Air Force: In India before WW Second
Syed Mohd. Saleh Uddin
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Sopwith Camel an aircraft of world war-1 of RAF (Courtesy: wikipedia)
Although BAF came into being recently in 1971, yet its evolution started during British Period. Before the Second World War there were few air-crafts of Royal Air Force in India.
Those were employed in operations against tribal People of the Northwest frontier. For the purpose of Indianization of officers and airmen of the airforce on 01 April 1933 Indian Air Force was formed by raising No.-1 Indian Squadron at Dirgh Road with four Wapiti air-crafts.
Its Indian officers were trained at RAF training center in Cranwel, Great Britain. Some Indian technicians trained in Aeronautical engineering were posted to service and maintenance of those air-crafts in the Number-1 Squadron of IAF. On 1 April 1936 the IAF Squadron was attached to RAF station at Miran Shah for operational experience.
At that time it was flying its initial air-crafts Wapiti which were biplanes. During Second World War no-1 Indian Squadron was in good shape to cope with the expansion of the IAF. Its flying schools were set up initially at Walton, near Lahore, and at the Ambala.
Later, as war requirement mounted, two operational units, one for fighters and another for ground attack Aircrafts were set up at Risalpur and Peshawar respectively.
Several ground schools for training technicians and administrative personnel were established for officers and as well as for airmen. Before the war there were 3,000 officers and 25,000 men.
They were deployed along with RAF. They saw action in the Burma theatre and gained war experience. Before the war Indian Air Force volunteer reserve units were also established to patrol the long, exposed coastline. During war a coastal defense unit based at Visakhapatnam sighted first Japanese fleet off the East Coast of India.
(Pl. see annex for world war-1 RAF air-crafts)
Annex:
Aircraft used during the war by the RFC included:
- Airco DH 2, DH 4, DH 5, DH 6, and DH 9
- Armstrong-Whitworth F.K.8
- Avro 504
- Bristol‘s Bristol Scout single seat fighter, F2A and F2B Fighter two-seaters
- Handley Page O/400
- Martinsyde G.100
- Morane-Saulnier Bullet Biplane Parasol
- Nieuport Scout 17, 24, 27
- Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2a, B.E.2b, B.E.2c, B.E.2e, B.E.12, F.E.2b, F.E.8, R.E.8, S.E5a
- Sopwith Aviation Company 1½ Strutter, Pup, Triplane, Camel, Dolphin
- SPAD S.VII
- Vickers FB5
All the above air-crafts were not necessarily employed in India (Courtesy: wikipedia)
AVIATION BANGLADESH 