Dad’s Air Force Yarns - A “LITTLE GENTLE PERSUASION”.

Dad’s Air Force Yarns - A “LITTLE GENTLE PERSUASION”.

It was a just a few days after India had got independence on August 15^th. 1947. India was carved out of a British Indian Empire which included parts that went to East & West Pakistan. The areas directly ruled by the British, like the Madras, Bombay & Calcutta Presidencies were partitioned easily. But, there were literally hundreds of “Princely

States”, where the ruler had to sign the Instrument of Accession to the Indian (or Pakistan) Union.

Junagadh was one of the dozens of princely states in the Kathiawar Peninsula of Gujarat. It measured hardly a hundred miles in length and breadth.

The Nawab of Junagadh had shown an inclination to add his tiny kingdom to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. In fact, he had signed the Instrument of Accession to Pakistan –which was not quite possible as the small kingdom was completely surrounded by Indian Territory. The principality was of a largely Hindu population and had been therefore assigned to the Indian union when Lord Louis Mountbatten at Independence partitioned British India.

Sardar Vallabhai Patel, also known as the “Iron Man of India”, was required to get the Nawab to sign the Treaty of Accession committing his principality to the Indian Union. The  Nawab departed for Karachi when the Sardar started twisting his arm, but the Dewan or Prime Minister of the state, Sir Shah Nawaz Bhutto held on till the 8^th. of September, 1947.

 The Sardar decided that a decided that a little gentle persuasion was needed. Without informing Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, he rang up the Wing Commander in charge at Jamnagar to do what he could discretely. Tempests of No. .the Indian Air Force flew several sorties at low level over Junagadh.

On the morning of the 9^th. of September, 1947, two Vampires took off from the Jamnagar Air base. They flew up to the Nawab’s palace and  fired a small rocket each into the Nawab’s Palace Estate. The first landed in the garden fountain and the other into the rose beds.

But they were enough. Within the hour, the Nawab’s Silver Ghost Rolls Royce drew up at the District Collector’s office with the Instruments of Accession duly signed by a visibly terrified Nawab.

But history records, the Nawab’s family got their Pakistan. The Nawab’s beautiful daughter, Nusrat, went to Pakistan, where she married Zulfikar Ali Bhutto the Dewan's son. He became as you all know, Prime Minister, then President of Pakistan, eventually hung for a murder case when the army took over in a coup-de-art. His daughter, Benazir Bhutto eventually became, after him, Prime Minister of Pakistan and also President for some time too, till she lost the elections and was assassinated during yet another phase of Military Rule.. Truly, our neighbor has had a troublesome and traumatic history while we in India have been somehow bungling along on “democracy”.

Sardar Patel’s policy was of arm twisting the reluctant  Muslim Nawabs whose territory was assigned to the Union of India. The biggest problem was the Nizam of Hyderabad. A relic of the Moghul Empire, his realm was huge – it has now become the new state of Telengana.

The State of Hyderabad under the leadership of its 7th Nizam, Mir Usman Ali, was the largest and most prosperous of all princely states in India. It was larger than England. . Hyderabad State had its own army, airline, telecommunication system, railway network, postal system, currency and radio broadcasting service.

The State Army consisted of three armored regiments, a horse cavalry regiment, 11 infantry battalions and artillery. These were supplemented by irregular units with horse cavalry, four infantry battalions (termed as the Saraf-e-khas, paigah, Arab and Refugee) and a garrison battalion - all forming a total of 22,000 men. This army was commanded by Major General El Edroos, an Arab. There was also a rag-tag army of 200,000 irregulars – the Razaakars.

The conflict began after Nizam Osman Ali Khan, Asif Jah VII decided not to join the princely State of Hyderabad to either India or Pakistan after the partition of India. He wanted his own sovereign Kingdom.

After a stalemate in negotiations between the Nizam and India, mass killing and rape of the Hindu population by Razakars, and wary of a hostile independent state in the centre of India, Deputy Prime Minister Sardar Patel decided to annex the state of Hyderabad. With military intervention imminent, No.3 Squadron IAF (the Cobras) flew from Poona on a number of reconnaissance sorties over the State of Hyderabad.  Operation Polo, the code name of the Hyderabad Police Action was a military operation in September 1948 in which the Indian Armed Forces invaded the State of Hyderabad and overthrew its Nizam, annexing the state into the Indian Union.

Squadron Insigna of No. 3 Squadron – The Cobras.

The Indian Army invaded the Nizam’ Domain in a two pronged assault – one from Solapur in the West and the other from Vijayawada in the East. By the first day, 13^th. September, 1948, the invading force was well down the Solapur – Hyderabads road, having captured the Fort of Naldurg. Vital bridges on the road were captured intact and saved. At Rajasur, there was information that the enemy had taken up ambush positions on the highway.

After the launch of Operation Polo, No. 3 Squadron from Poona, along with No.4 Squadron flying from Gannavaram, became involved in close air support to the advancing Indian troops.

The Indian Air Force was called in on the next day and an air strike by Tempest fighter bombers of No.3 Squadron IAF (the Cobras) cleared these. Osmanabad and Aurangabad were occupied.

At Surriapet, Narkatapalli and Mominabad, bands of Razaakars had dug in and were offering stiff resistance to the Punjab, Gurkha and Mewari regiments.

On the 15^th. the IAF went into action again. Both No.3 Squadron (Cobras) and No. 4 Squadron (Oorials) flew several sorties with their Tempests and attacked the Razaakars from the air causing very heavy casualties and clearing the way for the Indian Army. Tempests of No. 4 Squadron strafed the airfields at Hakimpet and Warangal.

Squadron Insigna of No. 4 Squadron IAF – The Oorials (Mountain Goat)

The “war” ended in just five days. General Chaudhari led an armoured column into Hyderabad at around 4 p.m. on September 18 and the Hyderabad army, led by Major General El Edroos, surrendered.

Though most of the IAF action was by Tempest piston engine Fighter-Bombers, the IAF actually flew the Vampires at Junagadh. These were the very first Vampires and the very first Jet Powered air planes that the IAF flew. The two involved had come from the RAF for Jet Conversion Training.

Though the first fully Vampire equipped squadrons were inducted only in 1951, the Indian Air Force still became only the fourth Air Force in the world to fly jet planes.  Almost all the Squadrons flying Tempests converted to DeHaviland Vampires.

At AIR COMMODORE AERO MODELS, we celebrate the DeHaviland Vampire, which brought the jet age to the Indian Air Force. We introduce this 70 cms. Vampire Model. It can be made from those pesky “No Parking” Boards and Poly-Styrene-Foam Dinner Plates. It is Radio Controlled and powered by a 40 mm Electronic Ducted Fan. It will be in the colors of No.4 Squadron – The Oorials or Mountain Goats.