22 Dec, 2024
| 3- December-1971 | During the ensuing melee, three of the Sabres were shot down while all Gnats returning to base were unscathed. The first blood of a new Indo-Pakistan air war had been drawn. Other encounters were to follow over the next 10 days within both Indian and Pakistani airspace, before a full-scale war began. |
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| 3- December-1971 | Hostilities broke out between India and Pakistan. On the very night that hostilities commenced, with Pakistan bombing several air fields, IN Ships 'Rajput' and 'Akshay' were leaving Vishakapatnam harbour when they obtained a sonar contact. They fired several depth charges and proceeded on their mission when there was no further evidence of a submarine's presence. Thereafter, a loud explosion of rattling windows panes off the Vishakapatnam beach was heard . The Pakistani submarine 'Ghazi' (a Tench class submarine obtained from the USA in 1964) had come to grief. |
| 3- December-1971 | Pakistan took the initiative of striking the airfields both in the East and the West. While the IAF carried out retaliatory air strikes in the West and shot the Pakistan Air Force (PAP) out of the skies. |
| 3- December-1971 | Indo-Pakistan war begins. On the same day National Emergency was declared by the President of India due to war between both the countries. |
| 3- December-1971 | Third Pakistani aggression begins with air attacks on airports in the western sector; emergency declared. |