The India-Pakistan Air War of 1965

The India-Pakistan Air War of 1965 is the first in a series of book detailing wartime operations of the Indian Air Force (IAF). It provides a history of the air component of a war triggered by Pakistan’s Invasion of Kashmir in 1965. As tank and artillery battles raged on the ground, a fierce battle was waged in the skies: pilots made daring daylight and night-time raids and air combat took place at low altitudes in high performance aircraft. The war ended inconclusively, but the IAF learned lessons which made possible the highly successful campaign to liberate East Pakistan in 1971. Mohan and Chopra provide a brief historical background, enabling an appreciation of the challenges that faced the IAF in its formative years. They then examine the events that triggered the war–the Pakistani intrusion into Kashmir (Operation Gibraltar) and the Pakistani attack on Jammu (Operation Grand Slam)–and move on to a blow by blow account of the escalation and evolution of the air war on the western front. They provide too, a detailed description of events in the Eastern Sector, i.e. on the border between India and East Pakistan, something that no previous history has attempted. Based on interviews with IAF war veterans, squadron diaries and never before published photographs including gun camera photos, this book tells for the first time, stories of air battles and raids that have acquired legendary status in the IAF but have not been published for a larger audience. With the publication of this volume, the story of the 1965 war can finally be told and a more complete understanding of air warfare in the twentieth century is possible.