Muhammad Mahmood Alam: Difference between revisions

{{Short description|Pakistani military leader}}

|native_name = {{Nastaliq|محمد محمود عالم}}  

Air Commodore '''Muhammad Mahmood Alam''' {{Small|[[Sitara-e-Jurat|SJ]]}} ({{lang-ur|{{Nastaliq|محمد محمود عالم}}}}; 6 July 1935&nbsp;– 18 March 2013) was<ref>''Dawn'' Newspaper, [http://dawn.com/2013/03/18/m-m-alam-passes-away-in-karachi/];</ref> a Pakistani fighter pilot officially credited by the [[Pakistan Air Force]] for having downed five [[Indian Air Force]] [[Hawker Hunter]] aircraft in 1 minute during the [[Indo-Pakistani War of 1965]] on 7 September 1965.<ref name="Werrell">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vDLVTNpmqCQC |title=Sabres Over MiG Alley: The F-86 and the Battle for Air Superiority in Korea |last=Werrell |first=Kenneth P.  |publisher=Naval Institute Press |year=2005 |isbn=9781591149330 |edition=illustrated |page=233}}</ref> These claims, however, have been widely contested by Indian Air Force and retired PAF Air Commodore Sajad S. Haider since the [[gun camera]] footage was never made public.

 

He was a [[North American F-86 Sabre|F-86 Sabre]] [[flying ace]] as per Pakistan Air Force records. He was awarded the [[Sitara-e-Jurat]], the nation's third highest military award with Bar for his actions.

During the [[Indo-Pakistani War of 1965]], Alam scored an [[Flying ace#Ace in a day|"ace in a day"]] on 7 September 1965, with a total of 5 kills. His actions have placed him at the top of the hall of fame list at the [[Pakistan Air Force]] (PAF) Museum in Karachi. During the war, he was posted at [[Sargodha]].

According to the PAF, in a single sortie on 7 September 1965, Alam downed five aircraft with four in less than a minute, establishing a world record.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.defencejournal.com/2001/september/alam.htm |title=Alam's Speed-shooting Classic |publisher=Defencejournal.com |last=Air Cdre M Kaiser Tufail |author-link=Air Cdre M Kaiser Tufail |access-date=15 November 2011}}</ref><ref name="Fricker">{{cite book|last=Fricker|first=John|title=Battle for Pakistan: the air war of 1965|year=1979|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RPttAAAAMAAJ |pages=15–17 |isbn=9780711009295}}</ref><ref name="Polmar">{{cite book|last1=Polmar|first1=Norman|title=One hundred years of world military aircraft|url=https://archive.org/details/unset0000unse_v6d0|url-access=registration|year=2003|publisher=Naval Institute Press|isbn=978-1-59114-686-5|page=[https://archive.org/details/unset0000unse_v6d0/page/354 354]|first2=Dana |last2=Bell|quote=Mohammed Mahmood Alam claimed five victories against Indian Air Force Hawker Hunters, four of them in less than one minute! Alam, who ended the conflict with 9 kills, became history's only jet "ace-in-a-day."}}</ref><ref name="Nordeen's Indo-Pak 1965 Conflict">{{cite book|last=O' Nordeen|first=Lon|title=Air Warfare in the Missile Age|url=https://archive.org/details/airwarfareinmiss00nord|url-access=registration|year=1985|publisher=Smithsonian Institution Press|location=Washington, D.C.|isbn=978-0-87474-680-8|pages=[https://archive.org/details/airwarfareinmiss00nord/page/84 84–87]}}</ref>  Regarding the last four, he stated: "Before we had completed more than about{{Sic|}} 270 degrees of turn, at around 12 degrees per second, all four Hunters had been shot down."<ref name="Fricker" /> In 1978, when he gave a speech at a Karachi university, he said that he saw a spiritual force coming from the sky.<ref name="Rakshak">[http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/History/1965War/Chapter5.html 30 Seconds Over Sargodha – The Making of a Myth: 1965 Indo-Pak Air War, Chapter 5] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100207194926/http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/History/1965War/Chapter5.html |date=7 February 2010 }}, [[Bharat Rakshak]]</ref>

His claims has been contested by the Indian Air Force, which denied losing five Hawker Hunter aircraft on the said day,<ref name="Nordeen's Indo-Pak 1965 Conflict"/> and others including retired [[Pakistan Air Force|PAF]] [[Air commodore|Air Commodore]] Sajad S. Haider.<ref name=avhist>''Pakistan's Sabre Ace'' by Jon Guttman, Aviation History, Sept 1998.</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/Flight_of_the_Falcon_Sajad_S_Haider|title=Flight of the Falcon- Demolishing Myths of Indo Pak Wars 1965-1971|last=Haider|first=Sajad S.|publisher=Vanguard Books Pvt Ltd.|year=2009|isbn=9789694025261|location=Lahore, Pakistan|pages=[https://archive.org/details/Flight_of_the_Falcon_Sajad_S_Haider/page/n4 69]|quote=<blockquote>It is tactically and mathematically very difficult to resurrect the incident in which all five Hunters in a hard turn were claimed to have been shot down in a 270-degree turn in 23 seconds.</blockquote>}}</ref> Also, the fact that no verifiable [[gun camera]] footage of his kills was ever made public by the Pakistani authorities, further discredits his claim.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bowman|first=Martin W.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jliqCwAAQBAJ&q=gun%20camera%20footage%20of%20Alam%20kill&pg=PT196|title=Cold War Jet Combat: Air-to-Air Jet Fighter Operations, 1950–1972|date=2016-01-30|publisher=Pen and Sword|isbn=978-1-4738-7462-6|language=en}}</ref>

{{Reflist|30em}}

[[Category:1935 births]]