Air Marshal (Retd) Arshad Chaudary

 Air Marshal (Retd) Arshad Chaudary was one of the eight Pakistan Air Force F 86 Fighter pilots who created history in Pathankot during the 1965 war. He retired as Vice Chief of the Air Staff in 1997. After the skirmishes in the Rann of Kutch the Pakistan Air Force knew that the Indians would reply to this so it started preparations. Teams of the best of fighter pilots were selected and meticulous training for war started.

The team that Arshad Chaudary was a part of was tasked to strike Pathankot when needed. As things escalated and the Indian Army General Jayanto Nath Chaudhuri famous for his September 1965 boast “Tomorrow we will drink in Lahore Gymkhana,” crossed the border opposite Lahore on the morning of 6th September. When the PAF personnel reached Peshawar PAF airbase they say a lot of movement and planes were being readied with rockets which were World War 2 vintage. They learned that they were to provide ground support around Wagah as India had attacked Pakistan.

The pilots were briefed about the mission and six planes laden with 4 rockets each, rose into the sky and headed for Wagah in Lahore. They could see the movement of Pakistan and Indian troops on both sides of the BRB canal. The Flight Leader gave orders to choose targets and hit the enemy. Once PAF started strafing the Indian tanks and trucks stopped their movement and within no time huge damage was caused to the Indian tanks and trucks. Vice Air Marshal Arshad Chaudary speaking to The Nation said,

“Indian Army General J.N Chaudari may have drank BRB water but he was not able to get his peg in Gymkhana.”

On return to base they were briefed for a strike on the Indian Air Force Base at Pathankot, with the time over target as 5:05 pm. Before take-off they equipped themselves with the regulation equipment and necessary articles for emergency procedures. Arshad Chaudary recalling the moments before takeoff said, “Squadron Commander briefed us to strike only once and return immediately as we could face fuel shortage.”  Deputy Chief Khyber Khan bid each one of the ten pilots farewell, gave a miniature Quran and tied ‘imam zamin’ and said may God be with you.”

There were 10 planes, 8 were to strike while the two had to provide cover. In the first formation, Sajad Haider, Arshad Chaudary, Dilawar, Khalid Latif were flying. In the second formation Akbar, Abbas Khattak, Mazar Abbas, Ghani Akbar.the cover planes were piloted by Wing Commander Tawab (who later became C-in-C of Bangladesh Air Force) and Arshad Sami.

The flight path led to Pasrur which was the decent point and our initial point; from there we set our course for Pathankot, India was caught by surprise. Arshad Chaudrry recalled “When we pulled up to position for the strike no one shot at us this gave us confidence and we looked for our targets. IAF Mystère planes were parked in pens so it was difficult to shoot them, however I aimed for the plane and hit it. Then I saw a C 119 transport aircraft on the tarmac it had an American flag on it but since it was on our target I shot it. While I was preparing for my third strike I came to know that now I am under the enemy fire. I took evasive action and went into a Jinking maneuver to escape from the enemy fire. As I came out safe from the maneuver I saw two Mig 21 planes being fueled on the tarmac I destroyed these straffing wing to wing in a text-book move, and pulled off reciting Ya Ali Madad. Before exiting Pathankot I hit the Air Control tower and destroyed it completely.” After completing the strike we headed for Sargodha for refueling, 12 IAF planes were on fire and the ATC destroyed when they left.

When the flight landed at Peshawar it was received by the wife of Air Marshal Noor Khan the C-inC and they were congratulated for their action and served chilled milk with Rooh Afza. Air Marshal Arshad Chaudry’s eyes got nostalgic as he recalled that during the 65 war he flew 32 missions with success.

The Pathankot strike was the deciding point that gave the Pakistan Air Force air superiority over Indian Air Force. The skills of our pilots and the state of art equipment we use helps the PAF retain this air superiority over IAF even today.

Flight Lieutenant Qais Hussain

The pilots of the Pakistan Air Force played a vital role in not only assisting the ground troops but also defending the air space. Flight Lt Qais Hussain was one of the pilots who is known for shooting down an Indian aircraft which was carrying Chief Minister of Gujrat in India, Balwantrai Mehta, his wife, three members of his staff, a journalist and two crew members. Years later he got in touch with his daughter Farida Singh and condoled with her about her father’s death.

Speaking to The Nation about the incident he said, “We did not know that the plane was carrying civilians, and secondly it was not supposed to be in that territory which was 60 miles off their flight path, so I was guided to the area by the controller and ordered to shoot it down.”

Qais shed light on the scenario before the September 1965 war, “India did not catch Pakistan by surprise as we were prepared since Rann of Kutch incident took place in March of 1965. Even though it is said that the war began on 6th September’ however it had begun on 5th September when Squadron Leader Sarfaraz Ahmed Rafiqui and Air Commodore Imtiaz Bhatti shot down four Indian Vampire aircraft over Kashmir.”

He recalled details of his last mission on 23rd September which was over Amritsar during which his F 86 aircraft was shot and he escaped miraculously. He said, “I was Number two amongst the four planes in the sortie. We had to target standing tanks in a village near Amritsar, prior to the strike as we were assessing the damage it would cause to the civilians the right wing of my plane was hit by ground fire. It was a tough thing, if I had bailed out there I would have been shot. I managed to bring the plane to River Ravi by that time the fire had extinguished and I reached Sargodha.

“This war showed how PAF was a major component of the Pakistan armed forces. Since then PAF has excelled to heights. We also coordinated with our other forces to understand their working for better performance,” Qais said.

Brigadier (Retd) Rauf Khan

Brig Rauf Khan fought the battle on ground in 1965. He shed light on various angles of the war.

What was the environment prior to 1965 war and how did the war proceed?

He said the tensions were high since the beginning of the year.  Rann of Kutch was simmering in the south, and round about April / May the skirmishes started. I was on a course during this period, which was called off half way as troops were moved for deployment, and the practical part of the course could not be conducted. My unit had already moved to field location, and I joined back there. Later we returned to the Cantonment, leaving a part which took part in operation grand slam with an armored regiment. On 6th Sept 1965 we moved out from the Cantonment to field location and we went into battle.

Remember that there was a big numerical difference between Pakistan and Indian army then, which exists even today. During planning in 1964, the army wanted to increase its level of manpower due to the threat perception; however the Finance Minister Mr. Shoaib, was reluctant to allocate funds for this as a result the army had to shuffle troops to create formations to meet the demands that the strategy envisioned. Some additional raising was also done, once again by taking troops from different battalions to raise a new battalion so while the army had more formation but no additional troops.

In august 1965 Operation Gibraltar and later Operation Grand Slam were launched. However, in the latter the Army changed the formation commander, resultantly the momentum of advance on Akhnur was broken and Pakistan Army was not able to capture Akhnur bridge, which would have cut off the line of communication between India and Indian held Kashmir which would have brought India practically to its knees!

By that time the Pakistan Air Force had achieved air superiority by shooting down four Indian Air Force aircraft over the area. Subsequent air battles and shooting down on IAF aircrafts, and the attacks by the PAF on forward IAF air bases further stopped the IAF from operations in the war zone,” he explained.

What was the role of the Government of Pakistan, even though this was the time of President Ayub Khan; and what role did the international community play?

President Ayub was an active leader and he was instrumental in getting military aid from the US and other countries; Pakistan was also held in high esteem abroad in those days. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto after being Minister of Commerce and later Minister of Water and Power, Communications and Industry; he was appointed Foreign Minister in 1963. He was shrewd and intelligent and is supposed to have told Ayub Khan that if Pakistan takes action in Kashmir India would not interfere in the operations as long as we do not cross the international boundary. Ayub Khan fell for this and approved the launch of Operation Gibraltar, however the Indians attacked across the International border at Lahore on 6th September.

Other than this the change of command mid stride during the Operation Grand slam to capture Akhnur brought the advance to a halt resulting in the Indian Army putting in a force to stop the Pakistan Army.

Brig (Retd)Talat Imtiaz Naqvi

Brig (Retd) Talat Imtiaz Naqvi was a Lieutenant when the 1965 war broke out. He was in a medium Artillery regiment which was and a part of the Pakistan Army’s armored division. The unit was deployed in near Khem Karan in the Punjab during the war and it lost two soldiers.

Brigadier Imtiaz shared his memories of public response after the 1965 war was declared. “The public response at that time was amazing. When we crossed one village to another we were welcomed by people waiting with garlands or with food or water which they forced on us even when we asked them not to. At times some of them would even climb up on our vehicles to reach their destinations.”

Brig Imtiaz said India should not try messing around with Pakistan as it has in the past as it would cost them a lot. Pakistan has been fighting a war on terror since the past 10 years which has made the Army and other its sister forces a battle hardened force to reckon with.

Wing Commander (Retd)

Farooq Haider

Wing Commander (Retd) Farooq Haider is a PAF officer who was part of the Air Defence team during 1965 war. Following are excerpts of his interview:

 The Pakistan Air Force is comprised of different departments one of which is Air Defence  of which I was a part of during my service. I was a flying cadet in the PAF Academy, when I was selected for training in the US Air Force Academy. However during my medical I was told I had a heart murmur and I was declared unfit to fly. The commandant then took up a case to have me transferred to Air Defence.

Air Defence is the eyes and ears of the Air Force. During 1965 I was posted at a Radar Station near PAF Base Sargodha, this was the station from where the flights were controlled. During end of August 1965 the Operation Gibraltar was launched, and the PAF was standing by to support the ground operations. Our task was to take the PAF aircraft from bases in Pakistan to drop food and other supplies to the infiltrating force, which we did – this was usually done under conditions of radio silence and flying point to point to reach the drop zone and return to base safely.

In early September Operation Grand Slam was launched, the PAF started to fly Combat Air Patrol over the border area to ensure the Indian Air Force did not come across. The CAP was flown by two F 86, and one F 104 fighter aircraft from first light to last light. During this time, we were constantly awake and working round the clock for almost 70 hours.

The Radar where I was at was a high level Radar which scans the air space above 17-18,000 feet, and does not detect any aircraft below that altitude. Once Operation Grand slam was launched, the Indian Army called for Air support on September 1, and the IAF sent four Vampire Aircraft over Chamb, this was reported by the Mobile Observation Unit at Chamb. The time between reporting and action is one minute maximum; the report was received by me, and I told the CAP which was flown by Squadron Leader Sarfaraz Rafiqui and Flight Lieutenant Imtiaz Bhatti as his number two, the F 104 was flown by Flight Lieutenant Abbas Mirza, a young officer. I asked Rafiqui to take on the Indian planes, the Base Commander was also in the Control Room, and we watched Rafiqui go in for the attack. However, since the action took place below Radar Level we could not control the flight after guiding it to where the Vampire aircraft were reported from.

Soon after that we heard Rafqui calling in over the Radio saying, “I got two, my number two got two!” meaning that both of them had shot down two Indian Vampires each. This was the first PAF kill of September 1965.

On 6 Sep 1965, Rafiqui was tasked to strike IAF Air Base at with Flight Lieutenant Younus Hussain as number 2, Flight Lieutenant Cecil Chaudhry as number 3, and Flight Lieutenant Saleem as No 4. However, finally three aircraft took off for Halwara, where two Hunter Squadrons were stationed. The strike went in at 17:53 hrs, and took on IAF CAP flown by Flying Officer A. R. Gandhi and Flying Officer P.S. Pingale after scoring a hit on Pingale's Hunter, Rafiqui's guns jammed, and he asked Cecil Chaudhry to take the lead and attack while providing cover to Rafiqui’s tail. During this Rafiqui’s plane was hit by the IAF Flying Officer A. R. Gandhi (who was shot down by Cecil Chaudhry soon after), and Rafiqui lost his life in combat.

In the meanwhile Flt Lt Younas radioed that he was surrounded by IAF planes, I told the F 104 to make a pass in the area and save Younas, the IAF aircraft on seeing the F 104 turned tail and ran. One of these aircraft a Gnat, started to fly towards Amritsar, and suddenly he turned round and came back to land at Pasrur. The pilot was captured and later the aircraft was flown by a PAF pilot to Sargodha.

I remember a small incident that I controlled. My flying course mate, Ishaq was in a F 104, I asked him to fly over Amritsar and go Mach 1.2 which he did, the bang of the sound barrier breaking was enough for India to announce in the evening news bulletin the Amritsar had been bombed by PAF.

Another flight that I remember was on 7th September when Squadron Leader M M Alam flew a mission. He had a day earlier downed an Indian aircraft on 6th September.  On 7th September M M Alam shot down five IAF Hunter aircraft. Alam holds a record of shooting 9 enemy aircraft (confirmed kills 7) during the war of 1965.

The role of the Air Defence cannot be belittled by any means, and it continues to play a major role to position the fighter aircraft during combat missions.