Page 17 - Seniors Today Dec 2019

the Eastern Front, before the Pakistani Air
Force would do a pre-emptive air strike on
the evening of 3 December 1971 on many
Indian airfields, resulting in the prime
minister of India declaring war. This would
result in the liberation of Bangladesh as a
new country.
The pre-emptive air strike on the Western
Front of India by the Pakistan Air Force
was the final act that led to the declaration
of war on both the Eastern and the Western
Fronts, and we in the East developed the
correct momentum, with dynamic speed, to
race to Dacca and Jessore Khulna, to enable
The author as a young officer in 1970
the creation of a new nation – Bangladesh.
Forces on 22 November 1971. Bagchi could I am indeed proud and honoured to have
not attend, but spoke with us via cellphone been in that War of Liberation at just about
speaker, and the pilots unravelled their 21 years of age, newly commissioned in the
story as it unfolded that afternoon. Sha- Indian Army and to have been baptised into
rad Savur had played a very major role in battle in the line of fire.
assisting me on 7 December 1971, when as We need to remember the supreme sacri-
FAC, he stood with me in my gun position, fice made by our comrades in arms, the real
and told his FAC detachment to help my heroes, who never returned.
gunners unload ammunition from the am-
munition bay, and bring it to the guns. My
guns were firing Charge Super at rate In-
tense, to support the infantry brigade (JAK
Rifles, Madras and the Sikh Bns) in captur-
ing Jessore successfully that night. My first
CO then, Col Sahasrabudhe (3rd JSW-NDA,
retired in Pune), welcomed the IAF pilots at
the RSAMI and briefed them as to what had
happened that afternoon in 1971, and how it
paved the way for the Indian victory.

Historic memories
Gp Capt Don Lazarus narrated to us that he
had sent a congratulatory letter to Air Chief
Marshal Pervaiz Mehdi when the latter had
been appointed the chief of the Pakistan Air
Force, in 1999, and had refreshed his mem-
ory of the two being engaged in the dogfight
in November 1971. Don Lazarus told us that
the Pakistan Air Chief was very kind to
acknowledge that.
That was the dogfight witnessed by us all
on the ground, of a most historic event that
would herald the start of the 1971 war on The author with his troops soon after the 1971 war

17 SENIORS TODAY | Volume 1 | Issue 6