From The Vault

[PanzerKiel]

1965: President Ayub Khan reviews the war strategy in Sialkot with Gen Musa, Gen Yahya and Air Marshal Noor Khan.



View attachment 667709

... With Gen Bakhtiar Rana, Comd 1 Corps seated on the left.

 

[Goenitz]

@PanzerKiel @fatman17
Not demeaning Sir Nur Khan, but what would be the result if AM Asghar Khan was in helm? Would India had suffered more losses? due to strategy or leadership etc etc

 

[PanzerKiel]

@PanzerKiel @fatman17
Not demeaning Sir Nur Khan, but what would be the result if AM Asghar Khan was in helm? Would India had suffered more losses? due to strategy or leadership etc etc

Plans takes years and years to mature upto the point where you can implement them with precision.

AM Asghar Khan remained the chief will mid 65. It is not humanely possible to make all plans anew and implement them within 3 months. Therefore, AM Asghar Khan deserves credit for planning, and ofcourse the transformation from 1957 till 1965.

You are bound to leave deep marks on every aspect of PAF if you have been the chief for 8 long years immediately before the war.

 

[PanzerKiel]

And personally, I don't believe in this thing whether we would have been able to inflict more losses if AM Asghar Khan would have been at the helm of affairs.

Both Nur Khan and Asghar Khan are a product of an efficient and fine system. The system dictates that, whoever out of them was at the helm, PAF would have not lost its lethality in any way. It was always a team effort.

 

[PanzerKiel]

It's PAF day.

Phair kee Hoya!

PAF Dacca was being pounded day in and day out by the IAF during the 1971 war.

Lonely No 14 Squadron was fighting against the entire Eastern command of the Indian Air Force. A ratio of about 1: 12. Eleven fighter and one bomber sqn against just one squadron of PAF..

Sqn Ldr Dilawar , the Flight commander of 14 Sqn had made a quick brief to his No 2 , a young Flg Off for a CAP mission to defend his base against a swarm of locust

Their prospects were grim. Just like the prospects of King Leonidas
King of Sparta against King Xerxes of Persia. 300 Spartans against a million Persians.
These Pakistani Air Warriors were fighting their own version of the Battle of Thermopylae.
With the same disdain for their lives. No Surrender; No retreat, they had resolved.
.
While walking to their aircraft, Dilawar lit his last cigarette before the mission.
The duo were walking to their aircraft, when the young No 2 rationalized.

' Sir, don't you think we will be overwhelmed today?'

Dilawar took a long drag on his cigarette, flicked the ashes ; looked heavenwards and then at his young warrior.

In his native Punjabi language, he said,

'Phair kee Hoya! ' and resolutely stepped towards his aircraft to strap up for his mission...A mission Impossible...perhaps his last mission.
You can't kill a spirit, they say.
PAF Zindabad.

 

[ghazi52]

 

[ghazi52]

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The Pathankot team of Sherdils.





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A scene inside a field air ops room during the Indo-Pak War 1965. Squadron Leader M M Alam is seen in the centre.

 

[ghazi52]

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A PAF squadron ready to take on an adversary thrice its size.

 

[ghazi52]

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Army Chief Gen Musa visiting infantry elements in their trenches during one of his inspection visits.

 

[ghazi52]

 

[ghazi52]

 

[ghazi52]

 

[ghazi52]

 

[MastanKhan]

@PanzerKiel @fatman17
Not demeaning Sir Nur Khan, but what would be the result if AM Asghar Khan was in helm? Would India had suffered more losses? due to strategy or leadership etc etc

AM Asghar Khan was a 'sellout' to the enemy---. He had contacted the enemy and told them if their air force did not attack---he would order "his" air force not to attack---. A traitor---.

 

[ghazi52]