Air Cmde Nitin Sathe's 1971. 1999. War Stories is a collection of heroic tales from 1971 to Kargil

Maj Gen Raj Mehta (Retd)

An ex-NDA cadet, experienced helicopter pilot, gourmet cook, motivational speaker, avid blogger, amateur graphologist and a prolific author, Nitin Sathe is kosher. His astuteness is evidenced by the fact that he has not just recorded braveheart stories from veterans across the air-land space, but used friendly, non-judgmental prose with the intent of bridging inter-Service gaps in the understanding and execution of operations. This makes the book ‘War Stories 1971. 1999.’ worth reading. What’s probably helped his much-needed ‘jointness’ psyche is the fact that his father, an ace ‘Topchi’ (Gunner), accepted Nitin’s choice of an air warrior’s career without rancour. Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari terms the book “unadulterated, raw with real warrior anecdotes”. Army Vice Chief Gen BS Raju writes that the book is about “two wars, one soul — brought to life by stories of valour, grit and tenacity”. Both statements reflect jointness, a national need.

The book covers the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation and 1999 Kargil wars with passing reference to the Western Front through anecdotal stories starting with his dad, Col BK Sathe’s Mountain Artillery (75/24 Pack How) exploits with the then-fledgling Mukti Bahini inside East Pakistan. His ‘Happy birthday Neelima’ telegram from Dacca to his wife had her fall unconscious before the postman could read the greetings to the traumatised family as receipt of a telegram during war often spelt death. Brig MV Gharpure narrates his manually operated Swedish L-60 AD gun experience and how an enemy aircraft was brought down.

What’s spell-binding, however, is the in-depth story of the jugaad-driven tough training of the Bangladesh Air Force (BAF) — from the formation of the Bangladesh Government-in-Exile at Tollygunge, Calcutta, to the war’s victorious end. The story of ‘Kilo Force’ and its BAF arm, ‘Kilo Flight’, using ex-PAF Bangla officers under IAF watch, is riveting. The manner in which the IAF picked up its best helicopter and fixed wing pilots under the highly decorated, charismatic, ruthless yet considerate flying legend, Gp Capt (later AVM) Chandan Singh, for training the selected BAF pilots commencing September 28, 1971, is the stuff legends are made of.

The success achieved by helicopter operations in the 4 Corps zone at Sylhet taking 4/5 Gurkhas (FF) over the Surma river on December 7, resulting in the surrender of two Pakistani brigades, is breathtaking. More so is the spectacular day-night troop and equipment ferrying, starting with 4 Guards, by helicopter flights over the mighty Meghna. It won the war for India, coupled with the Tangail paradrop of 2 Para by the IAF a few days later using the AN-12, Packet, Dakota and Caribou aircraft.

There is detailed coverage of Gen Sagat Singh, the forward-thinking GOC, 4 Corps, and Chandan, besides other IAF and Army officers. There is an account of the achievements of the ‘father of the Army Aviation Corps’, Lt Gen N Chatterjee, and his exploits, including conduct of a top-secret mission and ‘pulverising’ enemy armour crossing the Tawi river in the Chhamb sector by conducting an artillery shoot. One smiles at the exaggeration but that’s par for the course in anecdotal recording!

The Kargil War stories focus largely on the IAF’s Operation Safed Sagar and the detailed planning, challenges, jugaad and skill that were brought into play to take on the Pakistani troop deployment at Tiger Hill and neutralise Muntho Dhalo logistics. The IAF used some of its best and brightest pilots and the results showed despite losing three aircraft/helicopters at the beginning. Kargil brought out not just the inter-Service cooperation, but equally the need for its improvement on both sides, including in maps, Identify-Friend-Foe (IFF), use of GPS, creation of high-altitude-targeting-templates and linking Army grid references to the IAF use of WGS-84 US Global Reference Systems.

While a quality read, the book suffers from poor maps. The publishers also needed to invest in fact-checking, one example being that 4/5 Gurkha (FF) was transported by helicopters across the Surma, and not the Meghna, river. The Artillery Howitzer is termed 75/24 Pack How, not ‘Packed’ How. These mistakes distract from an otherwise enjoyable and educative, spirit-boosting and military ethos building effort.