Lost Memories of INS Khukri (1958 -1971)

INS Khukri was a British Type 14 (Blackwood) frigate of the Indian Navy. She was sunk off the coast of Diu, Gujarat, India by the Pakistan Navy Daphne class submarine Hangor on 9 December 1971 during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. This was the first warship sunk in action by a submarine since World War II. It remains the Indian navy's only warship to be lost in war to date.The sinking of the INS Khukri which was the only warship ever lost by the Indian Navy continues to haunt the minds of naval war planners even today. Perhaps there was a certain amount of overconfidence that crept into the psyche of the Indian Navy after the sinking of the Pakistani submarine Ghazi and the devastating attacks on Karachi, which may have played a major part in the events that lead to the loss of the ill fated Type 14 ASW Frigate. This was the only instance where the otherwise highly effective planning and tactics of the Indian Navy like those used to sink the Ghazi and for the Karachi attacks, did not come into play.

Incident

After the beginning of hostilities on 3 December 1971, Indian Naval radio detection equipment identified a submarine lurking in the vicinity of Diu harbour about 35 miles south-west of the port of Diu. The 14 Frigate Squadron of the Western Fleet was dispatched on a hunter-killer mission to destroy the submarine. The 14 Frigate Squadron normally consisted of three ships Khukri, Kirpan and Kuthar (all named after types of dagger). But only two were involved in the incident as Kuthar's boiler room was being repaired in Bombay. One reason that may have prompted the decision to deploy two obsolete Blackwood class frigates against a modern Daphne class submarine was that the Indian Navy lacked sufficient numbers of airborne anti-submarine planes. In the early hours of December 9, Hangor picked up two sonar contacts in the area.

The sonar and radar transmissions identified them as warships but Hangor failed to intercept them and lost contact when the range increased. The submarine sighted the Squadron on the evening of 9 December. Khukri was still not aware of the submarine's presence and continued doing slow speed on a steady course because she was testing an improved version of the 170/174 sonar, which required a slow speed to increase detection, despite the fact that moving on slow speed was against Indian anti-submarine doctrine. At 19:57 hrs Hangor fired a homing torpedo on a sonar approach at Kirpan. The torpedo failed to explode and was detected by Kirpan which turned away and fired anti-submarine mortars.

Khukri increased its speed and turned towards the submarine, which then fired a second torpedo directed at Khukri. The torpedo struck Khukri and exploded after 5 minutes under its oil tanks. According to the Pakistani submarine captain, Commander (later Vice Admiral) Ahmed Tasnim the ship sank within two minutes. sources claim that Khukri was struck by three torpedoes before going down. After a few minutes, Kirpan turned back to attack Hangor with depth charges, as the anti-submarine mortars of Kirpan had broken down. Hangor then fired another torpedo at Kirpan before turning away and exiting at maximum speed. Kirpan outran the torpedo and returned later with another ship, INS Katchal, to rescue the survivors from Khukri.

Casualties

To date, INS Khukri is the only ship lost in the history of the Indian Navy. Over 18 officers and 176 sailors were lost in the sinking.The captain, Mahendra Nath Mulla, choose to go down with the sinking ship. He refused to abandon ship, and passed his life-jacket to a junior officer. He has remained so far the only Indian captain to go down with a vessel to his watery grave. He was posthumously awarded India's second-highest military honour, the Maha Vir Chakra.A memorial to the dead sailors exists at Diu. 20°42′10″N 70°58′37″E / 20.70278°N 70.97694°E / 20.70278; 70.97694 The memorial constitutes a full-scale model of INS Khukri encased in a glass house, placed atop a hillock facing the sea. The memorial was inaugurated by Vice Admiral Madhvendra Singh as the flag officer commanding-in-chief.

CAREER

Name: INS Khukri
Namesake: khukri
Builder: J. Samuel White, Cowes
Laid down: 29 December 1955
Launched: 20 November 1956
Commissioned: 16 July 1958
Fate: Torpedoed and sunk by Pakistani submarine Hangor on 9 December 1971

GENERAL CHARACTERSTIC

Class and type: Type 14 (Blackwood) frigate
Type: Frigate Displacement: 1,180 tons (1,456 tonnes) full load
Length: 300 ft (91 m)pp 310 ft (94 m)oa
Beam: 33 ft (10 m)
Draught: 15.5 ft (4.7 m)
Propulsion: Y-100 plant; 2 x Babcock & Wilcox boilers, steam turbines on 1 shaft, 15,000 shp (11 MW)
Speed: 27.8 knots (51 km/h)maximum, 24.5 knots (45 km/h) sustained
Range: 5,200 nautical miles (9,630 km) at 12 knots (22 km/h)
Complement: 150

Sensors and processing systems

Radar Type 974 navigation Sonar Type 174 search Sonar Type 162 target classification Sonar Type 170 targeting

Armament

3 x 40 mm Bofors gun Mark 7 (quarterdeck mount later removed) 2 x Limbo Mark 10 A/S mortars

( Credits - Deepak Rai with Wikipedia)