Battle of Boyra

The Battle of Boyra, on 22 November 1971, was fought between the Bengali Guerrillas named Mukti Bahini and the Pakistan armed forces. The armed forces of India joined the war on 3 December 1971. The alliance of Mukti Bahini and Indian armed forces was named as Mitro Bahini. The battle was the first engagement between the Air Forces of Mtro Bahini and Pakistan of the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971. It is seen as a culmination of the Battle of Garibpur where the Mitro Bahini successfully engaged and destroyed strike elements of the Pakistan Air Force.

The battle
The battle took place between a four ship formation of the No. 22 squadron of the Indian Air Force equipped with HAL built Gnats, against a four ship formation of Canadair Sabres of the PAF No. 14 Squadron.

No. 22 squadron, based in Kalaikunda AFB, was tasked with the air defence of Calcutta sector. The Squadron was formed in October 1966 at Bareilly and had been equipped with the HAL built Ajeets immediately. It was part of 5 Wing at Kalaikunda from September 1968 onwards. The unit started operating a detachment under the command of Wing Commander BS Sikand from the Dum Dum airfield in Calcutta which was activated from 22 September 1971.

Sikand had been taken as a prisoner of war in Pakistan in the 1965 War under curious circumstances after landing in an abandoned airfield in Pasrur in Pakistan. PAF claim he surrendered to Flight Lt. Hakimullah from the No. 9 Squadron flying in his F-104 Starfighter. However, Sikand himself claimed that he had landed in the airfield believing it to be an Indian airfield. This is half corroborated by the semi-official website which was set up by the [then] serving Air Commodore Kaiser Tufail. Tufail writes that Hakimullah had not seen the Gnat so cannot claim to have 'forced' the surrender. He does however speculate that even though the F-104s may not have seen the Gnat, the Gnat pilot may have seen the F-104s.

The Indian air force later would award Sikand the AVSM, which may indicate that they were more prepared to believe Sikand's version over PAF's. Sikand's aircraft was seen on the radar scope at 230 Signals Unit, Amritsar, commanded by Wing Commander K. Dandapani AVSM (retd.) as veering off-course and losing altitude well before others in his formation reached Sargodha and put down at Pasrur. Sikand landed a fully fueled, armed and untouched Folland Gnat at Pasrur which to this day is on display at a PAF museum.

Background to the ground battle
The initial skirmishes grew progressively bloody and on 21 November a group of Mukti Bahini assisted by Indian Army elements established a foothold in the Boyra Peninsula in what was then East Pakistan. This turned into full scale battle Battle of Garibpur when the Pakistani army brought a squadron of M24 Chaffee tanks into the battle. These were promptly taken on by a Squadron of PT-76 Tanks from the 45 Cavalry regiment. In the ensuing battle, 13 of the Pakistani tanks were destroyed or incapacitated by the Indian forces which lost four of its own tanks damaged or destroyed, but had been able to draw the battle into its second day.

Facing a reversal on the ground, the Pakistani Army commander called for air support. This only materialised on the second day of the battle.

The first intrusion of four Sabres were picked up in the Jessore area on Indian radar at 0811 hours. These were the Canadair Sabres operated by No. 14 PAF squadron and were more powerful version of the Canadian built Sabre powered by the Orenda engine. It has been alleged by later historians that these were smuggled into Pakistan through a clandestine deal organised between Germany and Iran No.22 Squadron scrambled four Gnats from Dum Dum. However the Sabres had flown back to their territory by the time the Gnats could make it to Boyra.

A second raid by the Pakistanis followed at 1028 hours. An interception could not be carried out in time and the Sabres went off unscathed. A third strike was carried out in the afternoon on the Indian Army and Mitrobaihini positions at Chowgachha Mor. This time, however, luck had run out.

In late 2 November PAF Sabres strafing Indian troops were downed by Ajeets, marking the first air combat between the two sides since 1965.

The pick-up
At around 1448 hours, the radar picked up the four Sabres as they pulled up in a north westerly direction to about 2000 ft above ground level. Within a minute, the ORP at Dum Dum was scrambled. Four Gnats took off by 1451 hours led by the formation leader Flt Lt Roy Andrew Massey. It was less than three minutes from the time the Sabres were detected by the radar.

The Fighter controller in the sector was Fg Offr KB Bagchi. His voice went over the radio "One O'Clock, 10 Nautical Miles". Massey Replied "Contact, I can see them pull up". The Sabres seemed to have already carried out several passes in the eight minutes it took the Gnats to reach the Boyra Sailent. The Sabres were commencing to start another dive - they were at about 1800 ft altitude and diving down to 500' in an attack run.
 * "Right wing over attack". shouted Bagchi, "half twelve, thousand yards".
 * "Contact" replied Massey.
 * "Request type", was Bagchi's query.
 * "Sabres"
 * "Shoot" was the command from the Fighter Controller.

It was 1459 hours.

Aerial engagement
The four Gnats separated into two sections and dived into the attack to bounce the Sabres. The first section of Gnats was of Massey and Fg Offr SF Soarez as his No.2. The second section consisted of Flt Lt MA Ganapathy and Fg Offr D Lazarus. As the Gnats dived in, a section of two Sabres pulled out of the attack and placed themselves in an awkward position, just in front of Ganapathy and Lazarus. Ganapathy called out on the R/T "Murder Murder Murder". Both the pilots did not waste time on this perfect opportunity. Cannon shells slammed into the pair of Sabres and both the Sabres were badly damaged. The Pakistani pilots Parvez Mehdi Qureshi and Khaleel Ahmed had only one option- to eject. They drifted down to Boyra by parachute. The wreckage of the abandoned Sabres fell near the village of Bongaon. Massey, in the meantime, pulled up over Ganapathy and Lazarus to latch onto another Sabre. The Sabre pilot, Wg. Cdr Chaudhury- in a skillful dogfighting move- broke into Massey's attack forcing him to take a high angle-off burst. He missed his target. Taking aim, Massey let off another burst at 700 yd and hit him in the port wing. By that time, Massey's starboard cannon had stopped firing, but the Sabre streaked back into Pakistani territory billowing smoke and fire. Massey himself realised that he was well over East Pakistani airspace in his chase. He turned around and regrouped with the rest of his formation. Later reports confirmed that Massey's victim, Wg. Cdr Chaudhury, showing considerable courage, had managed to fly his badly damaged Sabre back to Tezgaon Airfield just outside Dhaka. Chaudhury himself claimed to have shot down one of the Gnats.

Aftermath

 * The Indian pilots were each awarded the Vir Chakra. The Fighter Controller Fg Offr KB Bagchi was awarded Vayu Sena Medal. Wg. Cdr. Sikand was awarded the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal (AVSM).
 * Massey would later command No. 224 Squadron of the IAF which operated MiG-23MF.
 * Donald Lazarus went on to become a Flight commander on No. 102 Squadron of the IAF- The Trisonics- which operated India's top secret Mig-25s.
 * Parvez Qureshi would later go on to be the CAS of PAF.
 * Some dubious reports and analysis later suggest that the Pakistani Pilots were under orders not to fire back. However, what is beyond doubt is that at least Qureshi and Ahmed would not have had the opportunity to do so had the orders been given.
 * Tezgaon airfield was subjected to a nihilistic offensive campaign by the Indian Airforce and was rendered inoperable by the third day after the formal declaration of war on 3 December 1971.
 * PAF No.14 Squadron defied orders to destroy their aircraft at the time of surrender on 14 December. These were captured by the Indian Army Mitrobahini and donated to the nascent Bangladesh Air Force.