Anchit Gupta Profile picture
Jul 27 27 tweets 11 min read
Oldest surviving fighter pilot of the @IAF_MCC turns 102 today. Dalip Singh Majithia (1615) in his 7-year career flew 1100 hours on 13 types of ac & saw action in WWII over Burma. This is his story, deeply intertwined with IAF’s fast growth,action-packed phase. #IAFHistory (1/27)
Born to Kirpal Singh Majithia & grandson of Sardar Sundar Singh Majithia (1st Revenue Minister in Punjab), Dalip was the 4th child in a family of 5. His mother belonged to the Patiala royal family & he was born on 27 July 1920 at Skiplin Villa, her family home in Simla. 2/
Dalip’s early edn till age 10, was with a home tutor in the ancestral home at Sardarnagar. Mentioned in the “The Punjab Chiefs” by Lepel Henry Griffin, the erstwhile massive estate of Dumri, was given to the great-grandfather of Dalip after 1857 mutiny & renamed “Sardarnagar”. 3/
He was sent to Khalsa College in Amritsar at 10 and then to Lahore for his B.A. About to leave for higher edn to Cambridge (UK), he instead evinced interest in joining the Army – Cavalry specifically due to his fondness for horses and riding. 4/
WWII had broken out, Dalip’s uncle (father’s youngest brother), Surjit had joined the IAF in Nov 39’ & Dalip was encouraged to do the same in early 40’. IAF Volunteer Reserve had just been setup & Dalip applied for it. 5/
Interviewed in Simla & Ambala, incl by then S/L Subroto Mukerjee, he was selected and asked to report to Karachi Flying Club for basic flying experience & aptitude testing. He was instructed by Mr. Gokaty on the Gypsy Moth aircraft. 6/
Dalip joined the 4th Pilot Course, the first one to be conducted at the Initial Training School (ITS) at Walton, Lahore on 1 Aug ‘40 to train on the TigerMoths along with 71 others. This lot of 72 had the who’s who of the IAF for the coming 30 years. 7/
He flew the first sortie on 5 Aug, and went solo on 22nd Aug. By end of Nov ’40, he had completed 58 hours on the TigerMoth and had bagged the best pilot trophy. Yet to earn his wings though, he was sent to No.1 Flying Training School at Ambala. 8/
In those days, officers were commissioned as “Acting Pilot Officers” the day they showed up to Walton. Surjit (~8 years elder) & Dalip had both been commissioned & became the first Uncle-nephew duo in the IAF, first of many that came later. 9/
At Ambala for 6 months, he flew ~150 hours on Wapiti, Audax & Hawker Hart ac doing Map reading, night approaches, loops, stalls, Cross country ferry, aerobatics, formation, force landings, dives & instrument flying – earning coveted wings on 24 May ’41. 10/
6 Coastal Defence Flights (CDF) were formed in ’40 to be manned by IAFVR pilots. Dalip was sent in June ’41 to 1 CDF at St Mount Madras, flying Wapiti, Hart, Audax, Atlantas over the next 15 months. The role of the unit was Coastal patrols, convoy escort & naval recce. 11/
Flying with CDF was interesting – Ferring Wapitis from Madras to Karachi over 3 days/15 hours, keeping smelly homing pigeons in cockpit of the Atlanta, Search & bomb submarines & single a/c patrols over sea! 12/
By Nov ’42, CDFs were disbanded, and aircrews sent to the regular Sqns (IAF Sqn 4,6,7,8 came up in 1942). Dalip was posted to 151, OTU at Risalpur for conversion to Harvard & Hurricane a/c. He was about to be sent to warfront. 13/
Mar ’43 he joined 6 Sqn as flg offr under legendary Mehar Singh. Just formed, the sqn was moving bases constantly and reached Cox Bazaar in Nov ’43 where they engaged in Recce msns that would earn them the sobriquet, “Eyes of the 14th Army”. Dalip was posted out in Dec ’43. 14/
Jan ’44 Dalip was posted as Flt Cdr of 3 Sqn on the upgraded Hurricane IIC & transported across the country to Kohat under Prithpal “polly” Singh, the last of the Cranwell officers. During this tenure he flew with Asghar Khan (later PAF chief) & Sam Manekshaw (then Major). 15/
It was here that 3 sqn engaged the Faqir of Ipi who was looking to up the ante. Logbooks shows msns from Kohat & detts at Miranshah engaging in Recee, Leafletting & bombing. Dalip was again posted out Dec ’44, days before Prithpal Singh (his CO at 3 Sqn) died in a crash. 16/
Jan ’45 Dalip travelled back to the East. Hoping to be CO soon, he was made Flt Cdr of 4 Sqn with Hurricane IIC & Spitfire VII in Arakan. Under an RAF CO (S/L Sharp), he got down to bombing & Strafing. End Feb ’45, he fell seriously ill & had to be evacuated. 17/
It was F/L Asghar Khan who flew Dalip to Calcutta hospital in a Harvard ac. Later he was taken via Poona – Begumpet – Santacruz –Karachi – Cairo – Sicily to London, in a RAF Sunderland. He returned to Delhi in Aug ’45, once fully recovered from the mysterious illness. 18/
Rejoining 4 Sqn briefly in Oct ’45, he did his first solo after 9 months, but his medical category was not yet back to the finest. He was promoted & posted to AirHQ as Sqn Ldr (operations). By Dec, Dalip was flying to Perth via Colombo & Coco Island in a C-54 Sky Master. 19/
At Melbourne, he was posted as IAF’s Liaison to Joint Chief of Staff in Australia who was entrusted with orderly disengagement of Commonwealth Occupation forces, which included 4 Sqn from IAF apart from RAF, RNAZ, RAAF units. On return, Dalip left the IAF on 18 Mar ’47. 20/
In Aus he met the love of his life, Joan Sanders, who had served with Women’s Royal Aus Naval Service. Encouraged by family to tend to the large business interests, unsure of IAF in the post WWII phase, Dalip left IAF and in 1948 married Joan, settling in Sardarnagar. 21/
He considered Mehar Singh his mentor & remains in awe of him to this date. Of all the ac he flew, he loved the Hurricane the most. His love for flying did not wane, he flew the L-5s his family had bought & later acquired two Beechcraft Bonanza, flying till 1979. 22/
Dalip & Majithia family remained keen on aviation. Surjit was 1st Indian Ambassador to Nepal. On a request from Nepal to open an air-route, he entrusted Dalip, who created history by landing on an unprepared strip at Kathmandu on 23 Apr 49. This became the Intl Airport. 23/
Flying from Muzaffarpur, along the Bhagmati, the strip was just 150 X1200 yards. Surjit positioned his car at the south end with a T marked next to it, with 1-2-3 balls on the T signifying wind speed ranges for Dalip to gauge approach, in planning that lasted over 6 months. 24/
Dalip later bought a business in Muzaffarpur, an agency for General Motors & Ferguson tractor. He sold cars to the Nepalese aristocrats in Kathmandu. Moving back to Saraya, he put up a steel furnace & rolling mill & consolidated his life in Gorakhpur. 25/
Incidentally, AFS Gorakhpur is made partly on lands acquired from Majithia’s. Joan Sanders passed away in 2021. Dalip remained active in sports, especially Golf, & spends his time between Delhi, Rudrapur & Gorakhpur. He still enjoys “two measured small drinks of Teachers’50”. 26/
These lines in Dalip’s Logbook (when he fell ill in 1945), probably found resonance with Amitabh Bachchan’s character many years later in the movie “The Great Gambler”

“Do lafzon mein meri kahaani hai, ek lafze mohabat hai, doosra lafze jawaani hai”. 27/27

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Anchit Gupta

Anchit Gupta Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @AnchitGupta9

Jul 17
12 Vir Chakras were awarded to a single unit in the 1947 Kashmir War. That record stands unbeaten to this day, held by a Transport Sqn – No. 12 Sqn @IAF_MCC . This is the valiant saga of the last RIAF unit to be raised by the Brits. # IAFHistory (1/30)
Post-WWII, IAF had settled on a 10 Sqn size. With Nos 5 & 11 RAF Sqns serving in India, these Nos were not used for RIAF sqns. The 10th RIAF Sqn to be raised was thus No 12 Sqn- “The Yaks”, whose history will forever be linked to that of newly independent India. 2/
12 sqn was raised in Kohat, in Dec 45 under the comd of S/L SN ‘Gus’ Haider & was equipped with 4xSpitfire Mk VIIIs, a Airspeed AS10 Oxford tpt ac & a DH Mosquito ac. Built around a team of 10 offrs & 153 airmen, it was meant to be IAFs first Twin-engine Fighter/ bomber sqn. 3/
Read 32 tweets
Jul 11
While researching the @IAF_MCC 's 1st flt over the Everest, I came across material that I couldn’t resist sharing for it characterises a grit & derring-do that typified the early pioneers of aviation. That the story unfolds in India makes it even more interesting. (1/24)
One of the central characters of this story was Dame Fanny Lucy Houston, a firebrand nationalist & suffragette. Having donated £100,000 to Supermarine to help them win the Schneider Trophy in 1931, two years later, she turned her gaze to India – to Mt Everest in specific. 2/
The idea of photographing the Everest was brought to her by Sqn Ldr Douglas Douglas-Hamilton (Lord Clydesdale), CO 602 RAF Sqn-then the RAF’s youngest Sqn Ldr & later of Rudolf Hess fame. The proj had however been conceived earlier by Lt Col LVS Blacker in ’32. 3/
Read 24 tweets
Jul 8
Btwn 1954-64, the night skies of Delhi & Bombay were protected by a unique @IAF_MCC fighter aircraft - DeHavilland Vampire NF54 (aka NF10 in @RoyalAirForce). This is the fascinating short-lived journey of the only exclusive night-fighter aircraft in the IAF. #IAFHistory (1/24) Image
Designed as a cheap export ac on the back of an order from the Egyptian Air Force, the NF10 used the wings & tail unit of the Vampire Day-fighter and side-by-side seating of the extant night-fighter Mosquito NF36 – Navigator/ Radar Operator on the right and pilot on the left. 2/ Image
Destiny had other plans, Egypt could not come good on the order due to an embargo and RAF stepped in as the main buyer. RAF was separately looking to replace its Mosquito NF36, but it's choice replacement – Gloster Meteor NF11 was delayed. Vampire NF10 would be the stop gap! 3/ Image
Read 25 tweets
Jul 6
Air Mshl VK “Jimmy” Bhatia – one of only 5 to be “Bar to VrC” in @IAF_MCC . Jimmy’s exceptional aviation career remains unmatched. He flew 34 sorties across 65 & 71 wars, deep into enemy territory destroying ac & military assets. His story. #LivingLegends #IAFHistory (1/24)
He was born on 5 Oct 42 at Mardan, near Peshawar as one of seven siblings with 3 elder sister & 3 younger brothers. Partition took a toll on the family. His mother &all the brothers died during the partition/ migration years plunging the family into a nomadic state for years. 2/
His father was a police officer in Peshawar & was absorbed in IPS, Rajasthan Cadre, where Jimmy spent his early years. Jimmy passed Matric from Raj Univ, at little over 13 ½ years of age. One year in Maharajas College, Jaipur & joined NDA at about 15 years in age. 3/
Read 24 tweets
Jun 25
Celebrating today, 50 threads on @IAF_MCC History. Barring a few earlier, it all began in Jan’22. Since then: ~1000 tweets, 5.2 million views, ~70,000 engagements. This thread is a compendium of all the threads so far. Humbled & grateful for the encouragement. #IAFHistory (1/51)
The heroic story of Leh Airfield construction (1/50)

Beautifully Camouflaged Vampire and its heroics in 1971 War (2/50)

Read 51 tweets
Jun 23
When the @IAF_MCC pilots flew the F-86 Sabres with the USAF and then “slew” it in the 65 and 71 Wars. The saga of the 80 odd IAF fighter pilots who trained with the USAF between 1963-66 and later claimed five PAF Sabre kills amongst them! #IAFHistory (1/17) Image
1962 Sino-Indian War prompted two key changes – an expansion in the IAF fighter sqns requiring higher pilot intake & US + UK Military aid and assistance to balance the power equation with China. 2/ Image
It was felt that the sqn trg in India would not be able to produce the required nos of fully ops pilots in time to man these sqns. Help was sought from both the UK and the USA, and both responded. The USAF-bound IAF pilots would fly the T-33A & F-86 (Sabres) 3/ Image
Read 17 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(