Today is Vijay Diwas (Victory Day) for both India and Bangladesh. The 1971 War That I Had Witnessed as a Child. ~ somik I was only six years old when this war happened, and we were in Agra then, as my father, a Squadron Leader of the Indian Air Force then, was posted there. I remember the war very well, especially the rapid popping sound of ack ack guns (Air defence guns) that lit up the sky in fantastic colours in the middle of the night when the terrible Pakistan Sabres entered over Agra sky. I remember the black outs, the trench, the baritone voice of the newsreaders on our then National Ekco radio that my mother would listen intently in the night, while we had our dinner in that little light that gave off from the radio and prepare for our next day exams (I was in class Two), as we observed total black out each night till the war ended, the Indian Express newspaper the following morning that gave detailed account of the war on the previous day, while my father would be in his SAM 2 missile squadron (71 Sqn. at Akola, 15 Kms from Malpura village from Kheria Malpura Gate) watching the movement of the deadly Sabre Jets (F-86) of Pak Air Force, on his radar screen. In the meantime I was bitten by a mad dog and my father would return from his Squadron to pick me up from my school St. Peters College (why It was called a college I do not know), in the afternoon after exams, we were having our annual exam and drive another 15 Kms to our Air Force MI room for my injections. One day while we were waiting at the MI room, one of the four bombs that the Sabres dropped near the runway two nights before, suddenly exploded before my eyes, as it was right across the fence. My younger brother fell to the ground, while I seem to absorb the shock waves and only shook like a leaf. The bomb could not damage anything because it was carefully contended with sandbags to reduce the intensity of the shock waves. The day I completed my 14th anti-rabbis injection, the war ended. My mother and all the Bengalis sang Amar Sonar Bangla (The song written by Rabindranath Tagore) with lot of enthusiasm and which was adopted as the National Anthem of the new born country Bangladesh. It was the shortest war in history (just 14 days) and the first country that was made independent from war, after World War 2. It was a terrible war and three Indian Air Force officers from Agra Air Force station had lost their lives and became martyrs. One of the Bengali officer Sqadron Leader Bhadra, who was a ace Canberra pilot and was instrumental in bombing Karachi as a path finder received the Maha Vir Chakra. There were other ace pilots like Wg. Cdr. Benegal (who was a volunteer soldier in Netaji’s INA in Japan) received the Maha Vir Chakra bar (given for the second time, as he had received it in 1965 too) and as far as I was concerned my exams were over, I was promoted to class III, and happy the winter vacations had begun and there was no war, and Ma was happy that Baba did not have to spend the night in trenches and was at home in the evening . ~ somik
Posted on: Tue, 16 Dec 2014 10:17:08 +0000
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