Cecil Chaudhry gets the well deserved respect from PAF.
- Thread starter Geek
- Start date
student
Senator (1k+ posts)
Group Captain Cecil Chaudhry (27 August 1941 – 13 April 2012) was a PakistaniChristian, academic, human rights activist, and veteran fighter pilot. As a Flight Lieutenant, he fought in the Indo-Pakistani war of 1965 and later, as a Squadron Leader, in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. During the 1965 war, Chaudhry and three other pilots, under the leadership of Wing Commander Anwar Shamim, destroyed the Amritsar Radar Station in a difficult attack. He was awarded the Sitara-e-Jurat(Star of Courage) for his actions during that mission.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecil_Chaudhry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecil_Chaudhry
littlemaster
Minister (2k+ posts)
salute......................................
i salute him
TruPakistani
Minister (2k+ posts)
A true war hero.
On September 6, 1965 Sqn Ldr. Sarfaraz Ahmad Rafiqui, the fearsome Squadron Commander of No. 5 Squadron Sargodha, led a three ship raid against the heavily defended IAF airfield at Halwara with Flt Lts. Cecil Chodhary and Younas Hussain as his wingmen. The plan was to send eight F-86 Sabre aircrafts but due to maintenance problem only three were available and they were one hour late from the actual plan of simultaneous attack on different IAF airfields and hence lost the element of surprise. The formation was intercepted by two pairs of Hunters one from No.7 Squadron and other from No.27 Squadron. Rafiqui immediately broke and pounced on one of the pairs and shot down a Hunter. He was abot to shoot the other Hunter when he found his guns jammed and called Cecil to take lead and decided to cover his six as wingman. As he was doing so, the hunter at target didnt let the opportunity go and attacked Rafiqui but in turn was shot down by Cecil. The painting shows Rafiquis Sabre after shooting down Hunter ( wreck can be seen in the background) and Cecil Chodhary shooting down the other Hunter. After some time, Rafiqui and Younas (seen in the background) would be shot down by the other two hunters and hence to mark the end of a heroic encounter faught over the enemy's home.
Rafiqui and Younas were martyred and were awarded with gallantry Sitara-e-Jurrat for the act of extreme sacrifice.
(L to R) - Flight Lieutenant Cecil Chaudhry, Wing Commander Muhammad Anwar Shamim and Flight Lieutenant Imtiaz Bhatti with an F-86 Sabre photographed during 1965 war.
On September 6, 1965 Sqn Ldr. Sarfaraz Ahmad Rafiqui, the fearsome Squadron Commander of No. 5 Squadron Sargodha, led a three ship raid against the heavily defended IAF airfield at Halwara with Flt Lts. Cecil Chodhary and Younas Hussain as his wingmen. The plan was to send eight F-86 Sabre aircrafts but due to maintenance problem only three were available and they were one hour late from the actual plan of simultaneous attack on different IAF airfields and hence lost the element of surprise. The formation was intercepted by two pairs of Hunters one from No.7 Squadron and other from No.27 Squadron. Rafiqui immediately broke and pounced on one of the pairs and shot down a Hunter. He was abot to shoot the other Hunter when he found his guns jammed and called Cecil to take lead and decided to cover his six as wingman. As he was doing so, the hunter at target didnt let the opportunity go and attacked Rafiqui but in turn was shot down by Cecil. The painting shows Rafiquis Sabre after shooting down Hunter ( wreck can be seen in the background) and Cecil Chodhary shooting down the other Hunter. After some time, Rafiqui and Younas (seen in the background) would be shot down by the other two hunters and hence to mark the end of a heroic encounter faught over the enemy's home.
Rafiqui and Younas were martyred and were awarded with gallantry Sitara-e-Jurrat for the act of extreme sacrifice.
(L to R) - Flight Lieutenant Cecil Chaudhry, Wing Commander Muhammad Anwar Shamim and Flight Lieutenant Imtiaz Bhatti with an F-86 Sabre photographed during 1965 war.
nychotpilot
New Member
The Amritsar radar station was attacked but never destroyed during the war. My father, Wing Commander K. Dandapani was the CO of the unit and had created a decoy radar which was what was destroyed. I was an 8 year old boy and lived in Amritsar within a kilometer of the unit in the army cantonment while my father stayed throughout the conflict in the unit. This does not take away from Group Captain Chaudhry's heroics but only sets the record straight
