Eastern India, including Bengal, Jharkhand and Odisha were home to fighter and bomber squadrons from the 10th USAAF's India Air Task Force. Many of these bases were converted to IAF or civil use after 1945, but several were abandoned. Here is what became of these....
The airport near the present day IIT Kharagpur was known as the Hijli Base Area hosted the United States Army Air Force XX Bomber Command 58th Bombardment Wing in early 1945. The airport no longer exists but its runway provides the alignment for the Hijli Railway station.
Asansol airport was established in 1941 by the RAF. From 1943 B-17s of the USAAF 7th Bombardment Group were based here. Abandoned after the war, the outline of the aprons are visible in the ecological park to the south-west of the frame below.
Piardoba Airfield airfield in India, located south of Bishnupur was built in 1942 to house four B-29 squadrons from the USAAF's 462nd Bombardment Group. Closed in September 1945. Airfield is abandoned and in disrepair, with abandoned dispersal areas and taxiways visible.
Guskhara was a photo-recon base for the Tenth Air Force during 1944–1945. It housed six squadrons of B-24, P-38 and P-61 aircraft as part of USAAF 8th Photographic Reconnaissance Group. Abandoned in 1945, the runway and dispersal areas are encroached on and in disrepair.
Dudhkundi Airfield is located SE of Jhargram. It was built in 1942 and hosted in turn B-24 and then B-29s of the 444th Bombardment Group. Closed in 1945, it is in a state of disrepair but its runways and aprons are largely untouched and could provide site for a future airport.
Known as Roosevelt Nagar north of Calcutta, the old USAAF transport base at Kalyani is now located well within this township. Remains of the parallel runway are found with the University campus, as can remains of the USAAF temporary billet sheds.
Pandaveswar Airfield was home to several USAAF units including 7th and 12th Bombardment Group(B-24 and B-25). Closed in 1946 the remains of both main runways (16/34, 04/22) are visible in aerial photography, along with numerous dispersal pads and aprons.
Built in 1942, Charra was originally built for the 444th Bombardment Group. It eventually became a transport base when the B-29s relocated to Dudhkundi. It was closed in June 1945.Traces of runways and taxiways can be viewed from the air.
Salboni Airfield was built for the USAAF but used by the RAF's 159 and 356 Squadrons (B-24) from 1942 to 1946. Today the remains of the runways and aprons are visible but are now part of the Reserve Bank of India's currency printing complex.
Built in 1942, Chakulia airport in present day Jharkhand was home to B-29s from the USAAF's 40th Bombardment Group, Abandoned in 1945, it remained a notified area with a ban on construction. There are proposals to revive it in the future.
Digri Airfield near Uparsolbankati was built in 1942 and used primarily by the RAF's Liberator Squadrons including 355, 357, 358 squadrons. Closed and abandoned in 1945, the runways and aprons are relatively well preserved.
Now that it is going to be curtains on the @IAF_MCC MiG-21s after 60+ years of service, it is worth remembering that no other type served in the numbers and variants as the MiG-21. Over the years, no fewer than twenty four operational squadrons and four training establishments operated 840+ aircraft of the type.
The first MiG-21 type to join the IAF in 1963 were six MiG-21 F-13 Type 74, followed in 1965 by six MiG-21 PF Type 76.
In 1966, based on its experience from the war in 1965, ordered more MiG-21s. This time the much improved MiG-21 FL, Type -77 variant. 38 aircarft were delivered from the USSR and another 197 were manufactured by @HAL_india between 1966-73. The MiG-21FL (Type 77) and MiG-21PF (Type 76) are visually distinguishable by several key features. The FL variant has a larger tail fin with a brake parachute housing at its base, while the PF's brake parachute is housed in a ventral fairing. The FL also features a detachable gun pod (GP-9) and a larger fuel capacity compared to the PF. The GP-9 was a specific requirement articulated by the IAF based on its 1971 experience. The Type-77 also offered multirole capability in being able to deliver 500kg bombs. The aircraft would be retrofitted after 1982 with additional underwing pylons.
Begining in 1973, the IAF began inducting an upgraded variant in the form of 34 MiG-21MF and 160 MiG-21M fighters. The former were directly supply from the USSR with the R-13 engine a built-in GSh-23L cannon freeing up the centre pylon for a droptank. The M used a modified R-11 engine which was already under manufacturing for the Type-77. Collectively known as the Type-96, the M/MF aircraft offered zero-speed, zero-altitude ejection seat , 4 wing pylons, newer avionics and more fuel. Visually it was distinguished from its predecessors by its thicker spine. The Type-96s would all be upgraded in 2001-04 with a the more modern R-13 engines.
Thanks to Kapil Chandni and the @indiannavy for their document on the building of the carrier INS Vikrant. It has some interesting information on how the design evolved over almost a two decade period between 1980 and final sanction in 1999. Here is this story. 1/n
In 1980, the Directorate of Naval Design (DND) prepared a concept design of a ‘Helicopter Carrier’ based on the hull form of MV Harshavardhan, a merchant vessel .
This was followed by in 1985 a formulation of Outline Staff Requirements (OSRs) a Sea Control Ship (SCS) of 35,000 ton.
Purnima Sinha (1927 – 2015) was a physicist and one of the first Bengali women to earn a doctorate in physics in the field of x-ray crystallography of clay minerals. She was born to Dr. Nares Chandra Sengupta, a constitutional lawyer and progressive writer. She married the anthropologist Surajit Chandra Sinha, later vice-chancellor, Visva-Bharati University.
After obtaining her MSc degree in Physics from Calcutta University, she joined for her PhD work in 1951 under the legendary physicist Satyendra Nath Bose. Purchase of equipment in the early years of independence was difficult and she built instruments with components available in the open market. She recalled “we had put together our X-ray equipment from the World War II surplus gathered in the lane behind Dr Bidhan Roy’s house”. Purnima’s PhD research was entitled “X-ray & Differential Thermal Analysis of Indian Clays”. She also worked with Nobel Laureate physicist Paul M Dirac when he was a visitor to Calcutta University in 1954.
In the early 1960s, Purnima worked on the origin of life with clay as the substrate in the Biophysics Group at Stanford University, California. She observed that the spacing in the clay structure, determined through X-ray studies, corresponded to the pitch of the DNA double helix. Since then, she remained interested in biophysics till the end of her life. After her return from the USA in 1964 she spent most of her professional life at the CGCRI, Kolkata till she took voluntary retirement in 1986.
Pafulla Chandra Roy (1861 – 16 June 1944) was an Indian chemist, educationist, historian, industrialist and philanthropist. A product of the Bengali Renaissance, he was the founder of Bengal Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals, India's first pharmaceutical company. He is the author of A History of Hindu Chemistry from the Earliest Times to the Middle of the Sixteenth Century (1902).
The book draws uses primary sources to deal with a ranage of subjects inlcuding, metallury and rare-earths extraction. Topis include Colophon - The Rasas - Abhra - Vaikranta -copper Pyrites Vimala - Silajatu - Sasyaka - Extraction of Copper - Chapala Rasaka - Extraction of Zinc - The Uparasas or Inferior Rasas Sulphur Gairika Kasisa Tuvari Talaka Manassila - The Afijanas - The Common Rasas - Navasara and other Rasas - The Gems - Vajram - General Process of Reducing Gems to Ashes - On Metals - Gold - Silver - Copper - I on - Tin - Lead Brass - Bell Metal, &c. - Initiation into Discipleship - On the Laboratory - Tests for Killed Iron - Antimony
Prafulla Babu was born in the village of Raruli-Katipara, then in Jessore District (now Dighalia, Khulna), and was the third child and son of Harish Chandra Raychowdhury. Ray's great-grandfather Maniklal had been a dewan under the British East India Company's district collector of Krishnanagar and Jessore. The ruins of the Ray Bari still exist.
Meet Nelson Wang, the inventor of Indian-Chinese the "Chicken Manchurian". Wang was born in Calcutta's Tangra China Town in 1950. When his family moved to Canada in the 1977, Nelson decided to move to Bombay. #ChickenManchurian#Chinese#Cricket#Foodie
Strating out as a nightclub limbo dancer and fire-eater, he found a job was as a cook at Frederick's, a Chinese restaurant in Colaba and where the legendary Raj Singh Dungarpur, then President of the Cricket Club of India was a regular.
Frederick's was asked if could cater to Cricket Club of India, but turned down the offer. So Nelson took on the challenge. It was here that Dungarpur, who liked fried food asked Nelson for something spicy and crunchy with a gravy.
INS Kamorta P177, later P77 was the first Peyta ASW ship commissioned into the Indian Navy on21 November 1968. In 1971 she served in the Eastern fleet as part of its ASW screen and intercepted blockade runners. She was decomissioned in 1991.
INS Kamorta P28 is the leadship of the Project-28 ASW corvettes built by @OfficialGRSE and commissioned in 2014. He is armed with OTO Melara SRGM, AK-630M CIWS, RBU-6000 and Torpedo tubes. She will be oufitted with a 50km VL SRSAM from DRDO.