In combat...INS Vikrant's finest hour, 1971
Photo 6A: In the 1971 operations off the coast of East Pakistan the Seahawks flew a few hundred sorties successfully attacking fuel storage facilities, airstrips, patrol boats, merchant shipping, anti-aircraft batteries and troop concentrations. The Commanding Officer of the Seahawk squadron, the White tigers, Lieutenant Commander SK Gupta was awarded the Maha Vir Chakra. Gupta is quite the maverick what in Bombay lingo will be called 'bindaas'. You can read an unusual anecdote on him in post #24 at
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Photo 6B: INS Vikrant herself had quite story in December 1971. She slipped out to the Andamans weeks before hostilities commenced. The Pakistanis who were led to believe, through deceptive but convincing radio signals, that she was in Chennai or Vishakhapatnam sent their submarine Gazi to sink her. Radio operators of Vikrant were parked abroad an obsolete destroyer, INS Ranjit, busy sending signals as if from Vikrant - ordering aircraft ammo & spares, mimicking signals as if test flights were going on from the deck etc. We ensured our enemy knew the signaling fingerprints of Vikrant's radio operators. The ploy worked. The adversary fell for the oldest trick in the signalman's book. Gazi parked herself first at Chennai then Vishakhapatnam hunting for a carrier that was not there. She sank after an internal explosion probably by hitting one of the mines she had laid for INS Vikrant. INS Vikrant meanwhile steamed up to East Pakistan on 3rd December'71 and blockaded the coast completely. The full story can be read in post number #38 at
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Photo 6C: In the 1965 operations against Pakistan the Alize's were used to track and map the exact position of enemy radars and the nature of their radar waves. This data was then used by the IAF to attack the pin-pointed radar stations. In the 1971 operations the Alize's operated mainly against East Pakistan sinking over 100,000 tonnes of coastal shipping, naval patrol boats and minesweepers. Eight operational Alize's carried out 291 sorties in 10 days against land and sea targets i.e. 3.5 combat missions per day per aircraft & crew. Because of their radar and navigation aids Alize's were capable of operating at night with precision and this capability was used to keep up a 24/7 pressure on the opposing forces. The crews of the Alize's won 6 Vir Chakras in '71.
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Photo 10G: On 10th May, 1987 INS Vikrant celebrated her last steam catapult launch by Commander RK Singh. It was also the last catapult launch of the Navy ever since (other than training sorties by our aviators on US carriers). The Flight Deck Officer, thoughtfully, at his own initiative put on the full Naval uniform for the occasion with the ceremonial sword (see arrow). Sadly the Navy did not capture the moment on print. This photo had to be dug out of someone's personal collection.`