Biju Patnaik’s Bravery: From Stalingrad Victory to Indonesian Liberation

In the middle of major or minor brawls between India and Pakistan after the Pahalgam tragedy, one yesteryear warrior who seemed missing from the firmament of valour and individual guts was Biju Patnaik, the former Chief Minister of Odisha.

The erstwhile Soviet Union (now Russia) commemorated Biju Patnaik’s role, heaping praises and accolades on that one-man army in the early 1940s, for which his son, Naveen Patnaik, former Odisha Chief Minister, was invited by the Russian embassy in New Delhi to receive the honour.

Not one, but on several occasions, Biju Patnaik, an ace pilot with rare parallels, had demonstrated his dare-devilry that includes his commendable role played in the Stalingrad Battle as one of the few heroes behind Soviet Union’s victory in Stalingrad during the Second World War.

A man who was never a part of any military training, Biju Patnaik was a sheer battle genius who confronted and dodged uncountable skirmishes in the skies and could reach out to the target with armoury and other logistic replenishment.

An act of bravery that Russian history would record for centuries to come.

“Among the heroes we pay tribute to is your late father, Biju Patnaik ji, a valiant pilot of the Indian National Airways who participated in the Stalingrad Operation…. Late Biju Patnaik’s heroics on the Eastern Front during World War II, which is referred to as the Great Patriotic War in the Soviet Union” the Russian Ambassador to India, Denis Alipov, underscored.

The embassy is hosting the reception to mark the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War on May 9 in New Delhi.

Naveen Patnaik, while accepting the honour on behalf of his late father, seemed moved by Alipov’s words, that “among the heroes we pay tribute to is your late father, Biju Patnaik ji, a towering personality and a valiant pilot of the Indian National Airways who participated in the Stalingrad Operation, supplying weapons to the besieged Red Army.”

Be it in the Stalingrad Battle or several missions to Burma (now Myanmar), Biju Patnaik has left uncountable footprints of his heroics, including his role as a brave pilot in the Indo-China war in 1962. He undertook several missions to the border, braving all odds and virtually risking his life.

This had impressed the then Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, who had always chosen Biju Patnaik to be kept in his list of persons or patriots who mattered for India.

Experts hold the view that while remembering Biju Patnaik, historians should rise above political myopia and see him through the prism of a true nationalist.

In 1995, Russia decorated Biju Patnaik with the jubilee medal — 50th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945 — for his feat of bravery and courage.  

Unforgettable Feat

While remembering Biju Patnaik (who passed away in 1997), it would be a gross lapse if history fails to mention his unimaginable bravery in the Indonesian freedom struggle against the Dutch.

Studying the situation in Indonesia, Prime Minister Nehru thought it prudent to assign a very risky mission to Biju Patnaik, which the latter accomplished, stunning everyone.

He was on-board his Dakota aircraft, along with his wife Gyan Patnaik, and undertook the mission impossible to Jakarta. This raised many eyebrows as to how a man could risk his own wife in a kind of mission more dangerous than a military one.     

Nehru, who regarded Biju Babu as a most trusted friend, in July 1947, asked him to rescue Indonesian resistance fighters who were confronting Dutch colonial forces. The legendary leader flew a Dakota to Indonesia, and despite heavy “enemy” fire, successfully completed the mission.

They flew to Java, dodging the Dutch guns on land and sea, he intruded into Indonesian airspace and landed on an improvised airstrip near Jakarta.

Using left-over fuel from abandoned Japanese military dumps, Biju Patnaik took off with prominent rebels, including Sultan Sjahrir and Achmad Sukarno, for a secret meeting with Nehru in New Delhi on a Douglas C-47 (Dakota) military aircraft that reached India via Singapore on July 24, 1947.

For this act of bravery, he was conferred the title‘Bhumiputra’ in Indonesia, a rare honour conferred to any outsider.   

The writer is a freelance journalist based in Odisha with over 40 years of experience in the profession.