Book Review | Air Warrior Heroes Get Their Due in Unique IAF History
The value of Swapnil Pandey’s book is based on two years of extensive on-site research, travelling across Indian airbases and meeting many Air Force personnel
Reading and reviewing Wings of Valour, this writer was reminded of often communicating to aircraft manufacturers whom he met at Def Expo and Aero India shows that they owe gratitude to Indian military aviators for flying their machines through every kind of terrain, altitude and weather, exceeding their stated design limits.
The book begins with Operation Sindoor, when IAF excelled in precision strikes, electronic warfare and self-reliance, successfully hitting nine terror launchpads and at least 11 key military targets all over Pakistan, even while neutralising advanced Chinese-made air defence systems and surprising our own countrymen besides shocking the US. While India’s political leaders in 1962 lacked the courage to use the IAF offensively against the Chinese, in 1965 and 1971, Pakistan air force’s American Sabres and Starfighters made much of were given bloody noses by IAF’s smaller Gnats.
The power and versatility of IAF is brought forth in its interesting history, beginning with the British Westland Wapiti biplane to its latest and most advanced aircraft including the French Rafale the Russian Sukhoi, India’s own Tejas (Mk 1A & future Mk 2), upcoming fifth-gen stealth fighters like the advanced medium combat aircraft and some others.
The value of Swapnil Pandey’s book is based on two years of extensive on-site research, travelling across Indian airbases and meeting many Air Force personnel — fighter pilots, transport and helicopter crews, proud veterans, Kargil heroes and especially rare interviews with first-generation Chinook and Prachand helicopter pilots, surface-to-air missile operatives, and members of the elite Garud Special Forces. Unlike most military histories that cover major wars, this book describes some humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations such as Operation Kaveri in Sudan and high-risk helicopter rescues in Deoghar and Jharkhand.
A welcome inclusion in this book is its touching tributes to the families of air warriors and a moving note by Mrs Sarita Singh, president of the Air Force Wives Welfare Association (AFWWA), reflecting the resilience of the “invisible backbone” of the force.
Also well depicted are the accounts providing deep insights into lives of heroes such as Corporal Jyoti Prakash Nirala, the first and only IAF airman to be conferred the Ashoka Chakra (posthumous), India’s highest peacetime gallantry award, and three Shaurya Chakra awardees, Sergeant Milind Kishor Khairnar, Corporal Nilesh Kumar Nayan and Corporal Gursevak Singh — all posthumous.
The last two operations elaborated in the book are the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka and the Kargil confrontation, both full of challenges for the IAF. One of the fateful missions described in Sri Lanka was the Special Heliborne Operation over Jaffna University in which 120 para-commandos and 360 Sikh Light Infantry troops were airdropped. In Kargil, where Indian Army had to pay heavily with fatal casualties owing to reacting at least six months after the intrusion by Pak army, many actions have been mentioned including that of Flt Lt K. Nachiketa who was fortunate enough to dodge death three times.
The book, exciting and informative, can be enjoyed by more readers if it is translated into Hindi.
Wings of Valour
By Swapnil Pandey
HarperCollins
pp. 334; Rs 399/-