While strategic dedicated bombers were extensively used during the Second World Wars and their use heightened during the Cold War but today bombers are not used to that extent. This is the result of the development in missile technology, particularly cruise missiles. While the USA and Russia, do still posses a strong fleet of bombers, other Air Forces do not have them. Today not many countries produce dedicated bombers and many were also destroyed under peace treaties.
The dedicated bombers are now being replaced by fighter bombers and IAF also have gone the same way. The Mirage 2000 and the Jaguars perform that role for it but today we look back to the 1940s when India had just got its Independence. The need of dedicated bombers was very much there at that time and sadly IAF had none. This is the tale of how the IAF was able to bring back from the dead the B-24s.
The need for bombers was felt badly during the 1948 war and the B-25s offered by the USA nor the Lancasters the attention as drawn to a large number of Consolidated B-24 Liberators, which was abandoned by the British after the end of the second World War at Chakeri airfield, Kanpur. These bombers were not in an usable condition, as they were rendered unusable by the RAF when they left India. It was decided to check them out and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited was given the responsibility to try to salvage them.
HAL first had to transport them to its factory at Bangalore and so made repairs to them at Kanpur itself to make them airworthy. As no experienced pilot was available to fly them, the job fell to the Chief Test Pilot of HAL namely Jamshed Kaikobad (Jimmy) Munshi. He accepted the job but declined to accept any reward for it. A total of about 42 B-24s were flown to Bangalore and each one of them was fully repaired and put into service by HAL.
There B-24s entered into services with the IAF on the 2nd of November 1948 and served the IAF well. They were never used for any aggressive missions but were used to drop leaflets over Goa in 1961 and also for maritime patrol during 1965 war. They remained in active services till 1968, when they were retired from service. Thus, IAF became the last Air Force to operate them.
The tale of the B-24s, is a shining example to the hard work, competence and dedication of our Scientists and Engineers ad how they overcome glaring odds to ensure that the nation is not deprived of its needs.
My YouTube video on the topic:-
Twahir's Blog 