War and Peace - 1962 -71

No.27 Squadron, 1967-70

March 29, 2015
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No.27 Squadron, IAF

Known as the Flaming Arrows, No.27 Squadron, IAF was raised in 1957 on the Hawker Hunter. Within years of its raising it was blooded in combat in the 1965 India Pakistan War where the squadron saw much action. The Squadron got the first confirmed kills for the Hunter fighter in the history of aircombat when two of its pilots Flt Lt D N Rathore and Fg Off V K Neb shot down two F-86 Sabres over Halwara.

After the 1965 War, the command of the squadron was taken over by R A ‘Bertie’ Wier, and later by Wg Cdr Mian Niranjan Singh.  During this time Fg Off Samar Bikram Shah was posted to the Squadron. The photographs on this page are from Flt Lt Shah’s collection.

No. 27 Sqn after the War in 1966. Seen in the Picture on the right 
Standing L to R: Shiva (EO),Hemant Sadsack Saredesai, Fg Off V K Beaky Neb VrC, Bundle Tyagi ,?, Wg Cdr R A Bertie Weir, Wg Cdr Stroud, Sqn Ldr N C Suri, Flt Lt S V Bhutani, M V Samant, Kailley, Mukhinder Mukho Singh
Kneeling L to R: Agnihotri , Ram Singh , Fg Off S B Shah, Palekar, Fg Off S K Punditji Sharma ,Jboa Singh, Baboo Siddiqui

Pilots stand by the Crest of No.27 Sqn’s Flaming Arrow emblem.

Fg Off Samar Shah with Flt Lt I J S Boparai at the drinks.

Pilots of No.27 check up on the mail that they received. From L to R : Hemant Sardesai, S  B Shah, S K Agnihotri, Palekar, S V Bhutani

The Topguns of No.27 won the WAC Gunnery trophy in Month-Year. 

Standing L to R: V D Chati (POW 1971), Palekar,Bundle Tyagi, Samant , R G Kadam (Killed in Action, TACDE 1971) , Agnihotri, S B Shah,  Sardesai, Nair
Sitting L to R: Sharma, Sanwal Shah, Wg Cdr M N Singh CO, S V Bhutani, Speedy Rana

Fg Off S Bhojwani with Fg Off S B Shah with HunterBA-204 at Halwara. Bhojwani was the ‘official’ photographer of No.27 Sqn and he is the author of many of the photos featured in this page.


The Engineering Officer Shiva standing on the right with Fg Off Shah.

Shiva was the Engineering Officer who was responsible for maintenance of the Hunters during their stint at Halwara

Sqn Ldr S K Sareen (Later CAS) and Fg Off Mohinder Vir Singh on the tarmac. M V Singh was the pilot from No.7 Sqn who was shot down and taken POW during the 65 War.

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