An overnight dash to salvage a bombed runway that changed the face of ’71 war

The 53rd anniversary of India's 1971 war victory highlights the bravery of combat engineers who cleared Srinagar airfield, enabling key air operations.

The 53rd anniversary of India’s victory over Pakistan in the 1971 war has put the spotlight on the heroism of the army’s combat engineers who put their lives on the line to make the bombed-out Srinagar airfield available for fighter operations, with a young fighter pilot who flew from the same base later being posthumously decorated with the Param Vir Chakra (PVC) --- the Indian Air Force’s only winner of the top military honour.

Inderjit Singh Chugh’s team erected sandbag walls at the sites where the UXBs were being detonated. (HT Photo )

Eighty-year-old Brigadier Inderjit Singh Chugh (retd), then a young captain with seven years of service, was handpicked to lead one of the two task forces set up by the commanding officer (CO) of the 14 Engineer Regiment on the evening of December 3 shortly after eight Pakistani Sabre fighter aircraft dropped several bombs on the airbase, denying the use of the runway to the IAF.

The orders were clear --- the runway had to be operational by first light.

“This meant the unexploded bombs (UXBs) had to be disposed of, and bomb craters had to be filled within a few hours for the IAF to be able to launch fighter aircraft,” said Chugh, who is now settled in Chandigarh.

His CO, Colonel MS Kandal (who retired as a major general), picked him to head the team assigned the responsibility of disposing of the UXBs as he was the only one in a unit of 1,000 men who had done the bomb disposal course. The second team was tasked with taking care of the craters and clearing the bomb debris.

Two things made Chugh’s job challenging.

The unit did not have specialist equipment, and the 500 and 1,000-pound UXBs were fitted with time delay and anti-handling fuses, posing a real danger to the men tasked with the job. The 27-year-old captain knew there was no room for error as he and two other sappers, Naib Subedar Peerukannu (who uses only one name) and Havildar Abdul Rehman rushed to the airfield in a Willys Jeep with some improvised equipment.

“We had inputs from the IAF that around 20 bombs had exploded and there were six UXBs --- four near the air traffic control and two on the main runway. It was pitch dark by the time we reached there. We made an assessment of the situation using the headlights of our vehicle and another small army truck. My team had to physically carry the UXBs to a safer place and detonate them in a controlled environment using other explosives. We didn’t have the luxury of time, and I was responsible for the safety of my men,” he said.

The other team also swung into action to fill the craters.

Chugh’s team erected sandbag walls at the sites where the UXBs were being detonated. Equipment used included spanners of various sizes to remove fuses and explosives to prepare charges to detonate the UXBs. Ropes and planks were also used to move the UXBs to a low-lying area near the runway. The IAF did not have a bomb disposal unit in Srinagar or the nearby Awantipur base, and the army’s units were earmarked for other airfields that had been bombed by the Pakistan Air Force (PAF), including the ones in Pathankot, Ambala and Amritsar, Chugh recalled.

“We decided to physically lift away the UXBs to a safer place, though this method was dangerous. But there was no other choice as exploding them on the runway would have created more craters. All UXBs were cleared from the airfield by 1.45am on December 4, and the IAF flew missions the same day.”

The teams of army sappers, including Chugh’s, carried out the same dangerous task every day for the next two weeks as the enemy kept attacking the Srinagar and Awantipur airfields. “There was no rest. I think we learnt how to sleep while walking. We disposed of 63 UXBs and the other squad filled scores of craters during December 3-17,” he said.

Chugh, Peerukannu and Rehman were mentioned in dispatches for their valour.

On December 14, 1971, Flying Officer Nirmal Jit Singh Sekhon took off in his Gnat fighter aircraft from the Srinagar airfield, heroically engaged a pair of Sabres, shot them down and forced the PAF package to retreat before his own aircraft was hit and exploded into a fireball.

Sekhon, then 26, was decorated posthumously with the PVC.

His moment of wartime glory came after the Srinagar airfield was attacked by at least six Sabre aircraft of the PAF. He took off in the midst of the strafing of the airfield by the enemy aircraft that presented grave danger to his own safety. He was commissioned in the IAF as a fighter pilot four years before the war. Sekhon is among the only 21 Indian soldiers decorated with the PVC for their wartime heroism in independent India’s history.

Chugh recalled watching Sekhon’s Gnat go down in a fireball. “He ejected but the plane was flying low. India lost one of its finest fighter pilots that day.”

The 13-day war, which ended on December 16 with the creation of a new country, Bangladesh, and the Indian Army taking 93,000 Pakistanis as prisoners of war, gave India a new generation of heroes including Sekhon, Second Lieutenant Arun Khetarpal, Major Hoshiar Singh, Captain MNR Samant and Lance Naik Albert Ekka. Their heroism and accomplishments still inspire not only the country’s soldiers but millions of Indians.