Air War 1971

I have never had a lot of interest in the sub-continent (other than the food). There have been plenty of wars in the modern era including WWII on the Burma border and three major wars between India and Pakistan. All of this is great fodder for a gamer. But there was little there to interest me.

And than Mark shared with me Check Your 6 for the Indo-Pakistani Wars and I became interested. Why? Well a gamer likes a challenge (or at least I do) and the 1971 conflict includes aircraft 20 years out of date against modern(ish) Soviet fighters armed with AA missiles. Sounds like fun to me.

Indian Air Force Eastern Command:
3 Mig 21FL Squadrons
4 Hawker Hunter Squadrons
3 Folland Gnat Squadrons
1 Canberra Squadron
1 Sukhoi Su-7 BMK Squadron
2 Squadrons each of Mi-4 and Aluette III Helicopters
   
Pakistan Air Force:
17 Canadair Sabre, 2 T-33 Trainer, 8 Helicopters (Aluette III?)

All of the aircraft can be obtained at Armaments in Miniature
http://www.angelfire.com/nj4/armamentsinminiature/aircraftinminiature/9mm/resin09mm.htm

Some useful research links include:

• http://www.acig.org/artman/publish/article_326.shtml
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladesh_Air_Force#Air_Force_personnel_in_1971
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Pakistan_Air_Operations,_1971

Will we be flying these aircraft soon? I am not sure, but I see an article for one of the TOOFATLardy specials.

I do love the F-104. All images in this post come from ACIG.org. A great painting reference.