Muhammad Mahmood Alam

Air Commodore Muhammad Mahmood Alam SJ & Bar^{[note 1]} SI(M) (Bengali: মহম্মদ মাহমুদ আলম; Urdu: محمد محمود عالم; 6 July 1935 – 18 March 2013), popularly known as M. M. Alam, was a Bengali-Pakistani fighter pilot and war hero, officially credited by the Pakistan Air Force with having downed five Indian fighter aircraft in under a minute and establishing a world record during the 1965 Indo-Pak War.^[2]

Air Commodore M.M. Alam Sitara-e-Jurat & Bar[note 1] SJ & Bar[note 1] SI(M)
Muhammad Mahmood Alam in 2010
Nickname(s)	M. M. Alam, Little Dragon
Born	(1935-07-06)6 July 1935 Calcutta, Bengal, British India (present-day, Kolkata, West Bengal, India)
Died	18 March 2013(2013-03-18) (aged 77) Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan
Allegiance	Pakistan
Service/branch	Pakistan Air Force
Years of service	1953–1982
Rank	Air commodore
Service number	Pak/1492
Unit	No. 11 Squadron Arrows (1965)^[1] No. 5 Squadron Falcons
Battles/wars	Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 Soviet–Afghan War
Awards	Sitara-e-Jurat & Bar[note 1] Sitara-e-Imtiaz (Military)

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

Early life

Alam was born on 6 July 1935 to an ethnic Muhajir Muslim family hailing from Calcutta, Bengal, British India. Born and raised in Bengal, Alam was a fluent Bengali speaker, it being his mother tongue. He was of mixed heritage: his maternal line was of Bengali origin and his paternal line was of Bihari origin, having migrated from Patna and later settled in the Bengal province of British India for a long time.^[3] His family migrated from Calcutta to East Bengal (which later became East Pakistan) following the creation of Pakistan in 1947.^[3] It was in East Pakistan where Alam completed his secondary education, graduating from the Government High School in Dhaka in 1951. He joined the then Royal Pakistani Air Force (now Pakistan Air Force) in 1952, being commissioned on 2 October 1953.^[4] Alam's brothers are M. Shahid Alam, an economist and a professor at Northeastern University,^[5][6] and M. Sajjad Alam, who was a particle physicist at SUNY Albany.^[7]

His family moved to West Pakistan in 1971, after the Bangladesh Liberation War in erstwhile East Pakistan.^[3] Being the eldest of his 11 siblings, Alam did not marry as he had to assume the responsibilities of the upbringing of his family.^{[citation needed]} Some of his younger brothers became distinguished in various academic careers.^[4]

Service with the Pakistan Air Force

Indo-Pakistani War of 1965

 

MM Alam poses with his F-86 Sabre. Indian Flags as kill marks visible on the nose of the sabre. Large flags mean confirmed kills whole smaller ones refer to probable or damaged.

During the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, Alam was posted at Sargodha with No. 11 Squadron PAF.

According to the PAF and eyewitness accounts, in a single sortie on 7 September 1965, Alam downed five aircraft in less than a minute, it was claimed that he had downed 7 Hunters, but 2 of which were 'probable' kills.^{[8][9][10][11][12]} Regarding his last four claims, Alam stated that while before he had completed "270 degrees of turn, at around 12 degrees per second ... four Hunters had been shot down."^[10] With five claims on 7 September, Alam also effectively claimed to have achieved "ace in a day" status, in world record time.

Alam's claims have been contested by retired PAF Air Commodore Sajad S. Haider, of which the context, is a rivalry between Alam and Haider. The Indian Air Force, denied losing five Hawker Hunter aircraft on 7 September.^[12][13] In a 2009 memoir, Haider wrote that it was "tactically and mathematically very difficult" to reconstruct the downing of "five Hunters in a hard ... 270-degree turn in 23 seconds."^[14] The fact that no verifiable gun camera footage of his kills was ever made public by the Pakistani authorities further casts doubt on his claim.^[15]

The action of 7 September 1965 resulted in Alam being placed at the top of a Hall Of Fame list at the Pakistan Air Force Museum in Karachi.

Later years

In 1967, he was appointed Squadron Commander of the first squadron of Dassault Mirage III fighters procured by the PAF. In 1982, he retired as an Air commodore and took up residence in Karachi.

Death

Alam was admitted to Pakistan Naval Station Shifa Hospital in Karachi where he died on 18 March 2013, aged 77.^[16] He was being treated for respiratory problems for 18 months. Alam's funeral prayer was performed at the PAF Base Masroor, where he served some of the significant years of his career. Alam was buried at the Shuhuda (Martyrs) Graveyard, located at PAF Masroor Airbase. Air Chief Marshal Tahir Rafique Butt, Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad, Air Chief Marshal (Ret.) Farooq Feroze Khan, Sindh corps commander Lt. Gen Ijaz Chaudhry, Pakistan Rangers (Sindh) Director-General Maj. Gen. Rizwan Akhtar, Base Commander PAF Base Masroor Air Commodore Usaid ur Rehman, many war veterans of the 1965 war and Alam's closest colleagues attended the funeral. One of the younger brothers of the deceased, Zubair Alam, was also present.^[4]

Memorials

M. M. Alam Road, a major road in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan is named in honour of the flying ace of Pakistan Air Force, Air Commodore Muhammad Mahmood Alam, running from Main Market to Gulberg. The road runs parallel to famous Main Boulevard thus providing an alternate route and is a commercial hub with many restaurants, fashion boutiques, shopping malls, beauty saloons and décor stores. M.M. Alam Road hosts a variety of flamboyant restaurants in modern Lahore.^[17] On 20 March 2014, on account of his first death anniversary, the PAF Airbase Mianwali was renamed after him as PAF Base M.M. Alam.^{[18][19][20][21]}

Awards and decorations

Sitara-e-Jurat & Bar^[note 1] (Star of Courage) 1. 1965 War 2. 1971 War		Sitara-e-Imtiaz (Military) (Star of Excellence)
Tamgha-e-Diffa (General Service Medal) 1. 1965 War Clasp 2. 1971 War Clasp	Sitara-e-Harb 1965 War (War Star 1965)	Sitara-e-Harb 1971 War (War Star 1971)	Tamgha-e-Jang 1965 War (War Medal 1965)
Tamgha-e-Jang 1971 War (War Medal 1971)	Tamgha-e-Sad Saala Jashan-e- Wiladat-e-Quaid-e-Azam (100th Birth Anniversary of Muhammad Ali Jinnah) 1976	Tamgha-e-Jamhuria (Republic Commemoration Medal) 1956	Hijri Tamgha (Hijri Medal) 1979

See also

• Aviators who became ace in a day
• 8-Pass Charlie
• Saiful Azam
• Manuel J. Fernandez

Notes

1. "Bar" refers to a second award of the same honour

References

1. "Events – M M Alam's F-86". Pakistan: Pakistan Air Force (official website). Retrieved 5 March 2010.
2. Dawn Newspaper, [1];
3. "Knowing MM Alam". The Nation. 6 September 2013. Retrieved 8 September 2014.
4. Iconic war veteran MM Alam passes away, The News International. Retrieved on 19 March 2013.
5. Institute for Policy Research & Development, Advisory Board 4 April 2019 at the Wayback Machine; Dr. M. Shahid Alam 4 April 2019 at the Wayback Machine
6. Cihan Aksan, State of Nature, On Islam: An Interview with M. Shahid Alam
7. Department of Physics, M. Sajjad Alam.
8. Iqbal, Arif. . PAKISTAN INSTITUTE FOR AIR DEFENCE STUDIES. Archived from the original on 30 April 2003. Retrieved 13 May 2023.
9. Air Cdre M Kaiser Tufail. "Alam's Speed-shooting Classic". Defencejournal.com. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
10. Fricker, John (1979). Battle for Pakistan: the air war of 1965. pp. 15–17. ISBN 9780711009295.
11. Polmar, Norman; Bell, Dana (2003). One hundred years of world military aircraft. Naval Institute Press. p. 354. ISBN 978-1-59114-686-5. 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."
12. O' Nordeen, Lon (1985). Air Warfare in the Missile Age. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press. pp. 84–87. ISBN 978-0-87474-680-8.
13. Pakistan's Sabre Ace by Jon Guttman, Aviation History, Sept 1998.
14. Haider, Sajad S. (2009). Flight of the Falcon- Demolishing Myths of Indo Pak Wars 1965-1971. Lahore, Pakistan: Vanguard Books Pvt Ltd. pp. 69. ISBN 9789694025261.
15. Bowman, Martin W. (30 January 2016). Cold War Jet Combat: Air-to-Air Jet Fighter Operations, 1950–1972. Pen and Sword. ISBN 978-1-4738-7462-6.
16. M. M. Alam passes away in Karachi, Dawn (newspaper). Retrieved on 19 March 2013.
17. Haq, Shahram (11 December 2010). "Urban planning: MM Alam Road to be heart of new business district – The Express Tribune". Tribune.com.pk. Retrieved 20 January 2012.
18. "Pakistan not sending troops to Bahrain or Saudi: PM". Dawn. 20 March 2014. Retrieved 20 March 2014.
19. Web Desk (27 February 2014). "PAF honours ace pilot MM Alam, renames Mianwali air base after him – The Express Tribune". Tribune.com.pk. Retrieved 21 March 2014.
20. Imaduddin. "PAF Mianwali Base renamed as M.M. Alam Airbase". Brecorder.com. Retrieved 21 March 2014.
21. "PM Nawaz Sharif names PAF base Mianwali after MM Alam". The News Tribe. Retrieved 21 March 2014.

Further reading

• – Government of Pakistan
• "Laying the Sargodha Ghost to rest." Vayu Aerospace Review. November 1985