The Royal Indian Air Force in the Second World War
The Internet's best resource on the Indian Air Force in the Second World War. Read about veteran storiess, units, database research tools and the hundreds of photographs and images from that era!
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Category: Veterans Project - Interviews, Profiles and Memoirs
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Last Updated: Saturday, 03 February 2018 18:24
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Written by Wg Cdr A Phillipos
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Hits: 12253
Updated 03 February 2018: We regret to inform that Wg Cdr A Philipos passed away in Bengaluru on 31st January 2018. He was 101 years old. Original: Wg Cdr A Phillipos 3033 GD(P) was commissioned as an Accounts Branch Officer in 1944. He recently turned 100 years old and was felicitated by the Air Force Records Office in Bangalore. In this short article, he writes about his introduction to service life under the British.
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Category: Veterans Project - Interviews, Profiles and Memoirs
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Last Updated: Wednesday, 25 October 2017 00:00
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Written by Updates
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Hits: 19684
Kartar Singh Saund (IND/1664 was commissioned into the Indian Air Force Volunteer Reserve in 1941. He joined No.2 Squadron after training and flew Lysander and Hurricane fighters. He died on the frontline in 1943 at Imphal - His family had preserved his photos for over seventy years - before showcasing them here. A profile of Kartar Singh Saund has also been researched and published along with the album.
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Category: Veterans Project - Interviews, Profiles and Memoirs
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Last Updated: Tuesday, 25 July 2017 00:04
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Written by Webmaster
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Hits: 10490
Read about the officer with the oldest birth date to be commissioned in the Indian Air Force - Khan Bahadur Haji Gulmast Khan, a retired Deputy Superintendent of Police in Peshawar.
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Category: Veterans Project - Interviews, Profiles and Memoirs
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Last Updated: Wednesday, 12 July 2017 03:46
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Written by Air Marshal Aspy Engineer
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Hits: 5982
In 1992, the then CAS Air Chief Marshal N C Suri requested many of the surviving senior veterans of the Indian Air Force to write down their memoirs or recollections for the purpose of publishing them in a commemorative 50th Anniversary History. Air Marshal Aspy Engineer responded to the personal request of the CAS and penned down his recollections in nine pages of hand written notes. The account was never used in any publication, but thankfully the preserved notes are in the collection of Cyrus Engineer, Aspy's son. Recently Mrs Farida Singh, daughter of Jungoo Engineer procured the papers as well as several photographs from the collection and very kindly provided them here for our website with the permission of the family
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Category: Veterans Project - Interviews, Profiles and Memoirs
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Last Updated: Saturday, 17 June 2017 04:06
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Written by K S Nair
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Hits: 4691
Squadron Leader Mahender Singh Pujji was in fact one of the first batch of 24 Indian 'A' licence holders to be accepted for service in the Air Force early during the Second World War. He received a Volunteer Reserve commission, trained with the Royal Air Force, and was awarded RAF wings. He flew in a combat role from emblematic RAF stations in the British Isles such as Kenley (one of the three main fighter stations defending London; and the operating base of "Sailor" Malan, Johnny Johnson, and earlier, of Douglas Bader), putting his life on the line to defend the British mainland; and flew in some of the Allies' first offensive operations over Occupied France. He later flew briefly in the North African theatre, as well as extensively in the China / Burma / India theatre (and in the NWFP)
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Category: Veterans Project - Interviews, Profiles and Memoirs
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Last Updated: Friday, 16 June 2017 13:06
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Written by Syed Ali Hamid
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Hits: 15275
A Pakistani Army Officer in search of his uncle's WW2 career - finds some answers with the help of the Internet - a brief profile of Pilot Officer Mehmood Butt - 6 Squadron.
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Category: Veterans Project - Interviews, Profiles and Memoirs
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Last Updated: Monday, 12 June 2017 19:04
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Written by Air Commodore H S Ratnagar
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Hits: 3915
When No.1 Squadron, Indian Air Force went into operations in February 1942 against the Japanese in Burma, it carried the hopes and future growth prospects of the Indian Air Force with it. Other than the little that is on the record about Sqn Ldr Majumdar, who was to perish in a crash a few years later, not much is known about the other officers and men who were to be the 'First in the Burma Skies'. We present a series of profiles of the personnel who were on the original team of the Tigers, No 1 Squadron, as they were being built up. The first in series of these articles is a profile of Air Commodore Homi Shapurji Ratnagar, who saw two tours of ops on the Burma Front, and is now (in 2003) 83 years old and settled in Hyderabad.
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Category: Veterans Project - Interviews, Profiles and Memoirs
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Last Updated: Sunday, 04 June 2017 02:11
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Written by Jagan Pillarisetti
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Hits: 9831
This series of articles and photo albums chronicles the experiences of Muthukumarasami Balan, who joined the Indian Air Force in 1944 to take part in the Second World War. After undergoing training at Begumpet, Ambala and Peshawar, he was posted
to No.6 Squadron and subsequently No.4 Squadron. It was with No.4 Squadron that he went to Japan as part of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force. This was just the beginning of a long career in aviation - that would last over four decades!
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Category: Veterans Project - Interviews, Profiles and Memoirs
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Last Updated: Monday, 22 August 2016 00:23
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Written by K S Nair
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Hits: 10385
Murkot Ramunny, had served in the Indian Air Force, flying Hurricanes in Burma during the War. He left the IAF shortly after Independence, to serve the Government in civil capacities. He does not bother to include his old IAF rank on his letterhead, which reads simply, “Murkot Ramunny, IAS (Retd)”. This is understandable, for his military rank is far eclipsed, in protocol terms, by the civil service ranks he rose to later; and to most people, his status as a former senior civil servant is what counts. But to IAF history enthusiasts like us, he will always be Wing Commander Murkot Ramunny. The article is now updated to reflect a Youtube video - a rare and most certainly the last time he was interviewed on video about his WW2 experiences
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Category: Veterans Project - Interviews, Profiles and Memoirs
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Last Updated: Thursday, 05 May 2016 23:33
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Written by K S Nair
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Hits: 10907
Wing Commander Cecil "Digger" Digby, IAF (Retd), a veteran of service from the 1940s to the 1960s, graciously spent a few hours with me recently, on a chilly but crisp autumn day, in a pub named for a British naval hero - not a bad venue, all things considered, at which to sit and talk about service in the Indian Air Force. Some of the snippets in the following account came from Squadron Leader Ian S ("Locky") Loughran, VM (Retd), himself at one time a flight commander within a squadron commanded by Wg Cdr Digby. Captain Loughran had organised this meeting, sat by, and as so often in meetings with veterans, occasionally interposed with some of the detail that Wg Cdr Digby had overlooked, or was too modest to recount until prompted.
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Category: Veterans Project - Interviews, Profiles and Memoirs
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Last Updated: Wednesday, 24 February 2016 04:09
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Written by Webmaster
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Hits: 10739
Pilot Officer Hukum Chand Mehta was one of the twenty four Indians sent to the United Kindom in1940. The Indians arrived on October 8, 1940, at the height of Battle of Britain, but by the time their training was completed, it would be April 1941. HC Mehta would be one of the six pilots who went to Fighter command. He joined 43 Squadron.
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Subcategories
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Veterans Project - Interviews, Profiles and Memoirs
The WW2 Veterans Project : WWII Veteran Encounters, Profiles and Memoirs started off in earnest in 2002 when between a small group of like minded enthusiasts, an effort was made to locate and interview WW2 veterans of the Indian Air Force. With the dwindling number of veterans every passing year, the effort continues in terms of family members writing profiles of their loved ones who took part in the war - and in keeping their memories alive.
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Article Count:
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30
