An overnight dash to salvage a bombed runway that changed the face of '71 war

The 53rd anniversary of India's victory over Pakistan in the 1971 war has put the spotlight on the heroism of the army's combat engineers who put their lives on the line to make the bombed-out Srinagar airfield available for fighter operations, with a young fighter pilot who flew from the same base later being posthumously decorated with the Param Vir Chakra (PVC) - the Indian Air Force's only winner of the top military honour.

- Rahul Singh

Eighty-year-old Brigadier Inderjit Singh Chugh (retd), then a young captain with seven years of service, was hand-picked to lead one of the two task forces set up by the commanding officer (CO) of the 18 Engineer Regiment on the evening of December 3 shortly after eight Pakistani Sabre fighter aircraft dropped several bombs on the airbase, denying the use of the runway to the IAF.

The orders were clear---the runway had to be operational by first light.

"This meant the unexploded bombs (UXBs) had to be disposed of, and bomb craters had to be filled within a few hours for the IAF to be able to launch fighter aircraft," said Chugh, who is now settled in Chandigarh.

His CO, Colonel MS Kandal (who retired as a major general), picked him to head the team assigned the responsibility of disposing of the UXBs as he was the only one in a unit of 1,000 men who had done the bomb disposal course. The second team was tasked with taking care of the craters and clearing the bomb debris.

Two things made Chugh's job challenging.