Squadron Leader Squadron leader (Sqn Ldr in the RAF ; SQNLDR in the RAAF and RNZAF; formerly sometimes S/L in all services) is a commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence. It is also ...

Ajjamada Boppayya Devayya MVC is the only

Indian Air Force The Indian Air Force (IAF) is the air arm of the Indian Armed Forces. Its complement of personnel and aircraft assets ranks third amongst the air forces of the world. Its primary mission is to secure Indian airspace and to conduct aerial w ...

Officer to be posthumously awarded the

Maha Vir Chakra The Maha Vir Chakra (MVC) () is the second highest military decoration in India, after the Param Vir Chakra, and is awarded for acts of conspicuous gallantry in the presence of the enemy, whether on land, at sea or in the air. It replaced the B ...

(MVC). The Maha Vir Chakra is the second highest wartime gallantry award and is less in precedence only to the

Param Vir Chakra The Param Vir Chakra (PVC) is India's highest military decoration, awarded for displaying distinguished acts of valour during wartime. Param Vir Chakra translates as the "Wheel of the Ultimate Brave", and the award is granted for "most conspicu ...

. During the

1965 India-Pakistan War The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 or the Second Kashmir War was a culmination of skirmishes that took place between April 1965 and September 1965 between Pakistan and India. The conflict began following Pakistan's Operation Gibraltar, which was d ...

, Sqn Ldr A B Devayya (called 'Wings of Fire') was part of a strike mission (on the Pakistani airbase

Sargodha Sargodha ( Punjabi and ur, ) is a city and capital of Sargodha Division, located in Punjab province, Pakistan. It is Pakistan's 12th largest city by population and one of the fastest-growing cities of the country. Sargodha is also known as ...

) when he was attacked by an enemy aircraft. He shot down the enemy pursuer's plane but in the process his aircraft was damaged and he went missing. Presumably he died in Pakistani territory. 23 years later, in 1988, he was posthumously awarded the retrospective MVC award for this feat in the 1965 conflict.

Biography

Devayya was born on 24 December 1932, at Coorg, Karnataka. He was the son of Dr. Bopayya. In 1954 he was commissioned into the

as a pilot. During the outbreak of the 1965 war, he was an instructor at the Air Force Flying College. He was posted to No.1 "Tigers" Squadron and flew the Mystere IVa fighter bomber. As a senior flying instructor, Squadron Leader Devayya was part of an aircraft strike mission which went to

airfield in

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

. Despite actually being a standby in case one of the first 12 aircraft dropped out, he joined the air battle. Devayya was intercepted by a PAF

F-104 Starfighter The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter is an American single-engine, supersonic air superiority fighter which was extensively deployed as a fighter-bomber during the Cold War. Created as a day fighter by Lockheed as one of the "Century Series" of fi ...

flown by Pakistani pilot Flt. Lt. Amjad Hussain. Devayya successfully evaded the Starfighter's attacks. But the faster aircraft caught up with him and damaged his plane. Yet Devayya attacked the Starfighter and struck it. The Starfighter went down while the pilot Hussain ejected from his seat and parachuted. It is not known what happened to Devayya. The IAF Mysteres were short on fuel and efficiency. The Mystere aircraft was destroyed and it is assumed that Devayya died on Pakistani soil.

Aftermath

The IAF was not aware of what had happened to Devayya, first recording him missing and later declaring him dead. Later, a British writer, John Fricker, was commissioned by the Pakistani Air Force to write an account of the war derived from Pakistani sources in 1979. What led to Devayya's actual death still remains a mystery. It was revealed much later by Pakistan that Devayya's body was found almost intact by villagers not very far from Sargodha and buried. From Fricker's work, the IAF realised what had truly happened and in 1988 announced that the

was to be awarded to Devayya posthumously. This is the only posthumous Maha Vir Chakra that the IAF has received. Mrs. Devayya accepted the posthumous Maha Vir Chakra awarded to her husband in 1988, nearly 23 years after the war. On 7 September 2009, the private bus stand circle in

Madikeri Madikeri is a hill station town in Madikeri taluk and headquarters of Kodagu district in Karnataka, India. Etymology Madikeri was known as ''Muddu Raja Keri'', which meant Mudduraja's town, was named after the prominent Haleri king Muddura ...

Kodagu Kodagu (also known by its former name Coorg) is an administrative district in the Karnataka state of India. Before 1956, it was an administratively separate Coorg State, at which point it was merged into an enlarged Mysore State. It occupies ...

was named after him.

References

External links

Tigers Over Sargodha
{{DEFAULTSORT:Devaiah, Ajjamada B 1932 births 1960s missing person cases 1965 deaths Aviators killed by being shot down Indian Air Force officers Indian aviators Indian military personnel killed in action Kodava people Missing person cases in Pakistan People from Kodagu district Pilots of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 Recipients of the Maha Vir Chakra

Biography

Aftermath

See also

References

External links