Hawker Hunter

Indo-Pakistan Wars


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The [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] saw the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] engaged in large-scale aerial combat against each other for the first time since the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] in 1947.

The war took place during the course of September 1965 and saw both air forces conduct defensive and offensive operations over Indian and Pakistani airspace.

Both countries made contradictory claims regarding the number of losses that they suffered and the number of planes that they claimed to have shot down.

Indian losses have been placed at between 59 and 110, while Pakistani losses were between 18 and 43.

Background


The war began in early August 1965 and initially the fighting was confined mainly to the ground.

Later, however, as the war progressed, the war took on another dimension as the two sides began air operations against each other.

Although the two forces had previously taken part in the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] which had occurred shortly after Partition, that engagement had been limited in scale compared to the 1965 conflict and the air operations that both
sides had undertaken were limited and largely confined to [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and other strategic purposes such as re-supply and troop transport operations.

Although there had been one incident where Indian fighter aircraft intercepted a Pakistani transport, there had been no significant air-to-air combat.

During the 1965 conflict, however, the PAF flew a total 2,364 sorties while the IAF flew 3,937 sorties.

Main battle


The aerial phase of the war began on September 1, 1965, when the Indian Air Force's [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] responded to an urgent call for air strikes against the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], which had launched a counter attack known as [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

In the process the IAF scrambled four IAF [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

These initial air strikes were successful in slowing the Pakistani advance, however, the PAF sent two F-86 Sabres armed with [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] to the battlefield and in the ensuing dogfight,

All the four outdated Vampires of [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] were outclassed with the more modern Pakistani F-86 Sabres.

One Vampire was shot down by ground fire and another three were shot down by [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] Piloted by Squadron Leader Sarfaraz Rafiqui and Flight Lieutenant Imtiaz Bhatti of the No.15 Squadron of PAF.

The Vampires were followed in quick succession by [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] of [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] Squadron from [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

During the conflict, a Pakistani pilot, [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], was credited with having shot down nine Indian aircraft—five of them in one minute—as well as claiming two others as 'probable'.

This claim is subject to some dispute with Indian sources only confirming four aerial victories, although some of these Indian sources accept that he shot down at least 4 of their aircraft in different occasions and not on a single day.

The appearance of the Sabres necessitated a move by the IAF to send the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] fighters to the forward base of Pathankot.

The move succeeded—within two days the IAF shot down one aircraft.

This was claimed by [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] of [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], who is credited with having shot down an
F-86 Sabre on September 3, marking the first air combat victory to the IAF of the war and subsequently received the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

Independent sources, however, have listed this claim as 'damaged' rather than confirmed.

On September 6, the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] crossed the border at [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] to relieve pressure off the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] sector.

On the evening of the same day, the PAF responded with attacks on Indian airfields at Pathankot and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

The attack on Pathankot was successful and the IAF lost nearly 10 aircraft on the ground.

The attack on Halwara was unsuccessful; two of the attacking raiders were shot down for the loss of two Indian [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

Both the Pakistani pilots were killed in the action. One of them was Squadron Leader [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] who had shot down two Vampires on September 1 while the other was Flight Lieutenant Yunus Ahmed.

Before being shot down, Rafiqui shot down one of the Hunters.

He was later posthumously awarded the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

Both the Indian pilots, Pingle and Gandhi, survived as they ejected near their base.

The next day, September 7, the IAF mounted over 33 [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] against the heavily guarded PAF airfield complex at [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

The IAF lost two Mysteres and three Hunters due to the defence mounted by the Pakistan Air Force's local squadrons.

One of the crippled Mysteres got involved in a dogfight with an [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and shot each other down, both the
pilots ejected and the Indian was captured, made a POW and later returned after the war.

The Indian pilot, Squadron Leader Ajjamada Boppaya Devayya, was later awarded the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] 23 years later after his feat was revealed by an author appointed by PAF to write their story on 1965 war.

Similarly, on the same day, an IAF Folland Gnat was made to land on the Sargodha Air Base after it encountered an F-104 in the Sangla hill Sector.

This aircraft is still present at the Karachi Air Base museum of air campaign history.

This claim, however, was disputed by PAF themselves as was mentioned in Air Commodore Tauriq's website, since
they said no F-104 was present when the Gnat landed, however he did say, maybe the IAF pilot had noticed the F-104 Starfighter and panicked.

September 7 also marked the day when the PAF attacked IAF airfields in the Eastern Sector.

The raid on [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] was successful. Although one Indian pilot, Flight Lieutenant [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], engaged four Pakistani Sabres singlehandedly, shooting down onewhile flying at tree-top height and making another a write off in the process, the IAF suffered badly in the raid, losing a total of 10 aircraft in two raids.

The war lessened in intensity after September 8 and there were occasional clashes between the IAF and the PAF.

Both air forces now changed their doctrine from air interdictions to ground attack and concentrated their efforts on knocking out soft skin targets and supply lines like wagons carrying ammunitions and armoured vehicles.

During the conflict IAF [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] raided a few of the Pakistani bases.

On September 10, one Mystere was downed by anti-aircraft fire in Pakistan and the pilot was killed.

One PAF F-86 Sabre was downed by anti-aircraft fire on September 13 when it attacked Gurdaspur Railway Yard.

The pilot ejected but was never found. An Indian Gnat was also shot down by PAF F-86 Sabre, although the pilot managed to eject safely.

On September 14, Indian Canberras undertook the deepest penetration of Pakistani airspace of the war, attacking Pakistani bases around [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

Rather than bombing the Peshawer airstrip, however, IAF bombers mistook the mall road in Peshawer as the runway and dropped there bombs there by accident. The PAF admits that the IAF came very close to annihilating its entire B-57 bombers.

On their return mission, the Canberras were intercepted by a Pakistani F-104, although they managed to evade the Starfighter and returned home safely.

However, one Pakistani F-86 Sabre crashed, killing the pilot, while conducting an evasive maneuvere in an attempt to escape pursuit from Wing Commander Bharat Singh, as he tried to defend the Canberra bombers.

Singh was later credited with an aerial victory for this incident.

Later, one Pakistani B-57 was shot down by anti-aircraft fire over Adampur, although both of its crew managed to eject safely and remained POWs.

On September 15, the PAF employed a number of its [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] transport aircraft as bombers.

This innovation, however, proved unsuccessful.

The following day, one Hunter and an F-86 Sabre were shot down over Halwara.

The IAF pilot was killed in the encounter, although the Pakistani pilot ejected and spent the rest of the war as a
POW.

A Pakistani [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] was also shot down that day, as well as an [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] observation aircraft.

On September 18, one Sabre was shot down by a Gnat over Amritsar, the matter was reported by the Collector, who had witness the entire dogfight.

The Pakistani Sabres that were also participating in the raid shot down a civilian aircraft as they were returning home.

The aircraft had been carrying the then Gujarat Chief Minister [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and his family.

On September 19, one Gnat and two Sabres were downed over Chawinda.

One of the Sabres that were shot down was credited to Squadron Leader [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], the brother of Trevor Keelor, who was credited with the first Indian aerial victory of the war.

The following day, another two Huntersand an F-86 Sabre were lost over Kasur, Pakistan.

At one stage the IAF was operating 200 air missions simultaneously.

IAF [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] of Nos [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] squadrons played a significant role in major air battles.

On September 21, IAF Canberras carried out a daring daylight strike into Pakistan at the radar complex in Badin.


The raid proved to be successful. Under the command of Wing Commander Peter Wilson, six Canberras from [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] took off from Agra, over a 1,000 km from Bladin and proceeded towards the radar complex at low level.

About 80 miles short of the target, one Canberra climbed to an altitude of 10,000 feet in order to act as a decoy before returning to base.

The other five Canberras continued on towards the target.

The flight then separated and four of the aircraft approached the target in two sections, each two minutes apart, at low level before climbing to 7,000 feet from where they carried out bombing runs, dropping approximately 10,000 lbs of explosives.

Wilson then approached from the south at an altitude of just 30 feet firing a salvo of 68mm rockets at the radar
dome.

On the same day a PAF [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] intercepted a Canberra bomber on its way back from [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and shot it down, while one Hunter pilot who was the son of Chief of the Indian Army was shot down by anti-aircraft fire, he ejected and was taken POW.

The [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] was declared on the night of September 22, 1965.

Variants


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The following is a list of Variants of the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] fighter aircraft:


Prototypes

Hawker P.1067

Prototype, first flight 20 July 1951, three built with the first later modified as a Mark 3 for the succesful World Speed Record attempts.

Hawker P.1083

Supersonic design based on the P.1067 with 50 degree wing sweep and afterburning Avon engine.

Construction abandoned and the fuselage and tail were used as basis for the P.1099.

Merci ! Cela nous rappelle de bons souvenirs ! [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir cette image]
Nostalgie ? [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir cette image]