The Making of Pakistan's First Ace! "The first burst was almost a sighter, but wth a fairly large bullet pattern from six machine guns, it almost invariably punctured the fuel tanks so they streamed kerosene." "Another half-second burst was then sufficient to set fire to the fuel, and as the Hunter became a ball of flame, I shifted my aim to the next aircraft." --Sqdn. Ldr. Mohammed Alam Background: Squadron Leader Mohammed Alam and his wingman, Flight Officer Masood, were scrambled along with another pair of Sabres early in the morning to intercept IAF aircraft that were attacking their base, Sargodha airfield. One wave of six Mystere's had already blown through before Alam and Masood could get airborne but fortunately the Mysteres had missed the helpless pair who were sitting strapped into their jets on the tarmac. The two launched and quickly climbed to 15,000 feet along with the other two. After a couple of false starts, they were alerted to yet another wave of IAF jets approaching the airfield at low level. These were six Hunters. Alam spotted the first four and dove to attack, then saw a second covering pair further back and reversed into them instead. His feint caused the first groupto break off their attack and run. The second pair also turned and fled after passing under Alam's Sabre. He turned to pursue them, unknowingly cutting in front of the other Sabres who were also diving to attack. In short order, he expended his two Sidewinders one of which damaged a Hunter forcing the pilot to eject. He momentarily lost sight of the other, but then picked him up along with the original foursome. They had reformed. Alam headed after them quickly reaching gun range. The Hunters spotted him and all broke into a climbing left turn but fell into a trail formation in the process. Squadron Leader Alam simply followed them around and one after the other set them ablaze with short bursts of gunfire. In less than thirty seconds he shot down four of the five. The last one disappeared in the confusion but the pilot was later reported to have ejected from engine trouble. Squadron Leader Alam had just accounted for the destruction of all six Hunters! He was also suddenly Pakistan's first ace. This incredible feat was witnessed not only his wingman, but by Flt. Lt. lmtiaz Ahmed Bhatti, leader of the second pair of Sabres who had fallen to a cover position after Alam had cut in front of them. At the time of this action, the 32 year old Alam was a veteran Sabre pilot with over 1,400 hours in type. He had well over 2,000 hours total in jets and had even flown Hunters while on exchange duty with the RAF. Top this off with the fact that he held the PAF record in gunnery scores and that the Hunters cooperated by all flying in a line and you can begin to understand why he was able to accomplish this masterful feat. Maps: Left to right: J G H I Airfield Facilities: POL x 2, both in G-1 013. Hangar x 1, G0914. Large building, Trucks x 2, Tower, all in G-1 016. Bofors U 60 40mm Med. AAA x 2, one each in G-1 017, G-1 113. Game Length: 20 game-turns. Notes: 1. All Hunters begin spotted and all are camoflauged. The Sabres are all silver and except for F-86 #1 and F-86 #2 begin unsighted. Squadron Leader Alam and his wingman begin sighted. Both sides are equal for initiative purposes. 2. Aircraft Loads: The Sabres each carry two AIM-9B Sidewinder missiles. The Sabres are of the 6-3 wing variant. The first four Hunters carry sixteen large RK and two 850L FT each. The last two Hunters carry only two 850L FTs. 3. Pilot Quality: Sabres= V, N, R, R. Hunters= R, R, R, R, R, R. Sgdn. Ldr. Alam is an S.H. Tactics Master. All attributes are average. 4. Weather: Clear skies, contrails from 32 to 45. 5. Fuel: Sabre start= 140, bingo= 30. Hunter start= 280, bingo= 120. 6. Victory: To win, the PAF must destroy at least three Hunters and have more points overall. The IAF may win by having more points. 7. The play area is not fixed. Maps maybe added but the PAF may not pursue Hunters furtherthan one map past those initially set up. Solitaire Variant: Sqdn. Ldr. Alam's Feat Of Arms! 8. Set up only the Hunters as depicted except change their start altitude to 1 and their speeds to 4.5. Place Alam's Sabre in hex 1510, Facing E, Aft. 2, with a speed of 6.5. No other aircraft are used. 9. The Hunters must fly straight until the F-86 is sighted or makes an attack with guns or missiles. At this point, the no. 1 Hunter is moved via the random (evasive) aircraft movement table. All other Hunters must move to remain within one hex of the lead Hunter at all times and must keepthe same altitude and remain as close to the same heading as possible. 10. The solitaire scenario length is 10 game-turns. The object is to destroy as many of the Hunters as possible. The Hunters never shoot back. Back to Table of Contents -- Air Power # 18 Back to Air Power List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1991 by J.D. Webster This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com