The Sabre leader sounded very confident at this stage, despite facing odds of three-to-one deep in enemy territory. Yunus had broken off for the moment pursuing the No 2 Hunter, and like Rafiqui, had not jettisoned his drop tanks. These, however, were empty, and had little effect on manoeuvrability. Rafiqui positioned himself behind the first two Hunters and fired a short burst, only to experience the ultimate tragedy in combat of having his guns jam. To Choudhry's dismay, he heard his squadron commander on the radio: "Cecil, my guns have stopped firing, take over the lead".

In the poor visibility then prevailing, Rafiqui, could very easily have disengaged from the superior force of Hunters. This, of course would have meant leaving Yunus on his own. With no one to cover his tail a single aircraft is a sitting duck in a dog fight. As Choudhry moved forward into the lead, he called. "Four Hunters to the left and, two on the right, but your tail is clear." Rafiqui cknowledged as Choudhry turned behind the two right hand Hunters. The first, with its supeior acceleration, drew away but the second was hit by Choudhry, on its left wing, which started to stream smoke. It then straightened out, pulled up into a steep climb and Choudhry saw the pilot eject.

When Choudhry next looked around, he could see no other aircraft at all, and repeated calls to his other flight members brought no response. He could see one Hunter burning on the ground, and then suddenly became aware of gun flashes from another two Hunters firing at him while he was flying along at about 150-200 ft.

" I turned hard and dived at right angles to the Hunters, which were sandwiched between my Sabre and the ground. The leader flashed past underneath me, but his No 2 was too low to make it. His wing tip hit the ground, and he cartwheeled in a swath of flame. I pulled up, throttled back to idle, popped the speed brakes out and did a nosehigh full barrel roll, putting the flaps down in the process to get the speed down to about 120 knots. As I expected, a Hunter overshot in front of me, and when I pressed the trigger, it blew up in my face. I nearly flew through the fireball, but just about managed to stagger over it. There was still no sign of Rafiqui, but then I saw a Hunter and an F-86 manoeuvring around in classic scissors tactics, with the Sabre obviously gaining on the aircraft. I thought it must have been Rafiqui until I saw the Sabre roll over on its back and flame the Hunter with a beautifully aimed burst of fire. Yunus was one of the best shots in the PAF and I called him up and asked him if he had just got a Hunter".

Yunus: "Affirmative".
Choudhry: "Contact. Your tail is clear."
Yunus: "Let's get out of here".

As they began to exit in line abreast, Choudhry noticed that Yunus still had his droptanks on, and reminded him to jettison them. Nothing happened, and Choudhry was just in the process of asking about Rafiqui, when he saw two more Hunters diving towards them.

Choudhry: "Two Hunters, six o'clock high." Yunus: "Contact. Continue".

With the hunters, levelling out behind them,Choudhry called Yunus to break left but "for some unaccountable reason Yunus did something which he had always preached against, and broke upwards. It's very difficult to shoot down an-other aircraft at low altitude if you fight at the same level. He may of course have been hit, but in any case I saw him catch fire. The Hunter pulled up and the Sabre still appeared to be under control. I called Yunus two or three times and yelled at him to eject but the cockpit was a mass of flames.

"I pulled up behind the two Hunters and stayed below them in their blind spot. They were taking no evasive action, so I obviously hadn't been seen. Just as I was closing in, however, they suddenly broke violently away. I then saw two more Hunters behind me who had obviously warned the pair in front. I broke into the rear two, heading back into India. After a hasty look at my fuel state, however, which was none too healthy, I decided to get out."

"In my rear view mirror, I watched the lead Hunter pull up and weave from side to side, so he had obviously lost me. A minute or so later, I crossed the river Beas, so we had evidently been very close to Halwara. I found my way back to Lahore, then pulled up to about 20,000 ft to return to Sargodha. I expected to flame out about 20 miles short but I did't actually run out of fuel until I was on final approach to land, when I was ready for it. I could only claim two Hunters destroyed, as I had no proof about the one that had flown into the ground. But Rafiqui got at least one and I saw Yunus get another, apart from the first Hunters he pursued".

All the pilots on the Halwara raid (two posthumously) were awarded the Sitara-e-Jurat, which is roughly equivalent to the British Distinguished Flying Cross. For his selfless devotion to duty Rafiqui also received the posthumous award of Pakistan's second highest decoration for valour, the Hilal-e-Jurat. Exactly how Sarfraz Rafiqui met his end has never been established. This 30-year old fighter leader who had been born in East Pakistan, died, however, in the finest traditions of the PAF. A year younger than his leader, Yunus Hussain also provided an inspiration to the Pakistani people through his courage and determination against heavy odds.