Showing posts with label submarine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label submarine. Show all posts

Thursday, 2 December 2021

A coward dies a thousand times, a valiant but once!

The Ghazi Attack (Hindi; 2017)
Director, Screenplay: Sankalp Reddy

The diesel-powered Pakistani submarine, PNS Ghazi, started life in the USA as USS Diablo, serving the US Navy between 1945 and 1964. It was decommissioned and downgraded in 1964. It was then loaned to Pakistan to beef up their defence as they were planning to start another conflict with their neighbour in 1965. In other words, it was a watered-down unmodernised submarine, having lost much of its killing prowess when Pakistan acquired it. Nevertheless, it was the first submarine in South Asia, and Pakistan was its proud owner. India received its first submarine, INS Kalvari, in 1967, a Soviet-made diesel one. The day Kalvari was acquired is called 'Submarine Day' - December 8.

1n 1965, as the Pakistani and Indian armies were concentrating on Kashmir, the Pakistani Navy decided to carry out a 'nuisance raid' on Dwarka, seeking to destroy radar installations and Indian vessels using its submarine PNS Ghazi. What actually was the outcome depends on whose version you hear. Whilst the Pakistanis boast of colossal damage to the Indian side, the Indian claimed to have lost only a single casualty, a cow. The shells missed their intended target. Probably reeling from their pre-independence stance of non-violence, the Indians decided not to retaliate.

Unrest started when East Pakistani political parties won the 1970 general elections. The Urdu-speaking West Pakistanis thought they were too high and mighty to be ruled by the dark-skinned Bengalis. Pakistani military marched into Dhaka to systematically suppress dissidence via Operation Searchlight. What followed can be equated to genocide.

PNS Ghazi
The West Pakistanis had to send supplies to their army in Dhaka. Unfortunately, sending supplies via land proved impossible as it involved cutting through India. The only feasible way to do that was by sea. Unfortunately for them, India had the East Naval Command, via its ports of Madras and Vaisakapattinam, controlled the Bay of Bengal and nicely blockaded entry to East Pakistan ports. They decided to attack and destroy India's modern aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant. Their other plan was to set mines in Visakhapatnam port. PNS Ghazi left Karachi on November 14 1971, for this mission. Five days, she was spotted around Sri Lanka was the Indian Navy was alerted. Unbeknownst to the Pakistani Navy, INS Vikrant had been sent off to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. In its place, an ageing WW2 vessel, INS Rajput, was masquerading.

The confusing radio signals from INS Rajput made Ghazi believe that INS Vikrant was indeed at Visakhapatnam. By November 27, Ghazi was planting underwater mines near the port. On December 4, a loud explosion was heard off the coast. A few days later, local fishermen found floating debris and remains of the submarine and its crew.

What followed afterwards was quite confusing. The Pakistanis alleged that they had lost communication with Ghazi after it entered the Bay of Bengal. They later said that Ghazi had accidentally entered its own minefield and had an accident. The Indian Navy, on the other hand, had asserted that Rajput had engaged two depth charges upon noticing water disturbances of the sudden plunging of the submarine. In essence, the Indian Navy said that it torpedoed Ghazi or at least ignited the mines causing Ghazi to hit the seabed!

What actually happened is anybody's guess. The Pakistani do not mind being labelled incompetent when they accidentally hit the mines they had laid out for the Indians. As long as they were not killed by their nemesis. The Indians, on their side, had destroyed all logs on the sinking of Ghazi.

Chief of Staff of the Indian Army General Jagjit Singh
Aurora and Lt. General AAK Niazi of the Pakistani
Army signed the papers on December 16, 1971, that
ended the war between the two countries and led to the
creation of Bangladesh.
Lately, somebody proposed the idea of a Russian submarine secretly patrolling the Indian waters as part of an Indo-Russian protection pact. The gunning down of Ghazi must have been by them. The Pakistanis think it is more honourable to be killed by a Caucasian power than to die in the hands of his brown brother!

With so many uncertainties surrounding the sinking of Ghazi, the filmmakers took the liberty, with much cinematic licence, to tell their version of what could have happened, with much drama and characters who carry their baggage to war. Instead of an aircraft carrier, the filmmakers decided to make it a one-on-one full-length feature film of underwater warfare, showcasing a clash of submarines between two nations. It is probably the first of such films coming out of India.

A good movie that helps to form the basis to read into the dealings surrounding the 1971 Indo-Pak war and Bangladeshi war of Independence.

Tuesday, 19 May 2020

Start a revolution from my bed?

Hunt for Red October (1990)

Many keyboard warriors are so convinced by what they see online. They fail to understand why others are so dumb (in their eyes, of course). To them, truth our there is as clear as day. And everyone else just ought to follow, no questions asked. What these modern warriors or influencers, as they are referred to these days, need to know is that sometimes we become too blinded with our beliefs that we fail to practice mindfulness. They should wear another hat and maybe a different colour lens, other than rose, to get a different perspective on things. A revolution cannot be started by an army of one. It begins with the revolution of the collective minds and hearts of the people. This change is difficult, more so in modern times, as we are so divided by ideologies, cultures, faiths and identity.

This film is based on Tom Clancy's 1984 novel which in turn was loosely based on Soviet Union's 1975 attempted mutiny aboard a warship. In the 1975 revolt, a brand-new Russian frigate, Storozhevoy, is hijacked by its Third Rank Captain, Valery Sablin. He was convinced that Leonid Brezhnev's Soviet Union had lost its original Leninist's visions. The system was plagued with corruption and lies. Sablin wanted to use the hijack as a political statement to stir the Russian to engage in its Second Revolution. His plan fell flat, and he and his fellow men were incarcerated.


Storozhevoy
In the book and the film version, the warship was changed to a spanking new state-of-art nuclear-powered radar-escaping submarine. A rogue Russian Captain uses the invincibility of the sub to defect to the USA. The problem is the US Navy does not know of his intention and are wary of the intrusion of a Russian submarine in international waters. At the same time, the Russian authorities realise the rogue Captain's plan. The Russians are at wit's end to stop the Americans from laying their hands on Russia's highly advanced submarine. 

The highly suspenseful drama describes how the US Navy manages to save the day. They help the Russian crew to defect, rescue the submarine and embarrass the Russian at their own game.

It is naive to believe that truth will always prevail in the end. Things in real life are much more convoluted than that. The power brokers, financiers, the leaders, big pharma companies and the media moguls have the final say of how history ought to be written. Poetic justice and honesty are left to pacify the romantics. It is the rule of the majority. Annoyance from the minority can be easily boomeranged back to the senders by the powers that be (spoiler alert). 





“Be afraid. Be very afraid.”*