IAF Gallantry Awards for the 1971 Air War By far the IAF operations in the 1971 War were the most intensive operations till that time. 7000 plus sorties flown in a span of 14 days. It's causalities too were high. More than 42 pilots were killed or missing. No wonder the IAF received more than 55% of all its gallantry awards, to date, in this war. One Param Vir Chakra went posthumously to Fg. Off. N.J.S. Sekhon. 11 Maha Vir Chakras and 104 Vir Chakras were received by the IAF. The most decorated units being the No.20 Squadron, receiving two MVCs and five VrCs, and surprisingly the No.122 Squadron, which received eight VrCs for the Longewala Battle. For the first time after the 1962 War, transport squadrons were decorated (No.44) too. All Links open the Citation of the awardees in new windows. Our thanks to Nakul Shah for his mammoth effort in preparing the citations and photgraphs for his site at Sam's Indian Air Force Down Under *Denotes Posthumous Award |
Param Vir Chakra
| Fg. Off. Nirmaljit Jit Singh Sekhon* | No.18 Sqn | Gnat |
Maha Vir Chakra
| Jorhat AFB | - | |
| No.16 Sqn | Canberra | |
| No.106 Sqn | Canberra | |
| No.222 Sqn | Sukhoi-7 | |
| No.37 Sqn | Hunter | |
| No.32 Sqn | Sukhoi-7 | |
| No.20 Sqn | Hunter | |
| No.5 Sqn | Canberra | |
| No.44 Sqn | Antonov-12 | |
| No.101 Sqn | Sukhoi-7 | |
| No.20 Sqn | Hunter |
Vir Chakra
| Gp Capt Robert Arnold Weir | - | - | - |
| Gp Capt Manmohan Singh | No.15 Sqn | Gnat | EP, Operated from Agartala |
| Wg Cdr Arun Kanti Mukherjee | TACDE | - | - |
| Wg Cdr Keshev Chandra Aggarwal | No.10 Sqn | HF-24 | - |
| Wg Cdr Bhupendra Kumar Bishnoi | No.28 Sqn | MiG-21 | EP, Raid on Tejgaon, Governors House |
| Wg Cdr Donald Melvyn Conquest | No.122 Sqn | Hunter | Karachi Raid |
| Wg Cdr Harser Singh Gill* | No.47 Sqn | MiG-21 | WP. Lost in raid over Badin |
| Wg Cdr Krishan Kumar Badhwar | No.35 Sqn | Canberra | Karachi Raid |
| Wg Cdr Murari Lal Trehon | No.31 Sqn | Mystere | - |
| Wg Cdr Narinder Chatrath | No.17 Sqn | Hunter | EP, Sabre Kill |
| Wg Cdr Ramanathan Sundarsan | No.14 Sqn | Hunter | EP, Sabre Kill |
| Wg Cdr Ravindar Nath Dogra | - | - | - |
| Sqn Ldr Arya Bhushan Lamba | - | - | - |
| Sqn Ldr Allan David Alley | No.7 Sqn | Hunter | Interdiction |
| Sqn Ldr Anil Kumar Bhadra | No.101 Sqn | Sukhoi-7 | - |
| Sqn Ldr Ashok Prataprao Shinde | - | - | - |
| Sqn Ldr Charanjit Singh | No.5 Sqn | Canberra | - |
| Sqn Ldr Dinesh Chandra Bhandari | - | - | - |
| Sqn Ldr Dilip Kumar Dass | No.122 Sqn | Hunter | Longewala Battle |
| Sqn Ldr Dhirendra Singh Jafa | No.26 Sqn | Sukhoi-7 | WP, SD and POW |
| Sqn Ldr Farokh Jehangir Mehta | No.122 Sqn | Hunter | Sabre kills over Talhar and Nayachor |
| Sqn Ldr Gursaran Singh Ahluwalia | No.44 Sqn | An-12 | - |
| Sqn Ldr Charanjit Singh Sandhu | - | - | - |
| Sqn Ldr Ghanshyam Singh Thapa | - | - | - |
| Sqn Ldr Iqbal Singh Bindra | No.47 Sqn | MiG-21 | F-104 kill over Uttarlai |
| Sqn Ldr Jal Maniksha Mistry* | No.20 Sqn | Hunter | SD and killed on raid on Sakesar |
| Sqn Ldr Jasbir Singh | - | - | - |
| Sqn Ldr Jasjit Singh | No.3 Sqn | Mystere | - |
| Sqn Ldr Jiwa Singh* | No.26 Sqn | Sukhoi-7 | WP, SD and killed in raid |
| Sqn Ldr Krishan Kumar Bakshi | No.220 Sqn | HF-24 | Sabre kill over Nayachor |
| Sqn Ldr Kalyan Kumar Dutta | - | - | - |
| Sqn Ldr Kirpal Singh | - | - | - |
| Sqn Ldr Mohinder Kumar Jain* | No.27 Sqn | Hunter | WP, SD and killed in raid |
| Sqn Ldr Preet Pal Singh Gill | - | - | - |
| Sqn Ldr Ramesh Chander Kohli | - | - | - |
| Sqn Ldr Ramesh Chander Sachdeva* | No.14 Sqn | Hunter | SD and killed over Chittagong hills. |
| Sqn Ldr Ravindra Nath Bali | No.122 Sqn | Hunter | Longewala Battle |
| Sqn Ldr Suresh Damodar Karnik | - | - | - |
| Sqn Ldr Sanjay Kumar Choudhury | - | - | - |
| Sqn Ldr Sindhaghatta Subbaramu | No. 1 Sqn | MiG-21 | - |
| Sqn Ldr Vinod Kumar Bhatia | No.32 Sqn | Sukhoi-7 | Shorkot Raid. Dest F-86 on ground. |
| Sqn Ldr Vishnu Narain Johri | - | - | - |
| Flt Lt Aruna Kumar Datta | No.29 Sqn | MiG-21 | F-104 kill over Nayachor |
| Flt Lt Ashok Kumar Singh | - | - | - |
| Flt Lt Arun Laxman Deoskar | No.20 Sqn | Hunter | For counter air sorties |
| Flt Lt Andre Rudolph Da Costa* | No.7 Sqn | Hunter | WP, SD and killed in raid |
| Flt Lt Aspari Raghunath | - | - | - |
| Flt Lt Apramjeet Singh | No.45 Sqn | MiG-21 | Flew back damaged aircraft |
| Flt Lt Aditya Vikram Pethia | No.3 Sqn | Mystere | SD and taken POW |
| Flt Lt Arun Vasant Sathaye | No.32 Sqn | Sukhoi-7 | Shorkot Raid. Dest B-57 on ground. |
| Flt Lt Bharat Bhushan Soni | No.47 Sqn | MiG-21 | F-104 kill over Jamnagar |
| Flt Lt Cherry Hassand Rane | No.101 Sqn | Sukhoi-7 | - |
| Flt Lt C S Chandrasekaran | No.101 Sqn | Sukhoi-7 | - |
| Flt Lt Dinesh Chander Nayyar | No.101 Sqn | Sukhoi-7 | - |
| Flt Lt Dilip Kamalakar Dighe | - | - | - |
| Flt Lt Govind Chandra Singh Rajwar | No.106 SPR | Canberra | Nav to Wg. Cdr. Benegal |
| Flt Lt Chandra Mohan Singla | - | - | - |
| Flt Lt Gurdev Singh Rai* | No.27 Sqn | Hunter | SD and killed during raid on Sakesar |
| Flt Lt Harbans Perminder Singh | No.5 Sqn | Canberra | - |
| Flt Lt Hemant Sharat Kumar Sardesai | - | - | - |
| Flt Lt Syed Iqbal Ali | No.101 Sqn | Su-7 | Interdiction Sorties |
| Flt Lt Jagdamba Prasad Saklani | - | - | - |
| Flt Lt J P Singh | No.101 Sqn | Su-7 | Interdiction Sorties Chamb |
| Flt Lt Kuldeep Singh Sahota | - | - | - |
| Flt Lt Kukke Sreekantasastry Suresh | No.122 Sqn | Hunter | Sabre kill over Talhar |
| Flt Lt Lawrence Fredric Pereira* | 8 TAC | - | Forward Air Traffic Controller |
| Flt Lt Nandepanda Appachu Ganapathy | No.22 Sqn | Gnat | Sabre kill over Boyra |
| Flt Lt Mahabir Prasad Premi | - | - | - |
| Flt Lt Manjit Singh Dhillon | No.109 HU | Mi-4 | Casevac Jaurian Sector |
| Flt Lt Melvinder Singh Grewal | No.32 Sqn | Su-7 | Shorkot raid. Dest a/c on ground.SD |
| Flt Lt Mohinder Singh Sandhu | - | - | - |
| Flt Lt Manjit Singh Sekhon | - | - | - |
| Flt Lt Manbir Singh | No.28 Sqn | MiG-21 | EP. Runway Busters Raid. |
| Flt Lt Nitin Gajanan Junnarkar | - | - | - |
| Flt Lt Niraj Kukreja | No.29 Sqn | MiG-21 | F-104 Kill over Nayachor |
| Flt Lt Roy Andrew Massey | No.22 Sqn | Gnat | Sabre kill over Boyra |
| Flt Lt Prem Bhushan Kalra | - | - | - |
| Flt Lt P D Gupta | - | - | - |
| Flt Lt Pushpa Kumar Vaid | - | - | - |
| Flt Lt Parminder Paul Singh Kwatra | No.123 Sqn | Vampire | Interdiction sorties from Srinagar |
| Flt Lt Parvez Rustom Jamasji | - | - | - |
| Flt Lt Pradip Vinayak Apte* | No.220 Sqn | HF-24 | SD and Killed |
| Flt Lt Ramesh Chander Gosain | No.122 Sqn | Hunter | Longewala Battle |
| Flt Lt Robindra Kumar Sinha | No.101 Sqn | Sukhoi-7 | - |
| Flt Lt Rajendra Singh Wahi | No.26 Sqn | Sukhoi-7 | - |
| Flt Lt Samar Bikram Shah | No.29 Sqn | MiG-21 | MiG-19 kill over Nayachor |
| Flt Lt Sukrutaraj Jayandra | - | Hunter | Sabre kill over Dacca |
| Flt Lt Shivinder Singh Bains | - | - | - |
| Flt Lt Syed Shahid Hussain Naqvi | No.120 Sqn | Mystere | - |
| Flt Lt Surinder Singh Malhotra | No.26 Sqn | Sukhoi-7 | MiG-19 kill over Rohri |
| Flt Lt Vinod Kumar Neb | No.17 Sqn | Hunter | Sabre kill over Dacca |
| Flt Lt Vijay Kumar Wahi* | No.101 Sqn | Sukhoi-7 | Close Support Missions Chamb |
| Flt Lt Winston Rabinder Sanjeeva Rao | FAC | - | Forward Air Traffic Controller |
| Flt Lt Partha Dasgupta | - | - | - |
| Flt Lt Chidambaran Sargangapani | - | - | - |
| Flt Lt Yogendra Prasad Singh | - | - | - |
| Fg Off Balchandra Chengapa Karumbaya | No.20 Sqn | Hunter | For counter air sorties |
| Fg Off Bartan Ramesh | - | - | - |
| Fg Off Donald Lazarus | No.22 Sqn | Gnat | Sabre kill over Boyra |
| Fg Off Harish Masand | No.37 Sqn | Hunter | Sabre kill over Dacca |
| Fg Off Jai Singh Gahlawat | - | - | - |
| Fg Off Kariyadil Cheriyan Kuruvilla | No.222 Sqn | Sukhoi-7 | SD and Taken POW |
| Fg Off Kishan Lakhimal Malkani* | No.27 Sqn | Hunter | SD and killed during raid on Sakesar |
| Fg Off Mohan Dikshit | No. 7 Sqn | Hunter | Interdiction Sortie Suleimanke |
| Fg Off Sankaranarayanan Balasubramanian | No.20 Sqn | Hunter | For counter air sorties |
| Fg Off Satish Chandra Sharma | - | - | - |
| Fg Off Sukhdev Singh Dhillon | - | - | - |
| Fg Off Sudhir Tyagi* | No.27 Sqn | Hunter | Sabre kill Murid, SD and killed in turn. |
Note: Lt. Arun Prakash, Indian Navy, served on deputation with No.20 Squadron. He took part in the raids regularly with that Squadron, for which he received the Vir Chakra.
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