DAD'S AIRFORCE YARNS - 3: THE KILLER KEELORS

THE KILLER KEELORS:

 Sqn.Ldr.Treevor Jospeh Keelor Veer Chakra Vayu Medal; Got his first combat kill on 3rd Sept 1965

Iv’e lived a life with Anglo-Indians. I went to a school predominantly reserved for Anglo-Indians. It was not an “up-market school”, but the Anglo-Indians were of a more middle-class level. Many were being educated on charity scholarships.

I grew up an Anglo-Indian in spirit, as a guitarist, I played all their music, I had their joi-de-revere the “here’s to the best and fuck the rest” attitude. My love for shikar was nurtured by the two most rascally boys – sons of one Kingsley, shooting rabbits just behind the Air Force Quarters in East Jalahalli. It was 1966, and I was in 8^th. Std. Today, in 2013 even this whole lovely forest, which was once our backyard has become part of the urban sprawl.

The Anglo-Indians were very well known as Railway people – especially Enginer Drivers in thye old days of the Steam Engines. Sadly, today not many know of their service in the Indian Airforce – especially as Fighter and combat pilots.

Gnat Pilots, crew, PSOs at a Gnat Base with Jagjivanram, the Defence Minister

Several  Anglo-Indians number among the Chiefs of Air Staff of the Indian Air Force. Several more rose to Principal Staff Ranks, Several were decorated and significantly there were those who made the supreme sacrifice for their country too. Almost every combat operation of the IAF in the 1965 & 1971 wars has Anglo-Indians, Mally Wollen, Tully, Keelor, Massey, Lazarus, Conquest, Browne, D’LaFontaine …. These are names I kept hearing as a kid whenever Dad got his “Whisky & Soda” together & related “DAD’S AIRFORCE YARNS”.

Gnats under Camoflouge Netting at a Forward Base.

 On 3^rd. September 1965, Sqn.Ldr. Trevor Keelor shot down a Pakistani F-86, it broke two myths:

The first was the superiority of The F-86 Sabre Jet. In the Korean War, US F-86 was matched against the Chinese & Russian Mig- 15 & Mig – 17s and in the final analysis, the F-86 had a better attrition rate.

NOTE: Attrition Rate is defined by No. of Combat Sorties Flown divided by the Number of Casualities in this.

Air Marshall Arjan Singh, now Marshall of the Indian Air Force said this about the Gnat Aircraft:

“Gnats were very small aircraft, difficult to spot on the radar. As you know radar beams hit the metal of the aircraft and on return gives the blip. The smaller the aircraft, smaller the blip. So Gnats became famous. Even the radar controller would take time to decide if it is a fighter aircraft. We found Gnats very maneuverable. For fighters the most important thing is turning in a circle. If you turn faster your attack is safe. This aircraft had a small turning circle. But it was giving us lots of technical problems.

We lost many test pilots in accidents involving Gnats. We didn’t have much confidence till one of the Keelor brothers shot from the aircraft in the Chamb-Jaurian area. They both fought very well and both got the Veer Chakra.
Once one of the brothers shot down a superior Pakistani aircraft, our people got tremendous confidence. Then everybody wanted to fight using Gnats.”

 Sqn.Ldr.Denzil Keelor Veer Chakra the elder Keelor shot Pak Sabre on 19^th Sept 1965(Photo courtesy IAF museum)

Though  Keelor brothers did not get highest military honors but they had became household names during the 1965 war for their daring air raids deep into Pakistani territory as pilots of the small Indian Air Force Gnats.

The Gnat, developed by Folland Aviation, a small company but which was founded by Sir Frank Whittle, the inventor of the Turboshaft Engine. The whole aircraft was built around just the powerful engine, the pilot, two guns and the essential undercarraige – every thing shrunk around these to produce the smallest combat jet in the world. A similar philosophy has rendered the indegenious Tejas LCA as the smallest Fighter in the world today.
In England, the single seater was not a success with the RAF. However, the RAF did choose the twin seat trainer version for their prestigious Aerobatic team – The Red Arrows. It is said, that when the RAF cancelled the order – deeming the plane difficult to control – Krishna Menon, the Minister, bought the whole production jigs and components and moved them from the UK to HAL, Bangalore. The price paid – a shipload of bananas!!!
The Gnat’s cockpit was indeed cramped – for the tall and beefy Europeans.  It was found that shorter pilots were much more comfortable inside it. The Service Selection Board and the NDA in fact, reduced the minimum height regulation to 5’2”, so that they could find short pilots for the Gnats.

THE BATTLE OF BOYRA:

22  Squadron earned its name of Sabre Slayers, during Operations in December 1971. In the Battle of Boyra of the war, three intruding Sabres of the PAF were shot down by the Squadron Pilots. Through the war, Gnats from No.22 repeatedly engaged the PAF Sabres with devastating effect.

At around 1448 hours, the radar picked up the four Sabres as they pulled up in a north westerly direction to about 2,000 ft (610 m) above ground level. Within a minute, the ORP at Dum Dum was scrambled. Four Gnats took off by 1451 hours led by the formation leader Flt Lt Roy Andrew Massey. It was less than three minutes from the time the Sabres were detected by the radar.

The Fighter controller in the sector was Fg Offr KB Bagchi. His voice went over the radio "One O'Clock, 10 Nautical Miles". Massey Replied "Contact, I can see them pull up". The Sabres seemed to have already carried out several passes in the eight minutes it took the Gnats to reach the Boyra Sailent. The Sabres were commencing to start another dive - they were at about 1,800 feet (550 m) altitude and diving down to 500' in an attack run.

"Right wing over attack". shouted Bagchi, "half twelve, thousand yards".

"Contact" replied Massey.

"Request type", was Bagchi's query.

"Sabres"

"Shoot" was the command from the Fighter Controller.

GunCamera Shot of the end of a Sabre Jet

It was 1459 hours.

The four Gnats separated into two sections and dived into the attack to bounce the Sabres. The first section of Gnats was of Massey and Fg Offr SF Soarez as his No.2. The second section consisted of Flt Lt MA Ganapathy and Fg Offr D Lazarus. As the Gnats dived in, a section of two Sabres pulled out of the attack and placed themselves in an awkward position, just in front of Ganapathy and Lazarus. Ganapathy called out on the R/T "Murder Murder Murder". Both the pilots did not waste time on this perfect opportunity. Cannon shells slammed into the pair of Sabres and both the Sabres were badly damaged. The Pakistani pilots Parvez Mehdi Qureshi and Khaleel Ahmed had only one option- to eject. They drifted down to Boyra by parachute. The wreckage of the abandoned Sabres fell near the village of Bongaon. Massey, in the meantime, pulled up over Ganapathy and Lazarus to latch onto another Sabre. The Sabre pilot, Wg. Cdr Chaudhury- in a skillful dogfighting move- broke into Massey's attack forcing him to take a high angle-off burst. He missed his target. Taking aim, Massey let off another burst at 700 yards (640 m) and hit him in the port wing. By that time, Massey's starboard cannon had stopped firing, but the Sabre streaked back into Pakistani territory billowing smoke and fire. Massey himself realised that he was well over East Pakistani airspace in his chase. He turned around and regrouped with the rest of his formation. Later reports confirmed that Massey's victim, Wg. Cdr Chaudhury, showing considerable courage, had managed to fly his badly damaged Sabre back to Tezgaon Airfield just outside Dhaka. Chaudhury himself claimed to have shot down one of the Gnats.