As India celebrates ‘Vijay Diwas’ to commemorate 50 years of victory over Pakistan in the 1971 war, Wing Commander (Retired) Anandamoy Bagchi remembers his first posting at Pathankot when he was a young 23-year-old soldier. He recalled that his relatives even brought him garlands at the station when he was heading to Pathankot, presuming they might not be able to see him again.
“Till now, it feels that it has happened just now. War has just ended. It was a great experience, there was fear of death but our ‘josh’ was high. A lot of our aircraft took sortie from Pathankot, some returned but some did not. We kept our spirits high and finally we won,” Bagchi said.
Every time there was a sortie attack by Pakistan, Bagchi said he and his colleagues would run to bunkers. At times, the attacks were so frequent that they did not even get the time to hide.
Bagchi was tasked to look after the repair of damaged transmitter on airfield and monitoring signal channel between Pakistan and Bangladesh.
As they were keeping track of the communication between Pakistan and Bangladesh, Bagchi said he heard the Bangladesh army telling Pakistanis that they were tired of the war and “Indians will take over. Their spirit was down, and their Pakistani bosses had told them that America will come to save them but nothing happened. We won. On December 16 (1971), there was no attack and the sky was clear.”
Bagchi’s voice still trembles when he says “we won”. When he came back to Kolkata after the war was over, he said he was greeted by civilians in the entire train journey, which he would never forget.
Another, Commander Ajoy Kumar Roy, who was 26 years old when he was deputed as Lieutenant on INS Krishna during the 1971 war, said their Indian Airfield as part of Western Fleet was attacked on December 4 in Diu and Okha coastline in Gujarat. They were also responsible for furling other main warship as the Okha oil installation was destroyed by Pakistan. As he speaks from his house in Kolkata, Roy portrays every incident of the war with enthusiasm.
“We survived on tin food, khichdi, no bathing and no water but we were always high on work. The situation was so tense that nobody even cracked jokes. We used to keep a strong vigil and refuel other main warships. We could not contact our home. On December 16, we got the information that we won and we came back. I will never forget this win till the last day of my life.”
The 1971 War has holds memories for all the war veterans even after 50 years. ‘Mukti Bahini’ veterans will come to the Eastern Command. ‘Swarnim Vijay Gatha’ will showcase a variety of events to include a customised light and sound show on the walls of Victoria Memorial depicting the story of ‘War of Liberation of Bangladesh’.
The symphonic military band of Eastern Command would perform patriotic and martial tunes with three military and two Jazz bands, along with 76 musicians, participating in the event.
Wing Commander Bagchi and Commander Roy will also be present in the event on December 16.
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