Republic Day

With Republic Day approaching ahead, lets hope the Government does not repeat the charade from last year where the Ashok Chakra was given out by the ton

An Old Prisoner from 1947-48 revisited.

The photo on the left shows an old frontier tribesman, who formed part of the marauding forces in the Invasion of Kashmir, captured after Indian troops routed the tribals at the Battle of Shelatang. It was said that this old man was captured after Baramula town was taken - around November 8th, 1947.


This old man was the star of many news . I remember seeing him in quite a few places. Now another newsclip has surfaced on the British Pathe Website - titled "Nehru In Kashmir", it shows the visit of PM Nehru and various other delegates to Kashmir sometime in November 47.

One still from the clip shows the same Prisoner - being examined by Group Captain Arjan Singh DFC (later Air Chief and Marshal of the AF). I do not remember where Arjan Singh was - probably with Air HQ or something, but he is seen in the clip very curious about the tribesman's coat buttons - My guess, the buttons have some kind of an embossed crest that sparked Arjan's interest.

I do wonder who this old POW was - if he got repatriated, if he went back to his village with tales of his stay in India and all.. etc etc.

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 ?

Kh-29 on an Indian MiG-27ML

Recently, I stumbled onto SPs Aviation Magazine website. SP's Aviation is a magazine published out of Delhi . They have made their archives available online in PDF format on their website http://spsaviation.net/archive.asp?year=2009

After downloading two years worth of issues and going through them, some interesting nuggets turned up. Being in Delhi they have access to all the Air Force events and have several photographs from the Parades. One of the is as follows:

This is the first time I am seeing a Kh-29 Air to Surface Missile mated onto a MiG-27ML of the Indian Air Force. While MiG-23s and 27s were known to carry this munition, it has never before been seen mounted on an Indian MiG-27 in public before. While the missile itself is on display in the Museum and had been showcased in photographs or republic day parades as a seperate entity, this is certainly the first time it is shown mounted on a MiG-27, and that too a plain vanilla non-upgraded MiG-27.

Yes, the missile does look like an inert example. It had never been shown being fired in any of the IAF's FPD, and any that were acquired in the 80s are probably time expired by now, but hey - lets savour the moment - an ASM on the good old Bahadur - never seen in twenty years but now out in the public!

Border Security Force - Roll of Honour

Detailed lists of the BSF Killed in Action. A very commendable effort by the BSF to put the information online. Each year has a PDF file with photo, personal details etc.

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!

Blast Pens in Sargodha Air Field

Yep - 87 of em - I counted ! (couple of them might be open ones)

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.

No.221 Squadron HIstory

Valiant to the last - the history of No.221 Squadron "The Valiants". While the book may be good at other aspects - I have read a chapter about the 90s which was quite good. It was quite disappointing as far as the 71 War History was concerned. There wasnt much - most of it borrowed from Air Chief Marshal Lal's book.

At the risk of being accused of blowing my own trumpet, my forthcoming book on the Bangladesh Air War will have more information on the Squadron ops than the Squadron;s official history.

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.