Background: The Indian government desired to goad the Pakistanis into making a first strike on Indian soil. To do so they undertook a brigade sized 'defensive patrol' several miles into East Pakistan with infantry and light tanks. They engaged Pakistani forces, knocking out 13 tanks before withdrawing. Four PAF Sabres of 14 Squadron struck the column early in the afternoon, rocketing and strafing. On the third pass they were jumped by four IAF Gnats of 24 Squadron. The dogfight was short and vicious butthe Gnats, starting with an advantage,easily dominated. The Pakistanis claimed two Sabres were lost for one Gnat. The Indians claimed three Sabres were downed for no loss. This incident led to the Pakistan's declaring a state of emergency and commencing a troop build up that would lead to war. Map: I Indian Armored Column: Trucks x 6, Infantry x 6, Med. Armor x 3 (Vijayanta MBT), Truck-Mounted ZU-23 x 2, Truckmounted ZPU-4 x 1, Lt. Armor x 6 (PT-76s). The column is set upon the main East to West road between hexes 0613 and 1611. There may be one or two vehicles per hex with no more than one empty hex between vehicles. The infantry may be placed in any hex containing a truck (one per truck). They are considered dismounted and are separate targets. PAF Aircraft: Four Canadair Sabre 6s, loaded at the PAF player's discretion with his choice of HE, BB or RK weapons. IAF Aircraft: Four Gnat Mk. 1 s with 2 x 500L FTs each. Game Length: 20 game turns. Notes: 1. The Sabres enter from either the eastern or southern map edges on Turni at any allowed speed and altitude from the LO to HI band. All aircraft must enter within one hex and two altitude levels of each other. 2. The IAF player enters on Turn 5 from the northern, western, or southern board edges at any allowable speed and altitude from the LO to HI band. The Gnats enter unspotted with the Sabres spotted. Pakistani EWR never picked up the Gnats to warn the Sabres. 3. All Aircraft are Silver. Pakistanis are 0, Indians -1 for initiative rolls. The Sabres may not visually search for or attack Gnats until all have made at least one air-to-ground attack or the Gnats make an air-to-air attack on any Sabre. 4. Optionals: Weather. clear. Fuel: Sabre start - 85, bingo - 45, Gnat start - 120, bingo - 40. Roll for pilot attributes and characteristics, unless using this to open the 14 Squadron campaign, in which case the PAF player can choose his pilots for this strike. 5. Victory: The PAF cannot win unless they have more points overall and inflict at least 10 points of damage on the Indian ground units as well. Back to Table of Contents -- Air Power # 20 Back to Air Power List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1992 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