IAF legend Jumbo Majumdar’s medals set for return to India

Wing Commander Karun Krishna 'Jumbo' Majumdar

The Indian Air Force (IAF) has purchased the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) and Bar awarded to Wing Commander Karun Krishna 'Jumbo' Majumdar from a London auction house.

Majumdar, widely referred to as the 'Father of the IAF', was born in Kolkata in 1913. Grandson of W C Bonnerjee, the first president of Indian National Congress, Majumdar was commissioned to No. 1 Squadron in the mid-1930s. Upon his promotion as squadron leader, he took over its reins in June 1941 at Miranshah, NWFP (now in Pakistan).

From there, the squadron was posted to the Toungoo airfield in Burma. The Japanese attacked the next day and destroyed a number of Allied installations and aircraft, but Majumdar's squadron remained unscathed. Jumbo immediately planned a retaliatory attack on Mae-Haungsan, from where the Japanese had taken off.

At the time, the Lysander had never been used for bombing. "The next day, when Majumdar took off in a solitary Lysander armed with two 250-lb bombs, the New Zealanders in the No.67 RAF Squadron who shared Toungoo, sent an escort of two Buffalo fighters in sheer admiration for the young Indian. He flew at a low level, almost skimming tree tops, to achieve complete surprise and dropped the bombs on a hangar, destroying it along with the aircraft inside," a senior officer said.

"The next day, Majumdar led his whole squadron in to bomb the airfield, destroying buildings, wireless stations and aircraft on the ground," the officer added. "Majumdar was awarded the DFC for his leadership of the squadron during the Burma Campaign, becoming the first Indian officer to be decorated with this award in World War II," the officer said.

Jumbo then served in Europe and received his Bar to the DFC for this service in January 1945. On February 17, 1945, Wing Commander Jumbo Majumdar was killed during an aerobatic sortie in a Hawker Hurricane.

"His DFC and Bar and other decorations were passed on to his son and subsequently sold to an auction house in London. After we came to know of this, efforts were made to purchase them. Retired IAF officer Air Marshal Anil Chopra also offered to spend his pension funds to get the medals back.

Finally, the IAF intervened and bought the decorations, barely a few days before they were to go under the hammer. They will be brought back to India and displayed at the Air Force Museum," the officer added.