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The Canberra's tale of valour
Sandeep Dikshit
| The Indian Air Force's longest-serving aircraft type calls it a day IAF aircraft type phased out |
INTO HISTORY: A Canberra bomber at the Air Force Station in Agra on Friday.
AGRA: The saga of the Indian Air Force's (IAF) longest-serving aircraft came to an end here on Friday.
The pilot of the Canberra handed over the documents to the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal F. Homi Major. Former pilots and navigators who had conducted bombing runs in them were present.
Also at hand was Wing Commander Perumal who flew Canberra sorties over Kargil in 1999 to confirm Pakistani intrusions. With one of the engines incapacitated by a Stinger missile, he managed to glide back to the Srinagar air base.
Innovative use
The Canberra, with its primary task of bombing, was already obsolete when the IAF first placed orders for 80 of them in 1957. It had served wonderfully during the Second World War, but by that point it had to contend with speedier fighters. But the IAF made innovative use of it, first to conduct low-level bombing missions and then to cruise high to take photographs of enemy targets and movements on the eastern and western flanks.
Its pilots and crew had several narrow escapes. In 1959 the Canberra became the first aircraft to be shot down by the Pakistan Air Force (PAF). That incident also showcased the IAF's gallantry.
With the automatic ejection mode available only for the pilot in that Canberra version, the pilot asked his navigator, seated deep inside the cockpit, to bale out first; only then did he press the eject button.
Since then, says Wg. Cmdr Perumal, it has been a tradition for IAF pilots to keep the safety pin of the ejection seat in the locked position. "The idea is to tell my crew that if we are going to go down, we go together. And if we bale out, you go first."
By the time the first Canberra was interdicted by PAF fighters, its counterparts in other countries had become instruments of spying during the Cold War.
The Soviet Union shot down two such planes and China took at least two more from Taiwan that were seeking to look deep into China. The Canberra was at risk each time it flew over hostile territory.
However, the IAF reshaped strategy and tactics to utilise them optimally. Its personnel went into bombing runs during the civil war in Congo and the Goa Liberation Struggle in 1961.
Wars with Pakistan
The aircraft took part in the 1965 and 1971 wars with Pakistan. While some did not return from sorties, having been caught out by PAF fighters or anti-aircraft fire, many did so.
They told their tales: of the destruction of the Karachi oil terminal, the bombing of Peshawar near the Afghan border and the destruction of a vital PAF signals hub.
The closure of the assembly line has finally ended the decades-long vigil kept by the Canberras along India's borders.
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