Few people realise that a number of Indian pilots took part in operations from England. At the height of the Battle of Britain, 24 Indian pilots were sent to the UK to under go conversion training and participate in Ops. Even though they could take part only after the Battle of Britain, many of them distinguished themselves flying operations with the various commands.

These twenty four hailed from the 4th Pilots Course - who had received their commissions on 8th August 1940. Less than a week later, on 14th August, it was reported that the first batch of Indian pilots who had finished their training at ITW Lahore will be sent to the UK for operational training. At that time there were 13 direct entry Indian officers in the RAF in the UK.

The 24 Officers arrived by ship in England on 8th October 1940. On arrival, they were given a welcome message addressed individually to them by the Air Minister, Sir Archibald Sinclair.

The 24 were initially sent for basic flying training and later on to SFTS followed by OTUs. They subsequently spread out among the Squadrons in Fighter, Coastal and bomber Command. Eight of them were killed in training and operations.

A very poignant story as noted by Mukund Murty is that of Anandaraj Samuel Gnanamuthu, KIA 11/ 7/ 41 and his kid brother Bhaskar Daniel Gnanamuthu, KIA 7/ 11/ 41. The weird juxtaposition of the dates of deaths of these brothers may be noted.   Anandaraj was in 32 Sqn RAF. Both the brothers were killed during their service in the UK. Their parents were in the Niligiris at that time , their father was an IMS Captain

The remaining sixteen officers came back and bought with them the experiences of flying in the European theatre. Another pilot was lost in operations against the Japanese, leaving fifteen survivors of the pioneer 24.

THE PILOTS:
(Names in bold indicate deceased - and link to CWGC Certificates)