at that time. But there weren't many - D A R Nanda, Burhan-ud-din of Chitral, M K Janjua, M S Verdi, Jaswant Singh , Niranjan Prasad, P K Kuriyan and Asghar Khan are a few who are known.

This particular gentleman - I would tend to believe is the colourful Burhan-Ud-Din (spelled sometimes as Burhanuddin ) - later of INA infamy and the brother of the Mehtar of Chitral of that time.

Burhan-ud-din was originally commissioned into the Indian Army in 1935. After some time with the Baluch Regiment, he was one of the Army officers sent for flying training. He joined the IAF Squadron sometime in 1939 and remained with them till atleast January 1941.

The first assignment that Burhan was with the Squadron was to form part of the "Q" Flight - which was sent to Karachi for Coastal Defence Duties. Led by A B Awan, the Q Flight (Ex- A Flight) had Mehar Singh an S N Goyal with them as well.

The words "Colourful" "Infamous" etc are used in context with Burhan Ud Din's name is because he was a controversial figure. Quite a few used to look at him like an eccentric character. Air Vice Marshal Harjinder Singh has quite a few tales to tell of Burhan - one of which involved Burhanuddin requesting harjinder to teach him how to drive a car. As Harjinder recalls - Burhan-ud-din was an absolutely hopeless case as far as learning to drive a car was concerned. Flying an aircraft was much simpler for him - with the simple throttle and all. But to drive a manual transmission car which requires soem control over the Clutch, Burhan proved absolutely beyond help and infact ended up wrecking his car by reversing into a wall. That was the first time he discovered that his car had a reverse gear!

The 'princeling' from Chitral - as Harjinder puts it - was the 'most eccentric of them all'. He always talked ill of his brother - the Mehtar, and once told Harjinder that he expected his brother to either kill him or imprison him whenever he visited Chitral on his days off. It is said that any ruler of Chitral would feel unimportant if he was not killed by a relative when in power ! Burhan Ud Din ofcourse belonged to the same clan and had his own fears! He was also a suave player - During the Q Flight detachment, Burhan-ud-din worked himself into the Station Commanders inner circle and would get invited to any social event that was there - many times missing out on his duty pilot requirements. Leaving a very frustrated Flight Commander (Awan) stepping in to fill the void!

The harshest critcism comes from Air Marshal Aspy Engineer who would write in 1993 :

Then there were some people who never should have joined any air-force. As the detachment commander at Miranshah, I had the misfortune to have a new posting. I will call him Burhan. Son of a petty chieftain from way up north, he first joined the army but one mess night he threatened to shoot his C.O. after the latter had remonstrated that Burhan’s two dogs would not let him enter the building. Burhan promptly retorted, “Sir, you shoot my dogs and I will shoot you.” Well, that is how I had him in my unit. To cut several hair-raising stories short, I had his pet wolf shot, as the only humane option left after the wolf had severed his tongue by trying to chew through a Wapiti’s spare main plane. So glad to inform you that I am still alive in 1993.

I personally heard from another of Burhan-Ud-Din's peers - Air Vice Marshal Surendranath Goyal, was a Cranwell Trainee from 1938, spent time in the NWFP with No.1 Squadron. He remembered Burhan-Ud-Din to be a great friend of his - but also expressed his dissappointment at the brutality shown by Burhan when he was with the Indian National Army in 1945. As late as Jan 41, Burhanuddin was still with No.1 Squadron as a Fg Offr. One of the above photographs is probably of him during a detachment at Fort Sandeman at that time. Prior to that there is a record of him being with the Squadron in July 40.

Burhan went back to his Baluch Regiment duties sometime in 1941 and was taken POW on the fall of Singapore. He would later join the Indian National Army under Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. Burhan Ud Din's actions as an INA Officer were unofficerlike , he ordered several deserters to be flogged without due process - and one of the soldiers died. For this he received quite a bit of attention in most books dealing with the INA Trails. He was supposed to be the first one to be put on trial - but instead Shah Nawaz, Dhillon and Sehgal went up for trial.

Burhan-ud-din was ultimately tried in a Military Court - presided by then Brigadier K M "Kipper" Cariappa - later CinC Indian Army. Cariappa's court sentenced Burhan to seven years rigorous imprisonment . Popular anecdotes recall - that after sentencing him to imprisonment, Kipper walked over and shook hands with him, raising eyebrows among many.

Burhan-ud-din was released on Independence and went back to Chitral. He was supposed to have been quite active during the 47-48 Operations in organising the fighting at Skardu and Zoji La. He then went back to his chieftain days in Chitral till supposedly committing suicide in 1995. As I said, a colourful and infamous figure.

Be that as it may, the early Muslim aviators who were part of No.1 Squadron - like A B Awan, Haider Raza, Burhan-Ud-din appear to have absolutely loved their unit. The link above mentions Burhan-Ud-din signing his name in the guestbook of a PAF Station as "Lt Burhan-Ud-din , 1 Squadron, Indian Air Force!" less than a month after end of hostilities between India and Pakistan!. We know that Haider Raza's Grave Marker too makes an association with the Undividied "Royal Indian Air Force" - even though he served as the Vice Chief of the Pakistan Air Force. These folks absolutely loved their time with the WW2 RIAF.

Sometimes I feel it is a bloody tragedy for the airforce to split.. (But only sometimes... not all the time!)

The one that got away (on eBay) (RAF Album)

On the outside it looked like a regular old family photo album. The pages inside reflected a tour of duty of some Royal Air Force airman in the hostile and dusty North West Frontier Province area of Undivided India. I stumbled onto the Album in an auction on eBay.

The contents of the album were mostly the sights of the NWFP - places like Peshawar, Kohat, Lower Topa find mention. Some are Aerial shots, others are on the ground. Of people, of cattle and the sights. These were interspersed with the odd RAF aircraft photographs. This was what caught my interest.

The Upper Left photo shows a pranged Westland Wapiti with the caption "An Error of Judgement" - The Wapiti K1294 appears to belong to No.5 Squadron RAF - as indcated by the white fuselage band around the rear part of the aircraft. Other photographs in the series also showed a colour print of "HMT Dunera", "S O P Farnborough 1934" and a photograph titled "Lower Topa". HMT Dunera apparently began its career in 1937 and this sort of gives us a timeframe for the Album. The name of the ship sounded familiar - later I realised that it was the same ship in which Fg Offr Balan Dandapani, a WW2 Veteran that I interviewed in 2007, travelled as part of the British Commonwealth Occupational Foces in Japan.

It was the next series of photographs that made me stand up. In the lower right, was the picture of a Westland Wapiti in flight. What sets this one apart was the chequerboard fuselage marking - a marking sported only by the aircraft of No.1 Squadron, Indian Air Force. I do not ever recall seeing this particular picture - and is probably one of the very rare few of an IAF Wapiti in Flight.

The next page had a very interesting color drawing - the official crest of Aircraft Depot Karachi. Again, most certainly a post 1937 development. This figures in with above as the IAF unit was initially based at Drigh Road, where the Aircraft Depot was. Other shots include aerial views of Karachi and Manora, Kohat, Peshawar, Lahore etc.

The Auction was ultimately won by an anonymous bidder. I never had the deep pockets to even mount a credible counter bid. It did however open up my eyes about the gems that you can find on Ebay. Infact an year later, There was similar album on sale. Again, I lost the bid. But fortunately the winner was gracious enough to share his spoils for which I am always grateful. The results are there on the BR Site.

Ofcourse the question still unanswered - where is this album now? If you are the owner and you are reading this, why not drop in a comment ?

The Royal Indian Air Force at War : An account of Air Operations in South-East Asia

This has to be the most expensive book that I ever bought, atleast in terms of Rupees per Cubic cm of volume!. But well worth it. Published in 1946 by the Directorate of Public Relations, the book is a pinbound volume with about 120 pages of text and photos. Colour plates showcase water color paintings by Henry Sheldon.

Among my collector friends (some of them with very deep pockets) , no one has a copy. So I solemnly declare that this is the only copy known to be in the wild. Even USI is said to have only a photocopy.

I am listing the copies with other Libraries here. Let me know if you run into any stashed away anywhere.

Oh btw. I owe you one - eBay!

Catalogue Searches: (Zero, Zilch, Nada)
Amazon.com : Not Listed , Amazon.co.uk : 0 , Amazon.ca : Not Listed , Abebooks : 0 , Bookfinder : 0 , WorldCat.org : 0

Known Copies:

1. Library of Congress, Washington DC, USA http://lccn.loc.gov/47022977

2. British Library, UK Link

3. Imperial War Museum Collection, UK Link

Let me know if you find more

30 November 2013 Update : Roughly four years after i made the above post, I am glad to mention that a SECOND copy of the above book has been spotted in the wild - in the hands of another Indian Aviation Enthusiast. Vinayak Dutt Shukla has one copy in his collection too - and he sends proof!  Its actually in better condition than my copy..

Congratualations on the great acquisition - Now guard it with your life VDS!

Flight of the Falcon

Flight of the Falcon is the autobiography of Air Commodore S Sajad Haider, PAF. The copy I bought was delivered today. Wow what a book! - long overdue and something that definitely needed to be written from the Pakistani side for decades. The book's 65 air war chapter quotes extensively from our own air war book on 65, and it is almost inevitable for me that I have to read it side by side with IPAW65 (and an excuse for my tattered copy to form the background in this photo).

The book offers the first critical look at the PAF's role in 65 and offers a honest and dispassionate look at the PAF planning and claims. There are some great stories about 71 too. It would take too long for me to write all about it.. but in short.. go out and buy this book - its money well spent.

The Indian Aviation Library (Updated)

Not the whole collection - There are a few more books to be bought and procured. This is from last year. The earlier post which is similar is two years old. Will update a photo from this year shortly as I got yet another half a dozen new books including the elusive "Touching the Sky" Coffee table book.

A spanking new Sukhoi-7 BMK

A pretty rare colour photograph of a Sukhoi-7BMK in IAF Markings, in natural metal finish without an ounce of camoflage paint on it!

Six and a half squadrons flew this aircraft during the 1971 War, and more than a Squadron's worth were lost in the operations - Aerial Combat, Ground Fire, Accidents.

What is unusual in this photograph is the lack of tail number on the aircraft. The roundel on the front fuselage confirms that this is not an early model but probably one of the batch that was delivered after 1969.

I dont know the source of this colour photograph other than that it appeared in one of the Air Enthusiast series of magazines. It is also on the cover of Puspindar Singh's "Aircraft of the Indian Air Force 1933-73" - thus one can safely assume that this photo predates that book. Air to Air Colour photographs from the 60s are almost non-existant and the origin of this photo is a mystery to say the least.

The Brewster Buffalo and the Indian Air Force

Years ago,I read suggestions that Brewster Buffalos may have served with the IAF (Dan Ford's Warbird Forum) and one example was transferred to the IAF (Joe Baugher) etc. I used to laugh at that suggestion. I was pretty damn sure that the Buffalo never served with the Indian Air Force. But if you ask me today, I am not laughing! The reason, I was emailed some a couple of scans of late Squadron Leader Jehangir Merwan Engineer's logbook last year from his daughter - Mrs Farida Engineer. The logbook discloses that between May and July 43, He served with No.22 Anti Aircraft Cooperation Unit ( a composite RAF/IAF Unit ). (No.22AACU Was formed as an RAF unit out of IAF Anti Aircraft Coop Flights - It was later transferred to the Indian Air Force and became the No.22 AACU, IAF.) .

Right among the list of types he flew during his stint were two Brewster Buffalos! The first ever record that established Indian pilots flew Buffalos with what was later an IAF unit. The Buffalos in question are W8243 and W8245 (Profiles and Pictures above). I note from elsewhere on Dan Ford's Board that these are two of the six Buffalos that were flown back by 67 RAF sqn from the Burma Retreat. it appears these two aircraft were transferred to No.22 Anti Aircraft Cooperation Unit's A flight in Karachi Drigh Road at beginning of 1943 and were flown by Indian pilots later on. I also noticed that the fate of these two aircraft was marked as unknown in the production list available on other sites and books. if anyone is updating their lists, they can add No.22 AACU andthe period May -July 43 for these two aircraft.

Books I should have reviewed but didnt

I always appreciate a book that I enjoyed reading . And after every good book I read, I promise myself that I will write a few words or even review it on my website - but usually never ever came around to doing so.

I wrote some basic reviews on Amazon for a few - including Mansoor Shah's Gold Bird, Peter Smith's Vultee Vengeance, Roopinder Singh's Arjan Singh, but there are still a lot more great books that I have read over time that I didnt write about. (Yes I have written about YEAGER! - but that was more of a rant than a review!)

Without further ado - the books that I should review in detail .. at the earliest! (In no particular order)

1. The Incredible War - Air Marshal Bharat Kumar
2. Himalayan Eagles - Pushpindar Singh
3. Battle for Pakistan - John Fricker
4. The India-Pakistan Air War of 1965 - Yours truly and Samir Chopra

The first two are fairly recent. Frickers book is now three decades old, but still a great read if you know what you are looking for. the last one is my own book - its been five years since its final draft, and with loads of research work in between, there are lot of criticisms that I have about it. well.. some day!

An Indian Army Alouette in Gilgit, Pakistan?

For years, I have been hearing and reading stories of a captured Indian Army Helicopter on public display in Gilgit, Baltistan (Pakistan Occupied Kashmir). PakDef reported it as an Alouette III. But no pictures had emerged of it - till today when I stumbled on this photo by Ali Hameed on Webshots.



Ah .. the wonders of the Internet (for the umpteenth time).

It certainly is an Alouette - or a Chetak as we call it on our side of the border. Unfortunately trying to find out its provenance and identity is going to be an uphill task. The Helicopter is painted in non-standard Indian colors - There is no roundel or fin flash to be seen anywhere, let along the familiar 'Z' serial in white. The helicopter has the letters INDIAN ARMY painted on it along with the Indian tri color and rather interestingly, the Corps badge of XV Corps "Chinars" stationed in Srinagar.

Making the assumption that this is indeed an Indian helicopter (and that the Pakistanis are not playing a joke on us by painting one of their own Alouette IIIs in Indian colors) - The obvious question arises - how did it land up in Gilgit?

Over the years, several helicopters have been lost in and around Siachen. In the early years of Op Meghdoot, the missions were flown by Chetaks and only later were they replaced by the Cheetahs. Several could have been lost to the weather and elements over the initial years - and there is a high chance that the Pakistanis managed to recover one of the wrecks and ship it back to Gilgit. Its not implausible - just a couple of years ago a Cheetah of 114 HU overshot the landing pad at a forward post and rolled over into a valley killing the hapless pilot and co-pilot. The help of the Pakistanis was sought in recovering the crew member remains as the area were the wreck was now under Pakistani control. Several early Gallantry award citations from Siachen also talk about Helicopters crashing and abandoned in forward areas , or engines being removed out of crashed wrecks (Corporal C G Soman's Shaurya Chakra was on these lines).

Perhaps this was an Indian Army helicopter lost in the LoC area , outside of Siachen. Perhaps the helicopter was one lost in operations before Siachen came into its own? Whichever it may be, the fact the helicopter was transported to Gilgit suggests that it was in a more friendly 'recoverable' terrain than the hostile altitude of Siachen.

Whether the helicopter came from Siachen or outside, whether it was IAF or IA, one thing I can claim for sure is that the helicopter was surely built up from a crashed wreck. There are no remnants of the Turboshaft engine (suggesting salvage), the main rotor or the tail rotor blades - these possibly lost in a crash . And the front portion of the crew cabin, the plexiglass 'glass house' has been rebuilt from scratch (impact with the ground?)

My notes and records are not complete about Indian Army Chetak crashes - but I am sure some light will surface in due course of time. It is unfortunate that the Pakistanis had not retained the original markings of the aircraft - a serial number or the original paint scheme with stenciling would definitely have helped establish its identity.

Perhaps one of the Crazy brits will go around peeking for its construction number? I wish!

Raj Huns

Raj Huns
Originally uploaded by cool_daimalu.

Found this on Flickr, the last of the two remaining Tupolev 124s as seen at the Lucknow Museum. Photo from Flickr

My Indian Air Force and Indian Aviation Book Collection

The two photos on the left show the 'Indian Aviation' books collection - a selection of Indian, Pakistani and British Aviation books related to India and the Indian Air Force. One of the recent books on Kashmir Air War is missing, but this is as best as it can get. A couple of IAF Coffee Table books are also missing from the shelves, they are tucked away in a drawer somewhere.

Air Chief defends the MiG-21 (Video)

Click the Title above to go to the IBN site

When Angels Troop Down

Anil Warrier

When Angels Troop Down

B.S. Krishna Kumar, wing commander: Hero for his prompt reaction and brave risk-taking

JOHN MARY on B.S. Krishna Kumar
Wing Commander Krishna Kumar is sure he will be one of the very few pilots to ever have flown a rescue mission in a pyjama and a pair of borrowed slippers. It is a year after the tsunami and he can afford to joke. When the ocean bed went into paroxysms that morning, the islanders of Car Nicobar, India's eastern outpost where Kumar was stationed, were just stirring out after the previous night's X'mas revelry.

Kumar, woken up by his wife Bindu Lakshmi, first ignored the warning. The area was tremor-prone and small quakes were a norm. But within seconds, they heard a titanic rumble. When they picked up their children, Lakshmi Priya and Mukund, and managed to get out, Kumar couldn't believe his eyes. The beach, hardly 100 m from his residence, was inundated. Structures nearby had given way. His wife's shriek went up in the air: "The waves are coming".

Kumar describes it as "a Napoleonic invasion closing in on all sides". He turned back and headed for the airfield with wife and kids. In the scramble, an equally bewildered station chief, Group Captain V.V. Bandopadhyay, said: "Take off and see what's happening". Kumar, who commanded the MI-8 copter flight at Car Nicobar, was airborne in minutes with Flight Lt Vijay Kumar at the radio. "The start-up took less than 30 seconds. In an outpost like ours, the machine is kept ready all 24 hours," said Kumar.

They radioed Chennai, 1,500 km away, in what was later to be the first portent of the tragedy to strike the Indian peninsula. Giant trees floated on the beach. Waves had invaded more than a kilometre of land. He could only hope that his wife and kids were safe as he saw people crying for help. "The priority in such tragic hours is not one's own family but others in utmost distress," said Kumar.

During the five-and-a-half-hour operation, Kumar and crew ferried 352 people to the airfield which was on a 15-ft elevation. Often, he strained at the controls to keep balance as survivors clambered on to the winch in twos and threes. He hoped the winch would bear the weight because its permissible load was 150 kg. Half way through, still in his pyjamas and slippers, when the first copter ran short of fuel, he hopped on to the second. He hauled in a ladder from the fire tender and dropped it on the ramp, asking survivors to descend.

It was during the change of copter that one officer thumbed up to say Kumar's family was okay. That night iaf created yet another history, by night-flying the Bay of Bengal. Kumar and mates lit up the runway with kerosene lamps for the first relief plane to land.

Kumar was conferred the Kirti Chakra. There isn't much left of his material possessions in his quarters of the southern air command in Thiruvananthapuram. His costliest acquisition since the tsunami is a fridge. Of course, tsunami operation mementos fill the space.