BharatRakshak Indian Air Force| Deb Gohain

Deb Gohain

Group Captain Debananda Gohain (13388 F(P)), a retired fighter pilot has been painting famous Indian Air Force events from the wars.

Group Captain Gohain was commissioned in the fighter stream of 110 Pilots Course on 2 Jun 1973. After initial training He was posted to Gnat squadrons and for next seven years or so served in Nos 22, 23 and 2 Squadrons. In 1982 he converted to MiG 21M and served in 37 and 17 Squadrons. he did two instructional tenures in MOFTU where he flew MiG-21FLs and later commanded 52 Squadron. He also commanded 273 SU, an ADDC as Group Captain. A qualified FCL and graduate of Staff College, he took a premature retirement from Air Force in May 2004.

Gohain's exact interest in painting is difficult to recollect. In his own words:

Exactly where and when I developed interest in drawing/painting of battle scenes is difficult to recollect now. But I remember following 1965 war very closely as a young student of Class VII at Sainik School, Goalpara, Assam. Fg Offr Utpal Barbora’s feat was widely covered in local newspaper as he was a local lad. In 1972, most of our flying instructors had just returned from war and their recounting of war tales was a huge motivating factor for us budding fighter pilots.
In every squadron that I was posted to, I had tried to leaf through the squadron albums to see some war time records. But I had found that our record keeping in operational units was very very poor. 22 Sqn had maintained the record of Boyra encounter quite well and in 1974 we had even celebrated Boyra Day on 22 November. Incidentally, Roy Massey was one of my instructors at training stage. None of the squadrons had maintained even a portrait of the war heroes who had earned gallantry medals in the unit.
Nobody had ever tried to recreate through art the famous encounters like Gnat Vs Sabres, Hunter Vs Sabres, MiG 21 Vs F 104 etc. On the contrary PAF websites had wide coverage of IAF aircraft being shot down in war.
It is only after retirement that I thought of trying my hand on painting of aircraft like MiG-21, Hunter, Su 30 etc and found that I was not too bad in it. I am basically a hobby painter and my subject is mostly flowers.

Deb Gohain's first aviation painting was “Attack on Government House” of 1971 war. This painting was presented by then AOC-in –C , EAC, Air Marshal S Varthaman to CAS in November 2012. Since then he had been regularly painting on air encounters between IAF and PAF.

His latest painting on “Shooting down of Rafiqui” of 1965 war over Halwara airbase is almost ready.

Most of his paintings are displayed throughout the country in various establishments including HQ EAC museum, HQ SWAC, Air Force Station, Jamnagar and at Vayu Bhavan.

Date: 05/19/2013

Owner: Webmaster

Size: 23 items

HT-2-Formation Date: 12/24/2014 Views: 2574	Keelor-Shoots-down-Sabre Date: 12/24/2014 Views: 2182	Rotary-Workhorse-Mi-4 Date: 12/24/2014 Views: 2065
Soni-Starfigther-1971 Date: 12/24/2014 Views: 2259	Lightning Anniversary Lightening Sqn painting was done for Ari Cmde Ajay Rathore at his behest. The composition was his idea of showing a SU-30 with all its weapons with a Himalayan Eagle clasping streaks of lightening. Ajay is son of Air Mshl DN Rathore Vr C Retd) and had com Date: 12/24/2014 Views: 2159	Eighty years of the Tigers. This painting was done for Air Mshl S Bhojwani (Retd) as a gift from him to 1 Sqn on their 80th Anniversary. It was entirely his idea to create the painting with Type 77 armed with K-13 AAM and Gondola. I sought his permission to host it in my gallery and Date: 12/24/2014 Views: 2165
Tuskers raid Peshawar: Indo-Pak War 1965 This is an account of a few audacious Canberra crews who flew almost 600 NMs into the enemy territory at night, trailing one another at near medium levels without any escort and without any radar cover, to bomb a very formidable airbase of Pakist Date: 12/24/2014 Views: 2987	The first strike : Vampires over Chamb This painting is about the very first day IAF was called into action to blunt a massive armoured thrust across the IB by the Pakistani Army on 01 September 1965 code named “Operation Grandslam”. Main objective of the Pakistani thrust was to cut o Date: 12/24/2014 Views: 2389	Chetaks-over-East Date: 12/24/2014 Views: 2122
Tigers over Sargodha The painting is based on the account of the attack Tigers over Sargodha by Air Mshl Philip Rajkumar. The four Date: 03/31/2014 Views: 2184	Gnat Vs Sabre 1971 A close encounter over Bangladesh - A Sabre is downed by a Gnat Date: 12/24/2013 Views: 2385	Rhinos - No.30 Squadron AF and Navy The Association of No.30 Squadron AF "Rhinos" with the Navy is commemorated in this painting Date: 12/24/2013 Views: 2207
SU-30 and MiG-21 MiG-21FL (Type-77) with a Sukhoi-30. Date: 12/24/2013 Views: 2118	SU-30 Pair of Sukhoi-30 MKIs Date: 12/24/2013 Views: 2070	Shooting down of Sabrejet by Alfred Cooke during the 1965 War A great airbattle over the skies of Bengal in 1965 - resulted in the shooting down of a Sabre and the severe damage of a second by Flight Lieutenant Alfred Cooke of No.14 Squadron, Indian Air Force. This painting was done after extensive discussions betwe Date: 09/29/2013 Views: 2233
Dakota through the Thunderstorm, a painting done for Air Commodore D J Sarma. Date: 08/09/2013 Views: 2335	A Hawker Hunter and a Dassault Ouragan in flight. Date: 07/02/2013 Views: 2275	Devayya's Encounter - 1965 War - 7 September 1965 Artist's Note In this painting I tried to recreate unmatched gallantry of a young Indian pilot who unfortunately did not return from a raid over Sargodha, Pakistan, on 6th September 1965. Squadron Leader Date: 07/02/2013 Views: 3368
"Shooting down of Rafiqui" Oil painting - 30x20 inches. The scene depicted is of encounter between two Hunters F 56 Date: 05/25/2013 Views: 2574	Squadron Leader B B Soni shoots down a F-104 Starfighter over the sea off Jamnagar coast on 14th December 1971 On display at the Air Force Date: 05/19/2013 Views: 2680	MiG-21s of No.28 Squadron and No.4 Squadron plaster the Governor House at Dacca - leading to the collapse of the East Pakistani Regime. O Date: 05/19/2013 Views: 2376
The Paradrop of 2nd Batallion Parachute Regiment over Tangail On display at Air Force Station, Jorhat Date: 05/19/2013 Views: 2404	Flying Officer Utpal Barbora undertaking a Photo Recce mission over Kutch in April 1965 in a PR Vampire Mark 55. On display at the EAC Date: 05/19/2013 Views: 2535

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Bharat Rakshak:Indian Air Force

Deb Gohain