By Mayank Chhaya-
With India and Pakistan locked in the most expansive war-ish since 1971, I am reliving those days of the legendary dog fights between the iconic but tiny Gnat fighter jets and the much larger F-86 Sabres.
For those of you who find the reference too baby boomerish, the Gnats were manufactured by the British maker Folland Aircraft. The Gnat was a small swept-wing subsonic fighter aircraft that was inducted into the Indian Air Force (IAF) in 1958 and put to a devastating use in the 1965 and 1971 wars with Pakistan, especially during the latter.
It was a measure of how emblematic the Gnat became in India handing a crushing defeat to Pakistan in 1971 that even a ten-year-old then like me and others knew about it. With its superb maneuverability the Gnats came to be known as “Sabre-slayers” and played a decisive role in winning the war for India that eventually led to the creation of Bangladesh.
Growing up in Ahmedabad in the 1960s and the 1970s, the 1971 war remains vivid after nearly five and a half decades, living 12,500 plus kilometers here in Chicago. The most enduring visual memory is that of us pasting scraps of newspaper on the window glasses as blackouts became the norm. The most enduring auditory memory is that of frequent sirens mixed with mosquito-like drone of the Gnats. For children of the era, particularly living in states bordering Pakistan, which Gujarat is, the 1971 war was weirdly exciting since were cut off from the blood and gore of the action and, more importantly, the profound suffering of the families of Indian soldiers who were either killed or maimed. Wars are ugly but, and I say this with deep anguish, sometimes inevitable.
The Gnats were manufactured in India by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) under license from its British makers. Reading up on the Internet for this little piece, I found some rather extraordinary specifications of the Gnat. It was just 8.9 meters or about 29 feet long and weighed 4800 kilograms when fully loaded. It was a David to the Pakistani Sabre’s Goliath. It could scale 11,000 feet per minute. Coupled with its agility because of its size it proved lethal for the Sabres.
During the 13-day war between December 3 and December 16, 1971, we got accustomed to hearing the sharp aircraft engine sounds of the IAF’s sorties over the Ahmedabad skies. Some of us amused ourselves with the fantasy that we were the ones flying the Gnats since it looked so small up in the sky.
It is an illustration of how differently children perceive war that even blackouts were a source of fun. I used to wait for nightfall just to experience the blackout. And if sirens blared during a blackout, it was even more thrilling.
Of course, there is nothing even remotely edifying about wars. Their primary purpose is to kill before getting killed so that one can grab before being grabbed.
[Photo courtesy: By U.S. Air Force photo by J.M. Eddins Jr. – commons.wikimedia, Public Domain]
