The Indian Air Force celebrates its foundation day every year on 8 October. This time the Indian Air Force is celebrating its 92nd foundation day. The Indian Air Force, established in the year 1932, has always made the country proud. When the pilots of this force enter enemy territory riding on fighter jets, the ground starts trembling due to the engines of the jets. Let us tell you today an incident of partition on this occasion when troops and aircraft were divided between India and Pakistan.
First know about the distribution of troops
HM Patel, author of the book ‘Rites of Passage’, writes in his book that on April 7, 1947, Partition Council member Liaquat Ali wrote a letter to British Viceroy Mountbatten talking about the division of the army. On Jinnah’s demand, on July 4, Mountbatten said that all the leaders had agreed to the transfer of the army. When it came to partition, the British Indian Army had more than 4 lakh soldiers. Of these, 3 lakh 91 thousand were Army personnel and 13 thousand were Air Force personnel. Apart from this, 8,700 were from Navy.
After partition, 2 lakh 60 thousand soldiers went to India and 1 lakh 31 thousand soldiers went to Pakistan. While 10 thousand Air Force personnel went to India, three thousand went to Pakistan Army. 5,700 Navy personnel came to India and three thousand personnel went to Pakistan.
Weapons were also distributed
Apart from the soldiers, arms were exchanged between India and Pakistan. was also distributed. According to reports, at that time the army had military equipment weighing a total of 1 lakh 65 thousand tonnes. Of these, India got 4 boats, 12 minesweepers and 1 warship. Whereas, Pakistan got 2 small boats and 4 minesweepers.
Now we come to the distribution of airplanes. According to the report of IndianAirforce.nic, at the time of India’s independence, the Indian Air Force had 900 aircraft. These included some fighter planes and bombers. However, there is no concrete information available on how these were distributed with Pakistan. However, some reports on the internet claim that these ships were divided in the ratio of 60-40. That means 60 percent of the aircraft were given to India and 40 percent of the aircraft were given to Pakistan. This division was based on the area and population of both the countries.
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