The Group Captain Who Outlasted the Air Chief

Looking at the date today, 15 July, threw up a rare anomaly in the early history of the Indian Air Force.

On this day in 1973, Group Captain Hiranand Nandiram Mansukhani retired from the IAF. He had been commissioned nearly 34 years earlier, on 17 November 1939, and was the last officer from the pioneering November 1939 intake to remain in uniform.

That, however, was not the anomaly.

One of his coursemates, Air Chief Marshal Pratap Chandra Lal, had retired six months earlier, on 15 January 1973.

The first wartime intake

The group is commonly remembered as the No. 1 Pilots Course, although the surviving records distinguish between 14 officers commissioned as pilots and another seven commissioned as observers. Together, they formed the first substantial intake of the newly activated Indian Air Force Volunteer Reserve during November 1939.

Several of the observers subsequently earned their pilot wings. P. C. Lal was one of them. Two others were the brothers Ramaswami Rajaram and Ramaswami Sitaram.

Rajaram rose to the rank of Air Marshal and died in service in June 1969 while serving as Vice Chief of the Air Staff. He had earlier been Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Air Command. Sitaram retired as an Air Commodore.

Across the 21 pilots and observers, four officers eventually reached air rank: Air Chief Marshal P. C. Lal, Air Marshal R. Rajaram, Air Vice Marshal K. L. Sondhi and Air Commodore R. Sitaram.

Ordinarily, one would expect the officer who became Chief to be the final member of his course to retire. In Lal’s case, this was true of every other coursemate except Mansukhani.

The unusual IAF career of H. N. Mansukhani

Mansukhani had been commissioned directly into the flying branch as a pilot. His early service included postings to Nos. 4 and 6 Coastal Defence Flights at Drigh Road.

The Coastal Defence Flights had been created as an expedient wartime arrangement to patrol India’s coastline and protect its ports. By the middle of 1942, they were being wound down or absorbed into regular IAF squadrons.

On 26 July 1942, Mansukhani transferred from the General Duties (Pilot), or GD(P), Branch to the Administrative and Special Duties Branch, commonly abbreviated as A&SD. In present-day IAF nomenclature, this would broadly correspond to the Administration Branch.

The move did not last long.

On 8 December 1942, he transferred back to the GD(P) Branch. No. 6 Squadron had been formed a week earlier under Sqn Ldr Mehar Singh, and Mansukhani became its first ‘B’ Flight Commander in the rank of Flight Lieutenant.

Yet the reversal was itself temporary. The Gazette record indicates that on 20 May 1943, Mansukhani once again transferred to A&SD, returning to the ground-duty stream. His eventual service classification was Administration, while retaining the record of his original commissioning as a pilot.

A rare return to the Air Force

Another unusual turn followed after the war.

On 23 August 1946, Flt Lt Mansukhani left the IAF under a Class B release. This formed part of the larger post-war demobilisation, under which some officers were released with the possibility of absorption into civilian departments of the government.

Then, on 31 March 1948, he rejoined the Indian Air Force.

Such a return after formal release was distinctly uncommon. Among the records of early IAF officers that I have examined, I have encountered barely two or three comparable cases.

Whether Partition and the requirements of the newly independent Indian Air Force caused a change of mind is not presently known. By June 1948, however, Mansukhani was serving as a Squadron Leader in the Manning section at Air Headquarters.

I then lose sight of much of the middle of his career. The available appointment record places him at Air Headquarters until April 1959 and subsequently at No. 2 Wing, Lohegaon. The trail becomes clearer again in 1967.

On 17 April 1967, Mansukhani took over as Station Commander of Air Force Station New Delhi at Race Course. He became an acting Group Captain the following day and was promoted to substantive Group Captain on 1 October 1968.

He handed over command of the station in January 1970 and was posted as Commanding Officer of No. 23 Equipment Depot at Avadi. He remained there until June 1972.

He finally retired on 15 July 1973, just over a fortnight before his 53rd birthday.

How did a Group Captain retire after the Chief?

Three circumstances made this possible.

The extraordinary spread of ages

The November 1939 intake had not been assembled like a standardised flying course of a later period. The IAF was still a fledgling Service, the Second World War had just begun, and the newly launched IAF Volunteer Reserve had to find suitable officers quickly.

Volunteers arrived from different parts of India and from widely differing educational, professional and social backgrounds. Some already held civilian flying licences. Consequently, there was no narrow or uniform age band.

Among the 21 pilots and observers, the oldest had been born in 1900 and the youngest in 1920.

P. C. Lal was born on 6 December 1916. Mansukhani, born on 31 July 1920, was the youngest officer of the intake. He was barely 19 when commissioned.

Mansukhani reached Group Captain

Age alone would not have produced the anomaly.

Many officers of Mansukhani’s generation left the Service as Squadron Leaders or Wing Commanders. Promotion to substantive Group Captain was considerably less common and allowed an officer to continue serving for longer.

Mansukhani became a substantive Group Captain in October 1968. Without that promotion, his younger age would probably not have been enough to keep him in uniform beyond Lal’s retirement.

The retirement age had changed

Retirement rules had also evolved during the intervening decades. Through much of the 1950s and early 1960s, it was unusual for Group Captains to remain in service beyond the age of 50. By the end of the 1960s, the applicable age had risen to 53.

This kept Mansukhani within the service window until July 1973.

The final overlap

The result was an extraordinary overlap during the 1971 War.

Air Chief Marshal P. C. Lal was leading the Indian Air Force through its most consequential campaign. His coursemate, Gp Capt H. N. Mansukhani, was commanding No. 23 Equipment Depot at Avadi.

Lal retired on 15 January 1973. Mansukhani followed on 15 July.

The outcome was the product of several circumstances coming together: the wide age spread of the first wartime intake, Mansukhani’s movement between the flying and A&SD branches, his rare return after release, his eventual promotion to Group Captain and the changing retirement rules of the Service.

More than anything else, the episode reflects the way the early Air Force had come together. Its first wartime officers entered through improvised arrangements, at very different ages and from widely varied backgrounds. Their careers did not follow the standardised paths that later generations would recognise. Mansukhani remaining in service after the Chief was one small consequence of those unusual beginnings.