Between the insulting defeat in 1962 at the hands of the Chinese and attaining the glorious heights with the victory in 1971 leading to the creation of Bangladesh, the Indian armed forces had a mixedbag experience in the 22-day war with Pakistan in 1965.

In the run up to the 50th anniversary of the 1965 war, dissection of the conflict has begun with the Indian Air Force (IAF) veterans gathering in New Delhi on Friday to dissect what was the first fullblown air battle between the arch-rivals. It was the test of the IAF's combat worthiness against the Pakistan Air Force's (PAF) formidable fleet of F-86F Sabres and superior air defence capabilities.

The result of the first air battles is highly contested with the "Sabre slayer" IAF taking significant hits with high rate of attrition and the PAF despite its much smaller size rattling the Indians with the devastation of the Pathankot base on September 6, 1965. One of the first strikes saw the IAF lose more than 10 aircraft on ground. The subsequent PAF strikes, however, on Adampur and Halwara were repulsed.

The war broke out when the IAF's modernisation plan was still taking off and the Pakistan Air Force had already stolen the march after signing the Baghdad pact and becoming a US ally. The Americans had armed Pakistan with F-104s, F-86 Sabres, B-57 bombers and advanced air defence radars.

The Indian Air Force was still struggling with obsolete fleet of Vampires, Toofanis and Mystere fighters. It had added a modest second generation aircraft fleet of the Gnats and Hawker Hunters and the Canberra bombers. Even Hunters and Gnats faced problems of gun stoppages.

The PAF's air raid on the Kalaikunda base in the eastern sector destroying 10 Indian aircraft on the ground was left unchallenged. The IAF was numerically much stronger in the east, but the front remained dormant.

At a seminar on the 1965 war, IAF chief Arup Raha talked about the four elements of the Pakistan's operations. The first came in the form of probing encounter on April 8 in the Rann of Kutch in Operation Desert Hawk.

It was followed by Operation Gibraltar to infiltrate into Jammu and Kashmir in August. A full-scale assault followed through Operation Grand Slam in the Chhamb sector and an armoured attack on Amritsar.

The IAF veterans said the 1965 war was a preparatory exercise for the subsequent 1971 war.

Air Marshal Manjit Singh Sekhon said the experiences of the 1965 war proved useful in 1971 in nailing down the PAF.

Despite the rivalry, the veterans also credited their PAF counterparts for their professionalism. Flying officer V. Dutta recalled how the precise bombing by a Pakistan flight commander had destroyed the Jamnagar base.

The PAF aircraft was shot down but not before it had crippled the airfield, he recalled. Dutta had carried the diary recovered from the Pakistani pilot to New Delhi as it contained key information.

One of the major problems for the IAF which still persists is the intelligence failure. It was the hallmark of the 1965 operations as the Indians were completely surprised by the offensive from Pakistan.