IAF CANBERRA RAID AT PESHAWAR It was generally believed that the PAF had after the raids of September 7th had moved the bulk of its attack force to its airfields in the interiors. Most of the B-57 bombers were withdrawn to Peshawar, which was 600 km from the Indian border. It would have been suicidal to attack at such a distance. No Indian aircraft had the range and endurance to find a target like Peshawar and attack it. It would be a sitting duck if it tried in the daylight, and it would never find the target if it was night. So the Pakistanis thought. As night fell on Peshawar on September 13th, six Canberra Bombers from No.5 Tuskers Sqn made an audacious raid on the Peshawar airfield. Sqn. Ldr. Verma, a senior flight commander with the Tuskers, was leading the raid. His navigator, Flt. Lt. P. Dastidar, had an unenviable job. Peshawar, being on the northern border of Pakistan was at the extreme flying range of the Canberras. Which meant that the payload was kept to a bare minimum. The fuel gave no allowances for tactical routing to avoid the Starfighters, which had the capability of night flying. The Canberras had to fly through the heartland of Pakistan. Navigating by the starlight and whatever landmarks they could find, Verma flew his Canberra with instructions from his navigator. They then successfully identified the river to the north of Peshawar, and by fixing their position relative to the bend in the river, the bombers started their run. As the bombers rendezvoused before their final pull up for the attack, Gautam radioed to inform the formation that the Peshawar ack-ack batteries had woken up. He reported A-A fire up to an altitude of 5000 feet and accordingly the Canberras adjusted their altitude. Gautam was to be the pathfinder during the bombing run. He was responsible for dropping the Target Indicator Bomb (TIB), which served as a beacon for the others right at the beginning of the runway. Others would drop their bomb loads assessing their positions relative to the TIB. Gautam had did his job perfectly, by laying the TIB near the target. The remaining Canberras had a variety of targets to choose from, including a bulk petroleum installation, aircraft, PAF installations, etc. Verma began his bombing run, judging his approach and making corrections as required. Then when the navigator gave his signal, he released his bomb load. As the 8000 lbs. of bombs left Vermas Canberra, the aircraft lurched upwards, rid of the weight under which it was tied down. Verma turned hard port and headed north for the hills. The Canberras following Verma confirmed that the BPI had been hit and was burning furiously. Gautam managed to damage the runway with his payload. Verma was flying full throttle to the hills, when he heard the dreaded message he always feared. Boss! Bandits on our tails. A Starfighter had been launched prior to the attack has now started vectoring into the retreating bomber force. In daytime, it would have been a massacre, but at night, the darkness was the Canberra’s main ally. Flt. Lt. Gurdial Singh, one of the formation pilots, reported the Starfighter targeting his aircraft. Verma called for Gurdial to shake off the Starfighter. Then Gautam saw a streak of flame appear in the pitch of the darkness, make its way towards the Canberra. The Starfighter had launched a Sidewinder missile. The other pilots of the formation saw a huge fireball as the Sidewinder exploded. As Verma put his thoughts later in an interview, Poor Goody! It was curtains for him! So we thought!. In fact the Sidewinder exploded prematurely, missing the target Canberra. A jubilant Gurdial announced over the R/T that the Pakistani pilot had missed his target. That was the last encounter with the F-104 that night. All the bombers flew back to their base at Agra. The raid was successful without any losses for our side. It was the first time in the war that Peshawar had been raided. The runway and the petroleum installations had been damaged. Some aircraft hangers were claimed to have been hit too. As well as the PAF HQs building outside the airfield. Many Pakistani accounts recall how a lineup of B-57s and F-86s fully armed and fuelled up just missed being in the line of the falling bombs, receiving some splinters, but escaping critical damage. It was pretty clear that had luck favored the Tuskers, they would have wiped out the strategic attack component of the Pakistani Air Force at one shot.
Posted on: Sun, 14 Sep 2014 11:01:55 +0000
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