The 1971 War was the finest hour for the Indian Navy. After a low key role in 1965, it had re-armed and modernized and had acquired new ships, submarines and systems. When the inevitable war came about, it set about its role with alacrity in both the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea, helped blockade East and West Pakistan and inflicted crippling damage in both theaters.
The navy tasted blood early. On the first day of the war, it sank Pakistan’s long-range diesel submarine PNS Ghazi off the shore of Vishakapatnam. Ghazi had been sent on a mission on 22 November (much against the advice of experts who were not sure of the efficacy of the boat) to locate and destroy the aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant, an act which they felt would hit Indian morale strongly in the early stages of the war. Ghazi had however lost contact with Pakistan Naval HQs, around the 26th itself and no news of its passage is available thereafter. It was only on night 3/4th December that the debris of Ghazi was detected and six days later, naval divers detected the sunken submarine in the ocean bed, off the coast of Vishakapatnam.
PNS GHAZI
By naval accounts, PNS Ghazi had been lured into Vishakapatnam (INS Vikrant had already left the harbor earlier) by fake transmissions. An elaborate deception plan was made in which extra rations were ordered from naval contractors (presumably to feed the large crew of the carrier) and even a fake telegram was sent by a supposed crew member to fool Pakistani naval intelligence into believing that Vikrant was in harbor. INS Rajput, an old, about to be decommissioned anti-submarine destroyer was the decoy emitting radio transmissions pretending to be INS Vikrant. On 03 Dec it noted disturbances in the waters off Vishakapatnam harbor that could only come from a submarine. It fired two depth charges, one of which hit the boat. The next day a large oil slick surfaced and fishermen detected debris that had come up from the Ghazi. By other accounts the submarine sank when it hit one of the anti-ship mines, it had laid itself around the harbor. Whatever be the truth, the loss of a prime submarine was a severe blow to Pakistan.
The navy followed up this success with a resounding raid on Karachi harbor with its newly acquired missile boats on 04 December, and again on 08 December, sinking six ships and setting ablaze the large fuel stowage tanks. (See http://www.soldier2ndlife.com/card/raid-on-karachi for details). That singular success is celebrated as Navy Day even today.
Missile Boats used for the Attack on Karachi
The navy successfully blockaded both Karachi port in the Arabian Sea and Chittagong and Cox’s Bazar in the Bay of Bengal. The Pakistan naval garrison in the East consisted of one destroyer (PNS Sylhet), four gunboats (PNS Jessore, Rajshahi, Comilla and Sylhet) and assorted patrol craft. It was a brown water navy, suitable for off shore patrolling and surveillance and it was soon confined to the harbour and mercilessly pounded both by naval gunfire and air attacks of Seahawks and Alize aircraft launched from INS Vikrant. The destroyer PNS Sylhet was badly damaged, and of the four gunboats, one – PNS Rajshahi managed to escape the naval blockade and slip away to Malaysia. It then rejoined the Pak navy after the war. All others were captured and became part of the newly formed Bangladesh Navy. On 16 Dec 71, when Pakistan’s Eastern Command surrendered, Rear Admiral Mohammed Sharif, the Commander of Pakistan’s Eastern Naval Command formally surrendered to Vice Admiral R N Krishna. As he handed over his pistol, he summed up his predicament saying, “We were both deaf and blind. We had no intelligence and the Indian navy and Air Force pounded us night and day.”
INS Vikrant – launches an Alize for an attack
The successes were marred by the sinking of INS Khukri, a Blackstone class frigate off the coast of Gujarat on 09 December. Khukri was part of 14 Frigate Squadron which had been sent out to intercept Pakistan submarines which were detected operating in the waters.
On 09 December, as the Khukri was operating along with its sister ship INS Kirpan, it was detected by the Pakistani submarine PNS Hangor. Hangor first fired a torpedo at INS Kirpan, but the torpedo missed. Its second torpedo, launched minutes later, hit the Khukri, just below the oil tanks. It exploded sinking in less than 2 minutes carrying with it 194 crewmen, including its Captain, Captain Mahendranath Mulla, who willingly gave up his life jacket to a sailor and went down with his ship. The Hangor fired again at INS Kirpan, but the torpedo missed again, passing just below the ship. Even though Kirpan fired its depth charges, Hangor slipped away undetected and reached Karachi on safety four days later.
In spite of the loss of Khukri, the navy came out trumps in the war. It enforced a air tight blockade in both the Eastern and Western theaters. It launched attacks Karachi, Chittagong, and Cox’s Bazar and sunk three gunboats, one submarine (PNS Ghazi), two destroyers (PNS Khaibar and PNS Sylhet with PNS Shah Jahan badly damaged), three patrol craft and eight cargo vessels. Three merchant vessels, ten smaller craft and 1413 naval personnel were also captured at Chittagong when the Instrument of Surrender was signed. It was one of the most complete naval victories of our times and for the Indian Navy – perhaps its finest hour.