PNS Ghazi
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- For the submarine named Ghazi, bought by the Pakistan Navy in 2000, see NRP Cachalote (S165)
PNS Ghazi (SS 479) was a United States-built submarine operating in the 1965 and 1971 wars between India and Pakistan. Originally USS Diablo, it was a long-range submarine that was leased for four years to Pakistan in 1963. The lease was renewed in 1967. It was Pakistan's first submarine and remained the flagship submarine for Pakistan Navy until it sank in 1971. It could carry up to 28 torpedoes and in later years was refitted in Turkey for minelaying capabilities. It was a significant threat in the 1965 Indo-Pakistani war. It won 10 awards including two decorations of Sitara-i-Jurat and the President's citations.
Ghazi was used in the Second Kashmir War in 1965 to attack only Indian Navy's Heavy ships or ships aiding Operation Dwarka. It fired 4 torpedoes on an A/A Frigate on 22 Sep 1965, which had come close to its patrol zone but did not measure a hit. Though Pakistan claims to have downed this, an Indian vessel INS Brahmaputra, the ship in question, however, was paraded virtually intact after the war which belied Pakistan's claims. After the war, the submarine was sent to Turkey for a $1.5 million refit in 1967-68. Her spares were to be provided from Turkish stocks.
Ghazi was expected to be a decisive weapon in the 1971 war. Sensing a deteriorating military scenario in East Pakistan, Pakistan Military decided to negate the threat posed by India's aircraft carrier INS Vikrant. On November 14, the Navy sent the submarine on a trip around the Indian peninsula from the Arabian Sea to the Bay of Bengal. Its objective was to mine the port of Vizag where the carrier along with other ships were harboured. What followed was a deadly game where both sides were on tenterhooks. Indians are reported to have nicknamed the Ghazi as "Kali" because it could have been destructive if it succeeded in its mission. Though patrols were sent to be on the lookout the submarine was not spotted. However, it turned out to be a case of hunter hunted when the submarine was sunk at around midnight on 3 December 1971 off the coast of Vishakapatnam, India, in a series of events still not entirely clear. The vessel sank with all 92 hands on on board. Its destruction allowed India to easily effect a naval blockade of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).
The Indian Navy claims that the submarine was sunk by two depth charges from the destroyer INS Rajput after it sighted Ghazi diving from periscope depth. Pakistan however has maintained that Ghazi sank when the mines it was laying were accidentally denotated. Another more plausible theory is that the explosive shock from one of the depth charges set off the torpedoes and mines (some of which may have been armed for laying) stored aboard the submarine.
The only information on the subject from an independent source comes from an Egyptian naval officer serving at that time on an Egyptian submarine under refit in Visakhapatnam harbour. He has confirmed the occurrence of a "big explosion" in the vicinity of the harbour "around late night". So powerful was the explosion that rocked the harbour, according to this officer, that some of the shores supporting the submarine in the graving dock, where she was docked, fell off. There were no naval ships, as reported by this officer, outside the harbour at that time and it was not until about an hour after the explosion that two Indian naval ships were observed leaving harbour.
Following this both the Americans and the Soviets offered to raise the submarine to the surface at their own expense. The Government of India, however, rejected these offers and allowed the submarine to sink into the mud off the fairway buoy of Vishakapatham, where it still lies buried under the muddy waters. However, some items of the ship like the log book, and official Pakistani tapes were later displayed in India's Eastern Naval Command.[1]
The sinking of the Ghazi was unique in the annals of Naval warfare, becoming the first submarine casualty in the waters around the Indian subcontinent.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
B. Harry (2001). "The Sinking of the Ghazi." Bharat Rakshak Monitor, 4(2).
