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PAF attacks Pathankot
Sherdils of No.19 Squadron alongside their OC, Squadron Leader Syed
Sajad Haider
There was some doubt in the minds of the PAF planning staff as to whether Pathankot would still be occupied by the IAF. But the force of 8 Sabres, escorted by 2 more F-86s carrying Sidewinders as top cover at 15,000 ft was fortunate. When the PAF pilots pulled up over Pathankot precisely on time at 1700 hours after a diversionary high-low approach, descending to tree-top height about 20 miles short of the border to avoid the Indian radar, they were delighted to see a large number of IAF aircraft parked around in protected dispersal pens. On the way in, with gun switches selected form 'safe' to 'fire' when crossing the frontier, the 8 Sabres in two sections of four had passed below a couple of IAF Gnats flying at about 5,000 ft without being detected.
At the 1530 hours briefing for the Pathankot strike, for which no airfield photographs were unfortunately available, the plan was for each pilot to make two attacks with his six 0.5 in Browning guns, and 1,800 rounds of API (armour-piercing and incendiary) ammunition per aircraft as the sole armament. With no enemy fighters in the vicinity, however, and 'fairly thin' ground fire, Sajjad 'Nosey' Sajad Haider set the ball rolling with four carefully positioned dives from about 1,500 ft, systematically selecting individual aircraft in protected pens on the airfield for his gun attacks. He was gratified to recognize the distinctive delta-winged Mig-21s, -India's latest fighter among the aircraft on the ground, and singled them out for special attention. As the rest of his pilots followed suit, Wing Commander Tawab flying one of the 2 top cover Sabres counted 14 fires burning on the airfield, and observed quite a bit of light flak.
Only one PAF aircraft was hit during this strike, with minor damage in the lower fuselage and wing. After their attacks, the Sabres hugged the ground for five minutes or so for their exit from the target, pulling up when clear to stretch their fuel for the return flight. Even though they had retained their drop tanks throughout the attack to get as much fuel from them as Possible most landed with less than 300 lbs left on board at the nearest airfield, which was Sargodha. This was enough for only two or three minutes of flight, and one of the Peshawar Sabres ran completely out of fuel just as it turned off the runway after landing. This sort of margin was clearly unacceptable, but on many occasions throughout the war, some Sabre pilots counted themselves fortunate if they were able to land with more than about 3-400 lbs of fuel on board. Certainly after about 80% of their wartime missions, the Sabres of 19 Squadron landed back with 300 lbs of fuel or less. Operating with this sort of margin was made possible only because of the excellent recovery procedures and instructions from the Sakesar SOC.
After debriefing and interrogation, the Pathankot strike element were credited with 7 Mig-21s, 5 Mysteres and 1 Fairchild C-119 destroyed on the ground, plus damage to the air traffic control building. Later assessments by the PAF Director of Plans and Operations were inclined to consider the number of Migs credited as slightly optimistic, while the Indians claimed they were not Mig-21s at all, but Mysteres. Officially, Indians accepted losing ten aircrafts during this strike including two Mig-21s. The IAF official history states that only nine Mig-21s were in service at this time, and India was prepared to show 8 at the end of the campaign. But whatever the precise type of destruction caused at Pathankot, it was an undisputed success in being inflicted without loss. Unfortunately it was the only one of the three strikes to prove successful.
Air Marshal S Raghavendran states, "I also knew of Nur Khan, the Pakistani air chief, by reputation. He was an alumnus of my own school, the RIMC in Dehra Dun. He had been a 'killer' boxer and devout Muslim while at school. He had a plethora of professional role models from among older alumni of RIMC to base his conduct on, including Prem Bhagat, the first Indian Victoria Cross awardee in World War II. His predecessor as the air chief in Pakistan was Asghar Khan, also from the RIMC, who was another thorough professional. Between them, and with immense help from the USA, they had built up a tradition of professionalism and one couldn't possibly expect them to let the Indian Air Force get away with it.
So I went to the Station Commander, Group Captain Roshan Suri, and asked him for permission to take up a four aircraft Combat Air Patrol over the airfield at 5:30 PM. He said he would think about it. I kept going to him, phoning him or intercepting him when he visited the squadrons during the day. At first he said he would let me know. Then he said that the ORP aircraft were not to be touched and so I must get eight aircraft on the line before he could authorize it. I had only about ten aircraft altogether, available in Pathankot at that time, but managed to get eight serviceable and went back to him in the afternoon. He said he would let me know.
I had in mind that the other three would be Johnny Greene, Trevor Keelor and "Ajax" (aka "Kala") Sandhu, all of whom had a very high rating as determined and capable combat pilots. I was pretty sure of myself too. And we were all supremely confident of the maneuverability of the Gnat aircraft and the punch of its two 30mm cannons.
When I went to the Station Commander around 4 PM, he floored me with a different plan. At this time the first MiG-21 squadron was just becoming operational, and two of their aircraft, with their Commanding Officer, Wing Commander MSD "Mally" Wollen, and his flight commander "Laddu" Sen had been allocated to Pathankot for operational duties.
The plan was that they would get airborne around 6 PM, climb to 40,000 feet altitude and do supersonic runs in the vicinity. Obviously these tracks would be picked up by Pakistani radar. This was expected to put the fear of God into the Pak commanders, who would then not attack our airfield.
Those were the days when the MiG-21 was very new, and we had not learned to exploit it as we did later. It was strictly a high level interceptor and the pilots flew with the kind of gear meant for high altitude, including a helmet that resembled an astronaut's. It carried only two K-13 missiles and no guns.
The Mystere and Gnat squadron commanders, their flight commanders, and senior pilots were ordered to attend the briefing of the MiG formation, which we all did. After an impressive briefing the pilots picked up their space helmets, tucked them under their arms and walked out towards their aircraft, which had been pushed out of their blast pens for start-up and take-off. I am not sure of the exact time but I have a vague memory that it was just about 5:30 PM.
THAT IS WHEN THE PAF STRUCK!!
There was pandemonium. Bullets were flying all around. We all rushed to the nearest trench and dived in, not sitting and crouching as we should have been but piling ourselves flat on top of each other!! We could hear and see the Pakistani Sabres going round and round, as though in range practice, and picking off all the possible aircraft, including the two MiG-21s, in spite of the anti-aircraft guns blazing away. The rest is history. We were told that four Sabres had attacked, but since they were going round and round we couldn't count them accurately whenever we put our head up in the trench.
There went our opportunity to score a historic success. And perhaps to secure more decorations than the squadron eventually received. Fortunately, Keelor had already been awarded his VrC, and Ajax Sandhu got his with a kill later during the war. I recommended Johnny Greene (who was on attachment to my squadron) for a VrC at the end of the war, for sustained leadership as a flight commander in my squadron during the war. Though I was told that the VrC is given only for individual acts of bravery, I had my way and it was awarded."
In an other account of this daring attack, the Indian Website 'Bharat Rakshak' states." Murdeshwar was now coming in to land in the opposite direction, he could see in a corner of the eye Jatar’s Mystere slowing down on the taxi track, then his attention was attracted by the sudden spurt of R/T transmissions. The ATC was frantically announcing, "Incoming Raid, Incoming Raid." Murdeshwar cursed himself on his fuel state. If he had enough fuel, he could have taken off and intercepted the incoming aircraft. By this time his aircraft had landed and he was taxiing into a blast pen.
Wg. Cdr. Kuriyan was just then driving into his garage at his house, when he heard the ack-ack guns booming. He looked towards the airfield to see four F-86 Sabres bore down the airfield at low level firing their machine guns, while two Starfighters kept high altitude cover. As the four Sabres pulled out, another four bore in. The Sabres strafed buildings, installations and aircraft on the ground. The A-A Guns had opened up onto targets in the sky, and the sounds of machine guns strafing the airfield was audible.
Fg. Off. Janak Kapur who had already landed had just then steered his Gnat into a Blast pen and climbed out of his Gnat, when a fellow officer yelled, "Sir, look up, they are attacking." Kapur looked up to see the Sabres pulling up for the attack. Murdeshwar's Gnat was noticed by the Sabres as it was making its way to the blast pen. A volley of bullets straddled the Gnat just as Murdeshwar jumped out of the aircraft and out of the blast pen. Within seconds the bullets destroyed the Gnat.
The air traffic control tower at that time was newly built at Pathankot. It still did not house the ATC Staff as yet. The Actual ATC was located in a trench covered by a tent on the opposite side of the tarmac, where the ATC Controllers operated using R/T sets. Wg. Cdr. M.S.D. Wollen was one of the pilots scheduled to take off that particular evening. Wollen dived into the ATC trench when the attack began and watched the entire attack from there.
The Sabres surprisingly left the Jatar’s Mystere on the taxi track alone, probably in the assumption that it was a decoy and attacked the row of MiGs, Mysteres along the blast pens in the airfield. The CAP was not scrambled. The Gnats on the ORP too escaped damage. However, two of the MiG-21s which were being refueled after returning from an earlier flight, went up in flames.
At that time the only Indian aircraft in the air was a lone Mystere on a training flight. Fg. Off. McMohan was a rookie pilot on the training sortie in the Mystere. He hardly had about 50 flying hours to his credit. Luckily for him, the ATC Controller recognized the danger of the rookie pilot getting caught in the combat and instructed McMohan to head south and come back later. McMohan eventually landed back after the raid was over.
Some Mysteres on the ground bore the brunt of the raid, and were damaged. As were the two MiG-21s. Only the fact that the Sabre's 0.50 inch machine guns could fire ball ammunition instead of exploding cannon shells prevented further damage.
The Sabres slipped off unscathed, as even the airfield defences were caught napping. For the PAF, this raid was a cakewalk, the next one was not going to be another. All in all, one C-119, four Mysteres, two Gnats and two MiG-21s were destroyed in this highly successful raid by the PAF."
