A HAL Ajeet fighter . The Indian Airforce in 1971 was operating this indigenous modified version of the Folland Gnat

A Canadair Sabre Mk 5 . The Pakistan Air Force No.14 Squadron was operating a very similar version

Gun Camera stills from Flt MA Ganapathy's Gnat as he hits Fg Offr Khalil Ahmed's F-86 Sabre over Boyra[1]

Image File history File links File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... HAL or Hal may refer to: HAL is an acronym used to refer to Hindustan Aeronautics Limited HAL is the hardware abstraction layer used in Windows NT and in Linux to encapsulate hardware-dependent details from the rest of the operating system. ... Folland Gnat The Folland Gnat was an exceptionally small swept-wing subsonic jet trainer and light fighter aircraft designed by W. E. W. Petter that first flew in 1955. ... The Indian Air Force (भारतीय वायु सेना : Bharatiya Vayu Sena) is the air-arm of the Military of India and has the prime responsibility of conducting air-based warfare and securing Indian airspace. ... 1971 (MCMLXXI) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1971 calendar). ... Folland Gnat The Folland Gnat was an exceptionally small swept-wing subsonic jet trainer and light fighter aircraft designed by W. E. W. Petter that first flew in 1955. ... Image File history File links Sabre02. ... Image File history File links Sabre02. ... Military manpower Military age 16 years of age Availability 39,028,014 (2005) Males ages 16-49 Reaching military age males: 1,969,055 (2005) Active troops 620,000 (Ranked 7th) Military expenditures Dollar figure $3. ... Image File history File links Guncam. ... Image File history File links Guncam. ... Folland Gnat The Folland Gnat was an exceptionally small swept-wing subsonic jet trainer and light fighter aircraft designed by W. E. W. Petter that first flew in 1955. ... The North American F-86 Sabre was a subsonic combat aircraft developed for the US Air Force. ...

The Boyra Engagement in Brief

The Battle of Boyra , on 22 November 1971,was the first engagement between the Air Forces of India and Pakistan in the 1971 for the Bangladesh Liberation War. It is seen as a culmination of the Battle of Garibpur where the Indian Air Force successfully engaged and destroyed strike elements of the Pakistan Air Force. November 22 is the 326th day (327th on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1971 (MCMLXXI) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1971 calendar). ... An air force is a military or armed service that primarily conducts aerial warfare. ... 1971 (MCMLXXI) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1971 calendar). ... The Bangladesh Liberation War (two other names are also used occasionally) refers to an armed conflict between West Pakistan (now Pakistan) and East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) that lasted for roughly nine months, from 26 March until 16 December 1971. ... Commanders Lt. ... The Indian Air Force (भारतीय वायु सेना : Bharatiya Vayu Sena) is the air-arm of the Armed Forces of India and has the prime responsibility of conducting air-based warfare and securing Indian airspace. ... Military manpower Military age 16 years of age Availability 39,028,014 (2005) Males ages 16-49 Reaching military age males: 1,969,055 (2005) Active troops 620,000 (Ranked 7th) Military expenditures Dollar figure $3. ...

Back ground to Boyra

Fg Offr. Don Lazarus.

Flt Lt. M A Ganapathy.

The battle took place between a four ship formation of the No. 22 squadron of the Indian Air Force equipped with HAL built Ajeets, against a four ship formation of Canadair Sabres of the PAF No. 14 Squadron. Image File history File links DLazarus. ... Image File history File links DLazarus. ... Image File history File links Ganapathy. ... Image File history File links Ganapathy. ... The crest of the IAF. No. ... The Indian Air Force (भारतीय वायु सेना : Bharatiya Vayu Sena) is the air-arm of the Armed Forces of India and has the prime responsibility of conducting air-based warfare and securing Indian airspace. ... HAL or Hal may refer to: HAL is an acronym used to refer to Hindustan Aeronautics Limited HAL is the hardware abstraction layer used in Windows NT and in Linux to encapsulate hardware-dependent details from the rest of the operating system. ... Folland Gnat The Folland Gnat was an exceptionally small swept-wing subsonic jet trainer and light fighter aircraft designed by W. E. W. Petter that first flew in 1955. ... The North American F-86 Sabre was a subsonic combat aircraft developed for the US Air Force. ... PAF can refer to: Punk Ass Fraggers or PAF Game Community. ... No. ...

No. 22 squadron, based in Kalaikunda AFB, was tasked with the air defence of Calcutta sector based in Kalaikunda. The Squadron was raised in October 1966 at Bareilly and had been equipped with the HAL built Ajeets right from its date of raising. It was part of 5 Wing at Kalaikunda from September 1968 onwards. The unit started operating a detatchment under the command of Wg Cdr BS Sikand from Dum Dum airfield in Calcutta which was activated from 22 September 1971. Sikand had been taken POW in Pakistan in the 1965 War under curious or debatable circumstances, after landing in an abandoned airfield in Pasrur in Pakistan. PAF claim he surrendered to Flt. Lt. Hakimullah from the No. 9 Squadron flying in his F-104 Starfighter[2]. However, Sikand himself claimed that he had landed in the airfield believing it to be an Indian airfield. This is half corraborated by the semi-official website PAF Combat which was set up by the [then] serving Air Commmodore Kaiser Tufail. Tufail writes that Hakimullah had not seen the Gnat so thus cannot claim to have 'forced' the surrender. He does however speculate that even though the F-104s have not seen the Gnat, the Gnat pilot may have seen the F-104s. The Indian airforce later would award Sikand the AVSM, which may indicate that they were more prepared to believe Sikhand's version over PAF's. However, for Sikand, sweet revenge was to come in six years after being taken a prisoner. AFB is a TLA that may stand for: Absolute fairness bound Acid-fast bacilli Air Force base Akademie für Bioenergetik (afb. ... PAF can refer to: Punk Ass Fraggers or PAF Game Community. ... The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter was a high-performance supersonic interceptor aircraft, capable of high speeds and climb rates. ... For other uses, see Airport (disambiguation). ...

Flt Lt. Roy Massey.

Flt Lt Parvez Mehdi Qureshi.

Image File history File links Walter E. Massey - College publicity photograph and as such believed to be This work is copyrighted. ... Image File history File links Walter E. Massey - College publicity photograph and as such believed to be This work is copyrighted. ... Image File history File links Qureshi. ... Image File history File links Qureshi. ...

Background to the ground battle

The initial skirmishes grew proggressively bloody and on 21st November a group of Mukti Bahini assisted by Indian Army elements established a foothold in the Boyra Peninsula in what was then East Pakistan. This turned into full-blooded Battle of Garibpur when the Pakistani army bought in a squadron of M-36 Chaffee tanks into the battle. These were promptly taken on by a Squadron of PT-76 Tanks from the 45 Cavalry regiment. In the ensuing battle, 13 of the Pakistani tanks were knocked out by the Indians. They had lost four of their own tanks damaged or destroyed, and had been able to draw the battle into it's second day. Facing a reversal on the ground, the Pakistani Army commander called on for Air support. This only materialised on the second day of the battle. ^{[citation needed]} (Redirected from 21st November) November 21 is the 325th day of the year (326th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... Liberation War commemoration poster Mukti Bahini (Bangla: মুক্তি বাহিনী) (Liberation Army), was a guerrilla force which fought against the Pakistan Army during the Bangladesh War of Independence in 1971. ... The Indian Army (भारतीय सेना Hindi: Bharatiya Sena) is the land force of the Armed Forces of India and has the prime responsibility of conducting land-based warfare. ... Peninsula A peninsula (from Latin paene insula, almost island) is a geographical formation consisting of an extension of land from a larger body, surrounded by water on three sides. ... East Pakistan was a former province of Pakistan which existed between 1955 and 1971. ... Commanders Lt. ... A Squadron is a small unit or formation of cavalry, aircraft (including balloons), or naval vessels. ... The PT-76 is a Soviet amphibious tank (Plavayushiy Tank) which was introduced in 1954. ... Kircholm, a 1925 painting by Wojciech Kossak. ... A regiment is a military unit, consisting of a group of battalions, usually four and commanded by a colonel. ... Close air support (often abbreviated CAS) is the use of military aircraft in a ground attack role against targets in close proximity to friendly troops, in support of ground combat operations. ...

The first intrusion of four F-86 Sabre were picked up in the Jessore area on Indian radar at 0811 hours. These were the Canadiar Sabres operated by No.14 PAF squadron and were more powerful version of the Sabre powered by the Orenda engine. It has been alleged by later historians that these were smuggled into Pakistan through a clandestine deal organised between Germany and Iran [3],[4]. No.22 Squadron scrambled four Gnats from Dum Dum. However the Sabres had flown back to their territory by the time the Gnats could make it to Boyra. The North American F-86 Sabre was a subsonic combat aircraft developed for the US Air Force. ... Jessore is a district in south western region of Bangladesh. ... This long range radar antenna, known as ALTAIR, is used to detect and track space objects in conjunction with ABM testing at the Ronald Reagan Test Site on the Kwajalein atoll[1]. Radar is a system that uses radio waves to detect, determine the distance of, and map, objects such... These lollipops, above, were found to contain heroin when inspected by the DEA. Smuggling is illegal transport, in particular across a border. ... Clandestine is an adjective meaning that its reference is something secret or guerrilla in nature. ... You may be looking for a form of climbing: scrambling Scramble is a 1981 horizontally scrolling shoot em up, arcade game. ... The name gnat is applied to small insects in the order Diptera (the true Flies) and specifically within the suborder Nematocera. ... Dum-dum is the colloquial name for several types of modified exploding (more properly known as expanding) ammunition for firearms. ...

A second raid by the Pakistanis followed at 1028 hours. An interception could not be carried out in time and the Sabres went off unscathed. However the third strike was not to have the same luck.

The pick-up

At around 1448 hours, the radar picked up the four Sabres as they pulled up in a north westerly direction to about 2000' AGL. Within a minute, the ORP at Dum Dum was scrambled. Four Gnats took off by 1451 hours led by the formation leader Flt Lt Roy Andrew Massey. It was less than three minutes from the time the Sabres were detected by the radar. In aviation, Above Ground Level (AGL) denotes that an altitude is given above the ground. ... ORP may refer to: Okręt Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej (a traditional ship prefix in the Polish Navy meaning Vessel of the Polish Republic) Oxidation Reduction Potential (chemistry) Operational Ration Pack (the combat ration of the British Armed Forces) Open Runtime Platform (computer science) This page disambiguates a three-character combination which...

The Fighter controller in the sector was Fg Offr KB Bagchi. His voice went over the radio "One O'Clock , 10 Nautical Miles". Massey Replied "Contact , I can see them pull up". The Sabres seemed to have already carried out several passes in the eight minutes it took the Gnats to reach the Boyra Sailent. The Sabres were commencing to start another dive - they were at about 1800 feet altitude and diving down to 500' in an attack run. "Right wing over attack". shouted Bagchi, "half twelve, thousand yards". "Contact" replied Massey. "Request type," was Bagchi's query. "Sabres" "Shoot" was the command from the Fighter Controller.

It was 1459 hours.

(Then) Fg Offr Khalil Ahmed.

Image File history File links Kahmed. ... Image File history File links Kahmed. ...

I Got Him!!!

The four Gnats seprataed into two sections and dived into the attack to bounce the Sabres. The first section of Gnats was of Massey and Fg Offr SF Soarez as his No.2. The second section consisted of Flt Lt MA Ganapathy and Fg Offr D Lazarus. As the Gnats dived in, a section of two Sabres pulled out of the attack and placed themselves in an awkward position, just in front of Ganapathy and Lazarus. Ganapathy called out on the R/T "Murder Murder Murder" . Both the pilots did not waste time on this perfect opportunity. Cannon shells slammed into the pair of Sabres and both the Sabres were badly damaged. In the footage released by Indian Air force, one of the jubilant pilots can be heard shouting "I got him!!! I got him!!!". The Pakistani pilots Parvez Mehdi Qureshi and Khaleel Ahmed had only one option- to eject.They drifted down to Boyra by parachute. The wreckage of the abandoned Sabres fell near the village of Bongaon. Massey, in the meantime, pulled up over Ganapathy and Lazarus to latch onto another Sabre. The Sabre pilot,Wg.Cdr Chaudhury- in a skillful dogfighting move- broke into Massey's attack forcing him to take a high angle-off burst. He missed his target. Taking aim, Massey let off another burst at 700 yards and hit him in the port wing. By that time, Massey's starboard cannon had stopped firing, but the Sabre streaked back into Pakistani territory billowing smoke and fire. Massey himself realised that he was well over East Pakistani airspace in his chase. He turned around and rendezvouzed with the rest of his formation. Later reports confirmed that Massey's victim, Wg.Cdr Chaudhury, showing considerable courage,had managed to fly his badly damaged Sabre back to Tezgaon Airfield just Outside Dhaka. Chaudhury himself claimed to have shot down one of the Gnats, but it is clear that all the four Indian pilots survived without any scratch on them. Bangaon is one of the five sub-divisions of the District Of North 24 Parganas in the state of West Bengal, India. ... A dogfight or dog fight is a common term used to describe close-range aerial combat between military aircraft. ... This article is about the unit of measure known as the yard. ... Seaport, a painting by Claude Lorrain, 1638 The Port of Wellington at night. ... Starboard is the nautical term (used on boats and ships) that refers to the right side of a vessel as perceived by a person facing towards the bow. ... Airspace means the portion of the atmosphere controlled by a particular country on top of its territory and territorial waters or, more generally, any specific portion of the atmosphere. ... Look up Chase in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Chase may refer to one of the following. ... Dhaka (previously Dacca; Bangla: ঢাকা Ḍhākā), population 12,560,000[1] (2005 UN projection for statistical metropolitan area), is the capital and largest city of Bangladesh. ...

Down the Line

• The Indian Pilots were each awarded the Vir Chakra. The Fighter Controller Fg Offr KB Bagchi was awarded Vayu Sena Medal. Wg. Cdr. Sikand was awarded the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal (AVSM).
• Massey would later command the No.224 Squadron of the IAF which operated MiG-23MF. He was killed in 1983 after his aircraft suffered a bird hit over a firing range.
• Donald Lazarus went on to becme a Flight commander on No. 102 Squadron of the IAF- The Trisonics- which operated India's top secret Mig-25s.
• MA Ganapathy would kill him self in 1976 suffering acute depression.
• Parvez Qureshi would later go on to be the CAS OF PAF.
• Some reports and analysis suggests that the Pakistani Pilots were under orders not to fire back. However, what is beyond doubt is that at least Qureshi and Ahmed would not have had the opuurtunity to do so had the orders been given.
• Tezgaon airfield was subjected to a nihillistic offensive campaign by the Indian Airforce and was rendered inoperable by the third day after the formal declaration of war on 3rd December, 1971.
• PAF No.14 Squadron defied orders to destroy their aircrafts at the time of surrender on 14 December. These were captured by the Indian Army Mitrobahini and donated to the nascent Bangladesh Air Force.

Vir Chakra is an Indian gallantry award presented for acts of bravery in the battle field. ... The Indian Air Force (भारतीय वायु सेना : Bharatiya Vayu Sena) is the air-arm of the Armed Forces of India and has the prime responsibility of conducting air-based warfare and securing Indian airspace. ... Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23 (Flogger). ... MiG 25 Foxbat The MiG-25 (NATO reporting name Foxbat) is a high-speed interceptor and reconnaissance aircraft produced by the Soviet Unions Mikoyan-Gurevich design bureau. ... 1976 (MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday. ... CAS can mean: Anfa Airport in Casablanca (IATA location identifier) Calibrated airspeed, the airspeed shown by an airspeed indicator Casualty Actuarial Society Central Authentication Service, a single sign-on protocol Certified Annuity Specialist Changing Armour System, used by the Liger Zero and Berserk Führer, fictional mecha from the Zoids... The Pakistan Air Force (PAF) (Pakistan Fizaya in Urdu) is the Aviation branch of the Pakistan armed forces. ... Nihilism is a philosophical position which argues that the world, and especially human existence, is without objective meaning, purpose, comprehensible truth, or essential value. ... The Crest of the Indian Air Force. ... The Indian Air Force (भारतीय वायु सेना : Bharatiya Vayu Sena) is the air-arm of the Military of India and has the prime responsibility of conducting air-based warfare and securing Indian airspace. ... President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs a declaration of war against the Empire of Japan on December 8, 1941, one day after the attack on Pearl Harbor. ... December 3 is the 337th (in leap years the 338th) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1971 (MCMLXXI) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1971 calendar). ... The Pakistan Air Force (PAF) (Pakistan Fizaya in Urdu) is the Aviation branch of the Pakistan armed forces. ... Look up surrender in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... December 14 is the 348th day of the year (349th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... The Indian Army (भारतीय सेना Hindi: Bharatiya Sena) is the land force of the Armed Forces of India and has the prime responsibility of conducting land-based warfare. ... The Bangladesh Liberation War (two other names are also used occasionally) refers to an armed conflict between West Pakistan (now Pakistan) and East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) that lasted for roughly nine months, from 26 March until 16 December 1971. ... Official emblem of Bangladesh Air Force The Bangladesh Air Force (বাংলাদেশ বিমান বাহিনী Bangladesh Biman Bahini in Bangla), is the branch of the Bangladesh Armed Forces. ...

See also

• Battle of Garibpur
• Battle of Hilli
• Battle of Longewala
• No.22 Squadron, Indian Air force
• East Pakistan Operations 1971
• Bangladesh Liberation War
• Indo-Pakistan Wars
• Bharat Rakshak Indian Air Force 1971 War Section