The Indian Air Force is today 82 years old, a battle-scarred, highly professional force. How it reached this level is an epic saga of struggle against bias and racial prejudice for the officers and men from early thirties to the beginning of World War II. Contents Introduction Acknowledgements 1. The Learning Phase India—Dawn of Twentieth Century Pilots—The Initial Call The First Six Trail Blazers The “Hawai Sipahi” Phase 2. Building The Sinews Wapiti in IAF Colours April 1, 1933—Going Through the Mill Dogged by Mishaps How Traditions Evolve The First Commanding Officer Flt. Lt. Cecil Bouchier Learning the Ropes 3. At Last, A Taste of Operations On To Waziristan Frontier Flying Ops Miranshah—“Subchees Inn” Now Coming into Our Own Uniforms and Ranks 4. Wing Commander “Jumbo” Karun Krishna Majumdar, Dfc & Bar Surendra Nath Goyal 5. The War and the IAF Night Flying on the Frontier The “Babu” Auditor Cometh! 6. Coast Defence Flights Protecting the Shores of India No. 2 Flight, Coast Defence Flight (Bombay) No. 3 Coast Defence Flight (Calcutta) No. 6 Coast Defence Flight (Vizagapatam) No. 5 Coast Defence Flight (Cochin) No. 1 Coast Defence Flight (Madras) No. 4 Coast Defence Flight (Karachi) 7. Indian Pilots In Britain 1940 The Empire Air Training Scheme Canada—1942 Squadron Leader Mahinder Singh Pujji, DFC Flying Officer Man Mohan Singh Air Vice Marshal Chaman Lal Mehta Wing Commander Munir Mall Composition and Size of a Squadron 8. Burma—The First Ops Test An Air Base Fights a Military Coup Lysanders: Preparing for Burma Ops 9. A Mini-Air Force Goes to War First Air Raid Our Lizzies Will Do as Bombers Night Air Raid Commanding a Squadron in War Enemy Tactics in the Air First Fatal Casualty Move to China? Return to India 10. First Person Account No. 1 Squadron, IAF (Niranjan Prasad) Air Commodore M. Bhaskaran Wing Commander T. C. George Air Commodore A. A. Ananthanarayan 11. Back Home—Expansion in Full Swing “Half the Bedi” Enter the Hurricane Squadron Leader Henry Runganadhan, IAF Expansion Accelerates 12. New Dispensation Indian Air Force Gets Its Colours Indian Air Force is Ten Years Old Indian Air Force—Yesterday & Today “Revisiting Harry” 13. Presenting the Air Warriors to the People Who Will Tell People of Their Valour Vengeance Is Mine Scribes and the Printer’s Devil 14. Enter the Americans The Rank Puzzle Language Import and Challenge The All-Purpose Jeep US—“UN-Serviceable” American Spirit of Competition 15. Going up the Ladder A Hindustani Commanding Officer Commonwealth Air Forces Orde Wingate—Father of the Chindit Force 16. New Command and the “Supremo” (SEAC) 221 Group, RAF AOC Vincent speaks The Parachute Story 17. On to a 10-Squadron Air Force The Link Trainer 18. Gearing up for the Invasion Aircraft and Airfields Massive Backup Organisation Japanese Air Strength 19. The Third Tactical Air Force Headquarters with Air Commodore Gibbs 20. IAF Squadrons in Burma Skies(Second Burma Campaign) (1943-45) “Mehar Baba Goes Forth” “He Shot Down the First Zero” The First DSO “The Arakan Twins” Gremlins—Scourge of Pilots 21. “In Our Words” Down Memory Lane Murkot Ramunny 22. Spitfire versus Hurricane Radar, Ground Control and the Pilot Air Marshal R. Rajaram, DFC Marshal of the IAF—Arjan Singh, DFC 23. The Pathfinder 24. The Aviator Brothers 25. Inter-Service Cooperation 26. Sustained Air Operations 27. Combined Operation “Patriotism Is Not Just Feeling & Fuming, Appendixes