Air Marshal Vinod K. Bhatia (born 1942), PVSM, AVSM, VrC and Bar is a retired Indian Air Force (IAF) officer. He is also known by his nickname 'Jimmy'. He was awarded the Vir Chakra during both the 1965 and 1971wars, and thus became one of only five IAF officers to ever receive this honor.
Bhatia was born in 1942 to a police officer in Mardan, now located in Pakistan. All three of his brothers and his mother died during the Partition of India; he and his father then settled in the Indian state of Rajasthan. He was commissioned into the IAF in 1962 after graduating from the National Defence Academy. In 1963, Bhatia along with other Indian Air Force officers trained with the United States Air Force. He received the Top Gun medal during this training period. Bhatia executed strategic bombing and reconnaissance missions during the 1965 and 1971 wars, for which he received the two Vir Chakras.
From 1974 to 1976, Bhatia was stationed in Kut to train Iraqi Air Force pilots on flying the Sukhoi Su-7. After graduating from the Defence Services Staff College, Bhatia commanded No. 220 Squadron while it was inducting the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23. He also commanded Leh Airbase after Operation Meghdoot, and Srinagar Airbase during the violent Kashmir insurgency. Bhatia then served as the commander of three air commands from 1997 to 2002; namely the Central Air Command, South Western Air Command and Western Air Command. In 2002, an Antonov An-32 piloted by Bhatia almost crashed after it briefly crossed the international border into Pakistan and was hit by a Stinger missile. He retired the same year, having accumulated almost 5,000 flying hours on 16 different aircraft platforms.
Early life and education Vinod Bhatia was born on 5 October 1942 in Mardan, a city in the North-West Frontier Province of British India. He had three elder sisters and three younger brothers. His father Ram Chander Bhatia was a police officer in Peshawar. The Partition of India in 1947 was traumatic for the family; Bhatia’s mother and all three of his brothers died during the migration to India. His father was incorporated into the Indian Police Service in the state of Rajasthan. Bhatia passed his Matriculation exams at the University of Rajasthan when he was 13.5 years old. After studying for one year at the Maharaja College, Jaipur; Bhatia joined the National Defence Academy when he was 15.
Career Bhatia was commissioned as an Indian Air Force (IAF) officer on 26 May 1962 and received a medal from the Chief of the Air Staff for being the best ranked student. Bhatia was sent to the Kalaikunda Air Force Station, home to No. 47 Squadron which flew the Dassault Ouragan. From 1962 to 1969, Bhatia accumulated a total of 250 hours of flying on the Ouragan, primarily during his deployments with No. 47 and No. 29 Squadrons at the Hasimara Air Force Station and Tezpur Airport.
After completing just a year as an officer, Bhatia was sent to train with the United States Air Force. He was one of 82 officers chosen for this training course, as he met the selection criteria of more than 200 and less than 300 hours of flying. The officers first went to Lackland Air Force Base in Texas for a month of training with the Royal Air Force. They then trained at Randolph Air Force Base (also in Texas) on Lockheed T-33 trainer aircraft. The pilots flew a total of 14 hours each on the T-33, divided into 90-minute long sorties. The pilots then trained at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, flying both the T-33s and the North American F-86 Sabres. Bhatia was one of three Indian officers who received the Top Gun award at the end of the course, the other two being Dadoo Subaiya and V. Vidyadhar.
Bhatia returned to India and was assigned to No. 8 Squadron which flew the Dassault Mystère IV. No. 8 Squadron was based at Adampur Airport and Ambala Air Force Station. Bhatia served with No. 8 Squadron from April 1964 to August 1966, and flew for almost 500 hours on the Mystère there. Bhatia was awarded his first Vir Chakra while serving with No. 8 Squadron during the Indo-Pakistani war of 1965. During his first combat mission, he targeted Pakistani armoured cavalry near Dera Baba Nanak with SNEB rockets on 6 September 1965. The next day, he targeted Bhagtanwala airfield located east of Sargodha. On 8 September 1965, Bhatia was flying the second aircraft in a formation of four Mystère aircraft, dispatched on a mission to attack ground targets. Confronted by intense and targeted gunfire, he continued attacking Pakistani tanks and artillery, wrecking two of their tanks in the process. He was awarded the Vir Chakra for the 18 sorties he flew in the strategic Lahore area, where he hit multiple targets.
Eight pilots of No. 8 Squadron bombed Bhagtanwala airfield; Bhatia and Vinod Patney were part of the first squad of this formation. The formation reached Bhagtanwala without being detected by the radar at PAF Base Sakesar. The formation met with low visibility but managed to destroy two F-86 Sabres. After flying over the airfield again and bombing it, they returned to India. However, the pilots thought they should have participated in a second attack on Sargodha to inflict more damage. From 1966 to 1967, Bhatia was a Pilot Attack Instructor (PAI), the Indian equivalent of a US Top Gun instructor. From 1956 to 1970, fewer than 200 pilots became PAIs. In 1968, Bhatia flew Hawker Hunter aircraft with No. 37 Squadron. In 1969, he switched to flying the Sukhoi Su-7 with No. 32 Squadron based in Ambala. He served with No. 32 Squadron till 1972. Before the Indo-Pakistani war of 1971 had even started, Bhatia had flown 5 sorties against targets in Pakistan. He flew these sorties on 23 and 31 October, and on 9, 10 and 30 November. During these sorties, he targeted Domeil bridge, the Mirpur region, Rahim Yar Khan and Fort Abbas; flying from Pathankot Airport, Adampur, Jaisalmer Airport (twice) and the Sirsa Air Force Station respectively.
On the evening of 3 December 1971, Bhatia and wing commander MS Grewal were the only two pilots present at Amritsar Air Force Station when it was bombed by Pakistani Dassault Mirage aircraft. On 4 December, No. 32 Squadron arrived in Amritsar from Ambala and began operating. On 4 and 5 December, Bhatia commanded three air strikes on PAF Base Rafiqui in Shorkot. The pilots who were part of the first echelon during the 4 December raid were Bhatia, Vijay Vasant Tambay, MS Grewal and AV Sathaye. The 4 December raid was the first cross-border mission for all these pilots. These pilots were part of the 4th Mobile Echelon Maintenance Unit (4 MEMU, later the 1st Forward Base Support Unit) based in Amritsar. The 1971 war provided the IAF the chance to validate the MEMU operational structure, and it performed remarkably. Eight Su-7s took off from Ambala at dawn, and they were refueled and armed at Amritsar. A standard Su-7 drop tank can carry of fuel. However, Shorkot was located at quite a long distance from Amritsar, and therefore the Su-7s had to be fitted with drop tanks which could carry of fuel. These fuel tanks added to the range of the aircraft, but made them a little unstable and limited their maneuverability.
The weapons fitted onto the Su-7s were 16 UB-16 rockets on both outer wings, for a total of 32 UB-16 rockets. When the Su-7s were being readied for their mission, some Pakistani MiG-19s flew over Amritsar airbase, and were repelled by the anti-aircraft guns stationed there. The Su-7s were ready for takeoff by 0930 hours, and the scheduled time for hitting their target was 1045 hours. Bhatia was surprised when their formation was not attacked as they flew over multiple Pakistani airbases on their way. Bhatia's formation attacked PAF Rafiqui successfully, and their confirmed hits were one English Electric Canberra bomber, a bowser tanker and three F-86 Sabres. To verify the effectiveness of this bombing raid, Indian fighter pilot Harcharan Singh Manget flew a high-speed photographic reconnaissance mission.
For the 5 December raid, only two aircraft could be used because of the scarcity of long-distance drop tanks. Bhatia selected Tambay to be the second pilot on the mission, because Tambay had come back from the 4 December raid without having to drop his fuel tank. The two pilots started bombing Rafiqui base at 1345 hours (1:45 PM local time). When their mission had almost ended, Bhatia learned the Shenyang J-6 aircraft they had bombed near the hangars were dummies. Bhatia released his rockets on the hangars and returned to team up with Tambay, who was targeting the aircraft circuit area by then.
An afternoon strike was decided upon because it was believed Pakistani air defenses would be inactive during lunchtime. However, 100 anti-aircraft guns were deployed at Rafiqui base after the destructive 4 December raid. Tambay was hit by one of these guns during the second round of bombing and his plane crashed on the runway, Bhatia asked him to eject but received no response. MS Grewal was also shot down during this raid, but he was later repatriated. Tambay's Sukhoi, number B837, dipped towards the runway and then exploded. Bhatia fired all his ammunition at the Operational Readiness Platform (ORP) and returned to the base alone. Tambay and 53 other Indian defense personnel who went missing in Pakistan were never officially found, they were reported missing in action but most probably died as prisoners of war in Pakistan.
On 14 December 1971, Bhatia was the second pilot sent on a mission to bomb the Government House at Dhaka (now the Old High Court Building, Dhaka). Bhupendra Kumar Bishnoi led the mission, and the other pilots were KS Raghavachari and PS Malhi. Bishnoi was first ordered by Group Captain (later Air Marshal) Malcolm Wollen to attack the Circuit House in Dhaka; Wollen said the mission was ordered by Air Headquarters Delhi. A formation of four aircraft (unnamed), armed with 32 rockets each, was assigned for the task. When the formation was about to take off, Wollen ordered the target be changed from the Circuit House to the Government House. Bishnoi did not inform the other three pilots about the changed target till they had reached Dhaka. Bhatia was the first pilot to sight the target. The formation bombed the target over two rounds and hit it with 128 rockets; two days later, the war ended.