The Indian Air Force in World War Two

> PILOTS AND AIRCREW

WORLD WAR TWO

IAF Pilots and Aircrew

No account of the operations are complete without mentioning the names of the pilots and aircrew who led the missions against the enemy in the Second World War.

Indian Pilots started seeing action simultaneously in Burma as well as England towards the end of 1941. 24 Pilots served with the RAF's Fighter, Bomber and Coastal Command in 1942, Eight of them being killed in operations.

More pilots served in far-away sectors like North Africa, Australia, Ceylon and the Middle East.

From a force of 160 Officers and men before the commencement of the War, the IAF grew to more than 22000 personnel. In the course of action in various sectors, 50 pilots and aircrew lost thier lives in action. More than 700 other personnel were killed in Operational Accidents during and immediately after the war.

The IAF in recognition of its services recieved 1 DSO, 22 DFCs, 2 AFCs, 2 OBEs, 13 MBEs and 2 BEMs.

The Men who led the IAF in WW2 were the same officers who led the IAF in the subsequent conflicts after Independence. Names like Mehar Singh, Arjan Singh, Aspy Engineer , P C Lal, Moolgavkar,who made a mark flying missions on the Burma Front bought with them the expertise and knowledge when leading the Airforce during peace and war after India's Independence.

Portraits

Sqn Ldr Hem Chaudary commanded No.3 CDF during the first Burma Campaign. Here he is seen with one of the Bristol Blienhiems


1551 GD(P) Subroto Mukerjee as a Group Captain at the end of the Second World War. Mukerjee was the senior most Indian pilot serving with the IAF	1554 GD(P) Proudly displaying the freshly pinned DFC is Sqn Ldr Aspy Engineer, the second Indian in WW2 to be so awarded.	1556 GD(P) Wing Commander Narendra, was from the third batch of Cranwell trained officers. He rose upto the rank of Air Commodore in the 1950s.

1577 GD(P) Group Captain Arjan Singh DFC towards the time of the Independence.	Pilot Officer Nasir-ud-din from Karachi seen here in civilian dress. He was lost in a Wapiti crash over the sea	Flying Officer Shiv Dev Singh from Punjab seen here in North Africa. This photo was used for the cover of this book

1614 GD(P) Wg Cdr MM Engineer DFC, who was took part in the 1947 Kashmir Operations was from No.3 Squadron in Burma	1644 GD(P) Wg Cdr HS Moolgavkar crashed his Spitfire on Takeoff from the beach airstrip at Cox Bazar and survived to become CAS later.	1691 GD(P) Plt Offr M Barker (Later Air Marshal), was the first Anglo-Indian Officer in the Indian Air Force

1699 GD(P) Pilot Officer l Behram Sanjana of the IAF Volunteer Reserve. He died in a Hurricane Crash	1703 GD(P) Fg Offr Theodore Alex Manuel Andrade was shot down in flames on 8th May 44	1707 GD(P) Anand Ramdas Pandit was a Flg Offr with No.1 Squadron when he received the DFC for service on the Burma Front

1726 GD(P) Fg Offr Bollineni Ramachandra Rao earned his DFC with No.1 Squadron.	2351 GD(P) Fg Offr Hoshang K Patel (Later Wg Cdr) started his tour of ops with No.6 Sqn	2988 GD(P) Pilot Officer Cecil Henry Lawrence Digby was graduated with wings towards August 1945 and served with No.4 Squadron

Fg Offr Neville Gill served with No.4 Sqn and No.12 Sqn before retiring in 1948	3096 GD(P) Plt Offr Bhasker Dutt of the 31st PC died in a Spitfire crash at the 151 OTU at Ambala on 25th Sep 1945, just weeks before he was to be operational.