Tuskers raid Peshawar: Indo-Pak War 1965 Deb Gohain This is an account of a few audacious Canberra crew who flew 600 km into the enemy territory at night, trailing one another at near medium levels without any escort and without any radar cover, to bomb a very formidable airbase of Pakistan Air Force (PAF) in the 1965 war with Pakistan. Unlike IAF in 1965, PAF with its US built F 104 Starfighters equipped with Sidewinder AIM 9B missile had night intercept capability and vintage Canberras practically were sitting ducks against this supersonic, state of the art interceptor. PAF also was fortunate to receive from US an effective radar chain for early warning purposes. Against this background planning a mission to Peshawar for Canberras was suicidal as it entailed flying to a target at its extreme flying range, through the enemy heartland with no allowance of fuel for any tactical routing. Fuel constraint also meant limited payload. Attacking Peshawar became important for India as PAF had moved bulk of its attack force to its rear airfields and almost the entire B 57 ac bomber force was shifted to Peshawar immediately after IAF carried out retaliatory strikes on most of PAF bases with its Hunters and Mysteres on 07 Sep 1965. PAF considered Peshawar to be outside the range of Indian strike aircraft and hence a safe haven for its strategic force of US made B 57 long range bombers. Yet, as night fell at Peshawar on 13 September 1965, six Canberras of 5 Squadron stealthily approached Peshawar. The typical profile of a Canberra raid was to approach to a pre –calculated pull up point at 1000 feet, pull up steeply to about 10,000 feet to drop the load and then to descend down to low level, to escape from Pakistani territory. As Canberras closed in to their target, the ack -ack batteries opened up signaling raiders have been detected. PAF pilots and ground crew ran to take shelter in trenches and they had the rare privilege of seeing the first Canberra drop flares to illuminate the airfield and then thunder down the main runway at 200 feet, before pulling up at its end in an wingover to turn back and drop its bomb load at the end of a dispersal of parked aircraft. The single 4000 lb bomb looked certain of totaling the entire force of sixteen B 57s, lined up wingtip to wingtip. Had the luck favoured the Tuskers, they would have wiped out the entire strategic strike component of the PAF with a single blow. Unfortunately for IAF, the bomb hit soft soil and its explosive force was dissipated. However, bombs dropped from subsequent members of Tusker force found their marks as fuel dumps were set ablaze, ATC building was flattened and aircraft on ground were damaged. As Canberras set course for home, the inevitable happened. A lone Starfighter was vectored for an intercept on to the retreating bomber force. Canberras did all that was possible to do to prevent a massacre. Sqn Ldr Gautam saw a streak of flame appear in the darkness and made its way towards the bombers as the Starfighter launched its missile. However, luck favored the brave and the missile exploded harmlessly, possibly due to its proximity fuze malfunctioning. All six Canberras landed safely at Agra. The raid shook the PAF out of its complacency. No airfield or town was out of range of Indian bombers. No one in Pakistan had thought that the IAF would bomb Peshawar with impunity. The raid also forced the Americans (USAF), that had maintained a full- fledged Signal Intelligence base about 20 miles South of Peshawar, to evacuate all its personnel with families through Iran and return only after cessation of hostilities. Tuskers raid of Peshawar will certainly go down as one of most audacious bomber attack in history of military aviation. The significance of the raid was a symbolic gesture, less material damage. Even John Fricker, the PAF commissioned hagiographer was moved to an effusive turn of phrase in describing the raid as, ‘the most effective Canberra attack of the war’. The real heroes of the raid were undoubtedly the Navigators who chances of survival without an ejection seat for them in Canberras were very close to nothing. It is, therefore, rightly so that Navigators Sqn Ldr SN Bansal and Flt Lt P Dastidar were awarded Vir Chakras for their acts of exceptional gallantry and Sqn Ldr P Gautam who acted as the Pathfinder and attacked the runway at low level, was decorated with Mahavir Chakra. Other members of the raid were Sqn Ldr JC Verma (Leader), Flt Lt Deshpande (Navigator with Sqn Ldr P Gautam), Wg Cdr PP Singh, Sqn Ldr CR Mehta, Sqn Ldr VC Godwin, Navigators Ahluwalia and S Kapoor. My painting “Tuskers raid Peshawar” (placed here)was inspired by the account I read in the book “The India-Pakistan Air War of 1965” by Jagan/Samir duo. Unlike my earlier painting of “Tigers over Sargodha” for which I received additional valuable inputs from Air Mshl Philip Rajkumar(Veteran) and Gp Capt DS Kahai (Veteran), for painting on Tuskers feat I was not able to speak to anyone in person. So the painting was composed entirely on impressions created in my mind of the attack as it was narrated in the book. I sincerely hope the painting evokes some memory for those ‘Few good men’ of 5 Squadron and JBCU of September 1965. Veteran Gp Capt Deb Gohain
Posted on: Sun, 22 Jun 2014 02:05:03 +0000
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