"...Great chap, with a party — and he was always ready to pick a fight with a Britisher. He just didn’t like the British. I don’t know why - they were grand chaps. But Ranjan would, find some excuse to — we’d be walking down the corridor, [someone would brush past]. He’d turn around and say, “Mind where you’re going, can’t you see I have two glasses in my hand?” He’d say, “One minute,” put the glasses down and punch the chap. And before you knew it, there was a fight. And the fight would be, British chaps versus Indian chaps..."
This was how "Phil" Philip, one of the Indian Air Force's (IAF) first Spitfire pilots, described his accomplished, combative squadron-mate Ranjan Dutt, during the period they served together in the Burma Front in World War II.
Against the enemy, though, it was all very different. The War had broken out in 1939 and while on duty, the Indians and the British flew side by side as part of the Allied forces that took on the Axis – the Germans, the Italians, and in Asia, the Japanese. Young men like Ranjan Dutt — who held a commercial pilots' license, spoke impeccable English, and chased flying as a passion — were instantly picked up by the British, drafted into the then-new, still-tiny Indian Air Force. Some of them, including Dutt, were sent to the United Kingdom to train with the Royal Air Force (RAF). And once equipped with the necessary skills to engage in aerial warfare, ardent youngsters like Dutt and Philip were assigned to RAF and IAF squadrons, to take on the Axis powers.
While a lot has been written about the contribution of the Indian Army during World War II, The Forgotten Few by KS Nair, is a rare account of the Indians who participated in the war in the air, alongside British and other Allied pilots. A passionate war buff since his childhood, Nair realised the need for the book only after travelling outside India as part of his day job.
“When I visited some other countries that had participated in World War II, I realised that the War was so vital to their identity even after 70 years," says Nair.
"It was a huge marker of social, economic and political change, and a huge contributor to their independence. In India, there was already an Independence movement in place, and the War simply accelerated the move for independence, though few seem to acknowledge this fact,” he adds.
The first military flight recorded in India goes as far back as January 1916 — five years after commercial flights and air mail had been introduced in the country. That was during World War I, when the British need for manpower saw Indian troops join the action on ground in Europe. During that war, a handful of Indian pilots took to the air as part of the Royal Flying Corps (RFC), the predecessor of the RAF. The first Indian military pilot, Hardit Singh Malik, was among that handful who saw action in France and Belgium. By the time the war was over, men like him had made a case for India to have its own Air Force, though it took a while to set these plans in motion.
“A lot of army generals at the time believed that aircraft would not add any military value, because they could barely get into the sky and could break down at any moment. But a few privileged individuals, such as the Tatas and Engineers, besides several Maharajas of princely states, had already taken up flying as a hobby. Men like these stepped up to aid the British in their war efforts,” Nair says.
In that period, only a handful of Indians had had the opportunity to train with the British RFC, which, in 1918, became the RAF. Despite a lot of opposition in the corridors of power, in the late 1920s, the Skeen Committee proposed that Indians be drafted into a new Indian Air Force, while also building other Indian military capabilities. After the Indian Air Force Act was passed in 1932, the Indian Air Force (IAF) was established the following year, and flying got underway with the formation of the No 1 Squadron, comprising around six Indian and two British officers, and about 20 Indian airmen or havai sepoys.
However, things were anything but easy during those early days. During those first few years of their existence, No 1 Squadron was confined to insignificant roles like message deliveries, rather than combat roles. Indian pilots were made to play second fiddle to their British counterparts and made to fly inferior aircrafts; the airmen had no roles in maintenance and were initially asked to only keep the aircraft clean. Nair highlights moments where a few Indians dared to indulge in unofficial contests against British pilots, all in a bid to prove their worth.
“It’s actually quite a story on how they overcame all those prejudices, until the British accepted their abilities and treated them as closer to equals. For instance, they were handed down second or third-hand Hurricanes, which struggled to match up against the enemy aircraft, even as the British started converting to the more effective and prestigious Spitfires. So it was an uphill fight every step of the way and you really have to admire the spirit and determination of those who passed the test,” Nair says.
What drove those young pioneers, to endure that discrimination, only for the privilege of risking their lives in combat? “For some of those early pioneers, it was an opportunity to fly rather than fight. A few were genuinely committed to opposing fascism, while others signed up for the privilege of serving as commissioned officers, a valuable position in those days, since it was fairly clear that independence was coming, though they were still unsure on when it would unfold,” he adds.
Early IAF action was restricted to maintaining peace along the restive borders of the North West Frontier Province. Even until the end of 1941, India was largely a peaceful rear base in World War II, as the Allies looked to expand their military capabilities and set up facilities to train pilots in India and Ceylon.
However, a few IAF personnel did see action in the theatres of Europe and North Africa, while a majority was mobilised for operations closer to home in Burma, where fighting broke out in 1942 as Japan entered World War II. The IAF played key roles in the turnaround from initial defeats to eventual victory in Burma, where the Japanese were made to surrender. Some of them were engaged in carrying out evacuations once Partition was announced, and poignantly, a few found themselves on opposite sides of the border after Independence.
The book is filled with exciting encounters and the unrecorded exploits of these daredevils, unearthed through Nair’s research over the last 15 years, besides personal interviews with about 20 World War II veterans including Dutt, the aggressive Spitfire pilot described at the start of this article.
Post Independence, Dutt was the youngest officer to rise to the ranks of Group Captain and Air Vice-Marshal of the IAF. He was awarded a Vir Chakra for his heroics in a single-seater aircraft during the 1947-48 skirmishes. He was also the hardest to track down for Nair.
“He left the IAF and India around 1960. Nobody knew where he was for a good 30 years, until I heard he was back in India and chased him for a meeting. I could finally spend two lovely evenings with him when he told me about his experiences. He was frail and confined to a wheelchair by the time I met him, but his swashbuckling personality was evident even then. And when he said he didn’t want to talk about something, there was little that you could do about it,” he recalls.
And though Nair was able to document a lot of these timeless stories, some have been taken to their grave by charismatic men like Dutt. Some of the stories that he did manage to record figure in his book, The Forgotten Few.
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