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

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

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 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

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 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

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

#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

#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 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

#BangladeshLiberationWar: OTD in 1971, for the first time ever, a US-built F-104 Starfighter was engaged in air combat by a Soviet-designed MiG-21 – and shot down. This was a hugely significant breakthrough, in the world-wide narrative of air combat ... /2 2: Around 2 pm two PAF F-104s led by the respected Wg Cdr Mervyn Middlecoat SJ (pic 1) attacked AF Stn Jamnagar. Tho' low-flying, they were spotted by Stn Cdr Gp Capt Pete Wilson VrC (pic 2)'s OPs, "just far enough for a MiG-21 pilot to get from charpoy to fighting speed" ... /3

#BangladeshLiberationWar: OTD in 1971 2 Para of the Indian Army, CO Lt Col KS Pannu, executed a para-borne assault on Tangail, 80 km NW of Dacca, capturing the Poongli Bridge and cutting off Pakistani troops trying to retreat into Dacca ... /2 2: Some paratroopers had emplaned at Dum Dum, in full view of international correspondents, who excitedly reported, sometimes with wild exaggeration. UPI, for one, said that 5,000 Indian paratroopers had descended on Dacca (actually there were less than a thousand) ... /3