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K S Nair Profile picture
@TheBrownBeagle
Dec 15, 2021 • 9 tweets • 4 min read • Read on X
Scrolly
OTD in 1971 the end of the #BangladeshLiberationWar was in sight, but still uncertain. Always a difficult period in wartime; nobody wants to be the last man to die in the war. These couple of days would have imposed special demands on courage, and on junior command skills ...
2: The previous day, as recorded by @BrainsTrustIn & others, IAF aircraft had carried out a spectacularly successful pin-point strike on the very heart of the West Pakistani puppet government in Bangladesh:



... /3
3: Remaining Pakistan Army units moved from Dacca Cantonment into Dacca University buildings. On 15th morning the IAF went after them, flying low between tall buildings and firing rockets accurately into where the Pakistan Army was sheltering ... /4
4: By 15th evening some Pakistan Army officers abandoned the University for Dacca Intercontinental, which India had declared a safe haven. It was intended for 3rd-country nationals & other neutrals. But many Pakistan Army officers & civil servants also forced their way in ... /5
5: Indian Army troops were within 20 km of Dacca. The Indian Navy executed an amphibous landing at Cox’s Bazaar, to cut off Pakistani troops attempting to escape to Burma. In Dacca, Lt Gen AAK Niazi informed the US Consul General that he was open to a ceasefire ... /6
6: Niazi offered ceasefire for safe-conduct for Pakistani forces. India rejected conditional ceasefire, and reiterated the demand for unconditional surrender. There was mounting pressure on India in the UN to stop fighting. By evening OTD the ball was in Niazi's court ... /7
7: Niazi's military situation was hopeless, but many Pakistanis had delusions of rescue by US or Chinese intervention & might have fought on in the hope of such rescue, extending the war and exposing India to UN sanction ... /8
8: Young Indian jawans in forward elements; exhausted pilots & ground crews trying to catch some sleep in overalls; stressed commanders pondering possible scenarios for next day: a great many Indians spent a sleepless night OTD in 1971. Take a moment to remember them tonight.
Good night, and good luck.

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More from @TheBrownBeagle

K S Nair Profile picture
Feb 20, 2023
1: Wg Cdr Karun Krishna "Jumbo" Majumdar, DFC & Bar:

One of the great role models of the early #IndianAirForce, he was in the third batch of Indian cadets trained at the RAF College Cranwell - which itself makes him part of a tiny, select elite ... /2
2: Back in India, he flew Westland Wapitis with the sole IAF unit, No 1 Sqn - seen 2nd from right in the first photo below. His leadership qualities were recognised early; with flight command as a Flying Officer ... /3
3: No 1 Sqn's time in the NWFP is often overlooked; but it should be better-studied; there are lessons which apply to many 21st-century conflicts. There is some evidence that Jumbo Majumdar, and other early IAF leaders, attempted innovative solutions to "air policing" ... /4
Read 13 tweets
K S Nair Profile picture
Nov 11, 2022
Short 🧵 & links for #ArmisticeDay , & the end of WW1. India today feels it had no stake in WW1, but in fact:

- There was an Indian signatory to the Armistice agreement at WW1's end; &

- Part of Germany's reparations payments were specifically earmarked for India ...
2: ... The Indian signatory was Maharaja Ganga Singh of Bikaner, seen in @SirWilliamOrpen's painting of the signing, in Indian Army uniform behind US President Wilson, Clemenceau of France, Lloyd George of Britain (& from behind, Johannes Bell signing for Germany) ... /3
3: ... ... The above detail from Orpen's (much larger) painting is included in @GMortonJack's fine book, "The Indian Empire at War", which I enjoyed, together with Dr David Omissi's - embarrassed I still haven't picked up @dStephenB's, tho' I have Malik's own ... /4
Read 6 tweets
K S Nair Profile picture
Aug 9, 2022
18: More damaging were fantastical Western reports describing “Soviet officers strutting the streets of New Delhi”, a phrase & notion that damaged India-US relations well into the 21st century. Some anti-Soviet ayatollahs may not yet be entirely past that notion today … /19 Image
19: Two weeks before, @TIME had run a cover + 9-page article on East Pakistan, with 4 photo pages. This was journalism at its best: clear-eyed, & willing to hold government to account. The US knew what was happening; it was reported on by their own journals of record … /20 ImageImageImage
20: On the treaty, both @srinathraghava3 & Chandraskekhar Dasgupta have written on the differences between New Delhi’s & Moscow’s objectives from the treaty. India needed a P5 ally, for the forthcoming battles at the UN; the USSR saw a counter to the US-China alignment … 21 ImageImage
Read 54 tweets
K S Nair Profile picture
Jul 18, 2022
In July 1971, 51 yrs ago, US then-NSA Kissinger secretly visited Communist China, then without diplomatic relations. Nine months later Indian PM Indira Gandhi signed a treaty of Friendship with brand-new Bangladesh PM Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. What connects these two events? .../2 ImageImage
2: The answer is the #BangladeshLiberationWar 1971. Arguably the war - & the horrific holocaust in East Pakistan, starting with the notorious Operation Searchlight - would not have happened but for the US-China outreach.

More in forthcoming tweets, & in my book #DecemberInDacca Image
3: Pakistan was, in July 1971, facilitating US-Communist China rapprochement. Nixon & Kissinger needed CMA Yahya Khan (pic 1), & did nothing to stop the Pak Army's crackdown (pic 2), which sent a record refugee wave into India (pic 3) ... /4

More forthcoming #DecemberInDacca ImageImageImageImage
Read 16 tweets
K S Nair Profile picture
Dec 14, 2021
#BangladeshLiberationWar: OTD in 1971 a spirited young Gnat pilot took off, against SOPs as his runway was being bombed, fiercely determined to get to grips with the enemy before the war ended. Fg Off Nirmaljit Singh Sekhon would receive the IAF's first & still only PVC ... /2
2: Fg Off Sekhon's story has been told by many, including (respectfully) by a Pakistani officer. One of the most painstaking is this rendition by VR pro Anurag Rana. Nearly a decade after he first rendered it, it remains imho one of the best:



... /3
3: The various retellings differ in some details - particularly in respect of how many of the enemy he shot down, or damaged, or as Douglas Bader once claimed in his logbook, "frightened". But his sheer determination earned a rare tribute - the enemy's respect ... /4
Read 5 tweets
K S Nair Profile picture
Dec 13, 2021
#BangladeshLiberationWar: OTD in 1971, in a painful sequel to the successes of the previous days, 47 Sqn, AF Stn Jamnagar, the IAF, & India lost Wg Cdr HS Gill, one of the most brilliant pilots to ever strap into a KM-1 seat. Lost leading a second attack on the Badin ADCC ... /2 Image
2: In earlier years, he did breathtaking solo aero displays in a MiG-21 in a distinctive red scheme - at *half* the recommended speeds for aeros at low level. The aircraft was actually travelling on a ballistic trajectory; he was able to retain control & recover energy ... /3 Image
3: Sadly, Wg Cdr Gill's death has not been appropriately closed. Altho' a reliable PAF officer has confirmed recovering a Wg Cdr's body in the area, his name figures in write-ups on Indian PsoW allegedly still held in Pakistan, and still worse ... /4 Image
Read 5 tweets

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