Soon, more problems emerged. The IAF wasn’t sure if the tail-wheel area of the aircraft could bear the weight of the tank as it was driven into the aircraft. A solution was found in the form of a wooden arc to support the tail area. Sand bags were plied between the wooden arc and the body of the aircraft to act as shock absorbers.

The forces also had to bring down the load within the aircraft’s 10-tonne limit. At first, the IAF insisted that the Army dismantle the tank gun to reduce the load. However, the idea of airlifting tanks to an active battlefield in a knocked-down condition was not conceivable to those working on the task as they feared a slowdown of the induction process and consequently affecting preparedness.

A solution was reached when the IAF offered to cut down the fuel in the aircraft to the minimum required for a Chandigarh-Chushul-Chandigarh run and the Army agreed to lower the tank load by removing some non-essential and detachable parts of the tank, unloading some ammunition and reducing fuel.

Helping Deliver A Baby

The next challenge that the forces dealt with was to drive the tanks – heavy yet delicate – safely into the aircraft. The job involved sophisticated manoeuvres. A three-man Army team was required for each tank – a man to drive it, another to give him directions and a supervisor. The Army teams practised these difficult and delicate manoeuvres multiple times and demonstrated them to the satisfaction of the IAF by the on 24 October 1962. The tanks were to be airlifted the next day.

However, in a last-minute twist, one of the operators who had practised these manoeuvres reported that his wife was in labour and wished to take leave. It was apparently their first baby and his family wanted him to come home.

On being informed that one of the tank drivers had requested for leave, the Air Force team wasn’t happy. Despite Lieutenant Colonel Singh’s assurance of a substitute, as former Air Chief Marshal Pratap Chandra Lal recalls in his book, My Years With the IAF, the “Air Force people were aghast, they had practiced this very difficult and delicate operation as a team and a new man may spell disaster!”

However, a solution was soon found, and the driver was not changed. The driver belonged to a nearby village, and herein lay the solution. Lieutenant Colonel Singh jumped into action and immediately dispatched a doctor from the Army’s medical unit to the driver’s home to see that all had gone well. Having delivered the baby, the doctor brought back a photograph of his wife and the new born as testimony. When the driver returned from Chushul after successfully completing the task, he was presented with the photograph and given leave to go home.

The first batch of tanks was loaded on to An-12 aircraft in Chandigarh on the intervening night of 24 and 25 October and landed in Chushul – 15,000 feet above the sea level – on the morning of 25 October. The second batch was loaded the following night and airlifted to Chushul on 26 October.