Nilakanta Krishnan | |
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Born | (1919-06-08)8 June 1919[1] Nagercoil,Madras State (nowTamil Nadu), British India |
Died | 30 January 1982(1982-01-30) (aged 62)[2] Hyderabad,Andhra Pradesh,[2] India |
Allegiance | ![]() ![]() |
Service | ![]() ![]() |
Years of service | 1938–1976 |
Rank | ![]() |
Commands | Eastern Naval Command Western Naval Command INS Vikrant INS Delhi INS Tir |
Battles / wars | |
Awards | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Other work | Chairman and Managing Director,Cochin Shipyard Limited |
Vice AdmiralNilakanta Krishnan,PVSM,DSC (8 June 1919 – 30 January 1982), was a former flag officer in theIndian Navy. He was theFlag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Eastern Naval Command during the1971 Indo-Pakistani War.
Born in aTamil Brahmin family inNagercoil, Krishnan joined theTraining Ship Dufferin in 1935, where his batchmate wasJal Cursetji. After training on various ships of theRoyal Navy, he was posted to thesurvey ship HMISInvestigator. During theAnglo-Soviet invasion of Iran in August 1941, Krishnan boarded and captured an Iranian gunboat after a firefight. For this action, he was awarded theDistinguished Service Cross, the first awarded to the Royal Indian Navy.
Following theIndependence of India, Krishnan served as Staff Officer Plans and later as Director of Naval Plans and Intelligence at Naval headquarters. He subsequently attended theJoint Services Staff College, Latimer and appointed Deputy Naval Advisor atHigh Commission of India in London. In 1951, he returned to India and commanded the 31st minesweeping squadron and subsequently thetraining shipINS Tir, which represented India at theCoronation review of the fleet. Krishnan subsequently served as the Director of Personnel Services at NHQ and Deputy Secretary (Military Wing) in theCabinet Secretariat. Krishnan then commandedINS Delhi during theAnnexation of Goa and the Navy's Engineering CollegeINS Shivaji. In 1963, he took over as the secondcommanding officer of theaircraft carrierINS Vikrant. After attending theImperial Defence College in 1965, he took over as the Naval advisor to theHigh Commissioner of India to the United Kingdom.
Promoted to flag rank in 1967, Krishnan was appointed the secondVice Chief of the Naval Staff. He subsequently commanded theWestern Naval Command and then theEastern Naval Command. He is credited with using a very innovative strategy, while commanding theEastern Navy which had theaircraft carrierINS Vikrant, in theBay of Bengal. He is believed to have tricked the Pakistani submarinePNS Ghazi, which was on a search and destroy mission, into enteringVisakhapatnam; where it was eliminated.[3] He was present at theRamna Race Course when thePakistani Instrument of Surrender was signed by Lieutenant GeneralA. A. K. Niazi. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian award apart from the Param Vishisht Seva Medal.
Krishnan was born into aTamil BrahminIyer family based inNagercoil. He was the youngest son ofRao Bahadur Mahadeva Nilakanta Ayyar, an Executive Engineer.[4] He went on to serve as theSuperintending engineer ofMadras Presidency.[5] While his eldest brother,Nilakanta Mahadeva Ayyar pursued his career in theIndian Civil Service, Krishnan joined theRoyal Indian Navy. Krishnan's other brothers included Nilakanta Ganapathy Iyer and Nilakanta Anjaneya Subramanian. NA Subramanian was a Constitutional lawyer and a professor atMadras Law College and author of the book Case Law on the Indian Constitution. The third of five brothers was Dr Nilakanta Sitaraman, aFellow of the Royal College of Physicians and a prominent doctor in their hometownNagercoil and the neighboring area.[6]
In 1935, Krishnan was successful in the entrance examination and joined the Indian Mercantile Marine Training Ship (IMMTS)Dufferin. After two years, he topped the class in the examination for entry into the Navy. He was one of the two cadets who were successful and joined theRoyal Indian Navy - the other beingJal Cursetji.[7]
Krishnan embarked for the United Kingdom and joined themonitorHMS Erebus. Subsequently, he trained on board theHawkins-class cruiserHMS Vindictive. In late 1938, after the end of his training, he was promoted to the rank ofmidshipman and posted toHMS Foxhound, a part of the8th Destroyer Flotilla.[8]
In 1939, Krishnan was serving on theFoxhound during the outbreak ofWorld War II. In late 1939, he was transferred to theCounty-class cruiserHMS Suffolk, which was a part of theNorthern Patrol.[9] He served on board the Suffolk when she participated in theNorwegian Campaign. In April 1940, the ship arrived atTórshavn to commence the British pre-emptive occupation of theFaroe Islands and she sank the Germantanker Skagerrak northwest ofBodø, Norway. Later in the month,Suffolk and four destroyers,HMS Kipling,HMS Juno,HMS Janus andHMS Hereward, were sent to bombard the airfield at Sola, Norway. The operation had little effect and the retaliation from German bombers severely damaged the aft of the ship, forcing her to return toScapa Flow. He was subsequently transferred to theRenown-class battlecruiserHMS Repulse.[10]
Krishnan was promoted to the rank ofActing Sub-Lieutenant in theRoyal Indian Navy on 1 September 1940 and underwent training atPortsmouth.[11] He served in the United Kingdom during theBattle of Britain.[10] On 20 January 1941, he joined thesurvey shipHMIS Investigator. The ship left Bombay and was assigned patrolling duty off the coast of Iraq. AtBasra, he was given command of atugboat which acted as atender to theGrimsby-class sloopHMAS Yarra (U77).[12][13]
In August 1941,Britain and the Soviet Union invaded Iran, with thesloopHMS Falmouth in charge of the landings atKhorramshahr, carrying two companies of the 3/10th Baluch Regiment. She was accompanied by theYarra and theInvestigator. During this mission, Krishnan's tug was to standby and assist if necessary. The jetty had fourgunboats, one of which started firing at the tug. Krishnan brought his ship alongside the gunboat and boarded it. The ship was captured after a brief firefight. Twenty prisoners were captured and three were killed. Khorramshahr was captured and the Iranian sloopBabr sunk and two Iranian gunboats captured.[14][15][16]
For this action, Krishnan was awarded theDistinguished Service Cross (DSC). He was the first recipient of the award in the Royal Indian Navy.The citation for the DSC reads as follows:[17][18]
CITATIONSub-Lieutenant Nilakanta Krishnan
Royal Indian Navy, HMIS InvestigatorIn the first list of awards of bravery made to the Royal Indian Navy, the Distinguished Service Cross is awarded to Sub-Lieutenant N. Krishnan for dash and daring in the capture of a ship at the beginning of the Iranian operations last August. Sub-Lieutenant N. Krishnan, R.I.N. (HMISInvestigator) led a boarding party to capture an enemy ship, the crew of which offered stout resistance. Krishnan himself was engaged in a personal duel with the Captain of the enemy ship and proved himself to be the better shot. After killing him and seriously wounding two officers and four men, he captured the ship undamaged with twenty prisoners.
Krishnan was promoted to the rank oflieutenant on 16 August 1941.[19] In early 1942, he was given command of the gunboat he had captured and designated senior officer of the fleet of three gunboats consisting of theSimorgh,Shahbaz andShahrokh. The flotilla was to report at Bombay en route Karachi. Later that year, he took command of theBasset-classtrawlerHMIS Baroda.[20]
In late 1942, Krishnan was posted as an instructor at HMISBahadur, the Boys' training establishment at Karachi. After a short stint of about six months, he was selected to undergo the navigation course atHMS Dryad. While undergoing the course, he was awarded his DSC in a ceremony at theBuckingham Palace. He received the award fromQueen Elizabeth The Queen Mother.Wing CommanderGuy Gibson received hisDistinguished Service Order and LieutenantSyed Mohammad Ahsan received his DSC in the same ceremony.[21]
In December, after his return from the United Kingdom, he was posted to theEmerald-class cruiserHMS Emerald, which was a part of theEastern Fleet. Shortly after that, he was transferred to theCrown Colony-class cruiserHMS Ceylon. In June 1943, he was posted as an instructor at HMISFeroze in Bombay.[6][22]
During thepartition of India, Krishnan was posted to HMISHimalaya in Karachi as the Officer in charge Chamak, the radar school.[23] After a short stint, he returned to India and given command of theMotor Launch ML 420 as an escort to twoLanding Ship, Tanks (LST). The LSTs were to be part of a naval force consisting of three sloops -HMIS Kistna,HMIS Cauvery andHMIS Jumna, two fleet minesweepers -HMIS Konkan andHMIS Madras which participated in theAnnexation of Junagarh. The naval force was commanded by CommanderRam Dass Katari, who later became the first IndianChief of the Naval Staff (CNS).[24] After establishing a communication centre atPorbandar,[25] Krishnan was appointed Naval Liaison Officer to the Commander of the Kathiawar Defence Force (KDF),Brigadier Gurdial Singh.[26]
In late-1947, Krishnan was promoted to the acting rank ofLieutenant Commander and appointed Senior Officer Reserve Fleet (SORF). The fleet consisted of multiple wartime ships which were now put in reserve and was now based atTrombay. A few months later, he was handpicked by the chief of staff to theCommander-in-Chief, Royal Indian NavyCommodoreMartin Henry St. Leger Nott to join the Plans and Intelligence directorate at Naval HQ. He joined the directorate, headed by CommanderAdhar Kumar Chatterji, as Staff Officer (Plans).[27] He was promoted to substantiveLieutenant Commander on 16 August 1949.[28] Subsequently, he replaced Chatterji as the Director of Naval Plans and Intelligence at Naval HQ. Krishnan, as Director of Naval Plans and Intelligence, was part of the Joint Planning Committee (JPC) consisting of Directors of Plans of the three services.Lieutenant ColonelSam Manekshaw, Director of Military Operations (DMO) at Army HQ andWing CommanderPratap Chandra Lal, Director of Policy and Plans at Air HQ were also a part of the JPC.[29]
On 19 December 1949 he was promoted to the acting rank ofCommander.[30] He was selected to attend theJoint Services Staff College atLatimer, Buckinghamshire. After the six-month course, he was appointed Deputy Naval Advisor to theHigh Commissioner of India to the United KingdomV. K. Krishna Menon atIndia House, London.[31] During this stint, he underwent a two-month attachment with theTown-class cruiserHMS Sheffield.[32] In 1951, Krishnan returned to India was appointed Commander of the 31st Minesweeping Squadron. After a short stint, he was given command of the training shipINS Tir. Lieutenant CommanderS. H. Sarma was hisexecutive officer.[33] In 1952, to commemorate theCoronation of Elizabeth II, a massive Coronation review of the fleet was held atPortsmouth. The flagship INSDelhi, destroyerINS Ranjit and INSTir represented India at the review. A naval armada consisting of ships from the Indian Navy,Royal Navy,Royal Australian Navy and theRoyal New Zealand Navy sailed from Portsmouth to Gibraltar. The fleet carried out exercises along the way and was under the command ofLord Mountbatten. Subsequently, the Indian ships continued conducting exercises with the Mediterranean Fleet. They sailed from Gibraltar to Malta, theGreek islands and toIstanbul.[34]
Krishnan was promoted to substantive commander on 30 June 1952.[35] On 15 July 1955, Krishnan was appointed Director of Personnel Services at Naval HQ, with the acting rank ofCaptain.[36][37] He was appointed Deputy Secretary (Military Wing) in theCabinet Secretariat on 9 January 1956.[38] He was the first Naval officer to serve in this appointment.[39] He was promoted to the substantive rank of captain on 31 December 1957.[40] On 18 March 1958, he was promoted to Commodore 2nd Class while still serving as Deputy Secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat.[41]
On 23 December 1958, Krishnan reverted to his permanent rank of captain and took over as theCommanding Officer of theLeander-class cruiserINS Delhi.[42] He was in command of theDelhi for two-and-a-half years. In June 1959, he led theDelhi which was part of theIndian fleet which embarked on a ten-week exercise. The flagshipMysore was escorted by theKaveri andKistna. The 14th frigate squadron comprisingINS Brahmaputra andINS Khukri and the 11th destroyer squadron comprisingINS Rajput,INS Ranjit andINS Rana also joined them. The ships called on ports on the east coast of India and theAndaman Islands.[43] In March 1960, theDelhi, under Krishnan was part of the fleet in the Joint Commonwealth exercises which was the largest till then, with the Royal Navy,Royal Australian Navy, Royal Ceylon Navy, Pakistan Navy,Royal New Zealand Navy andRoyal Malaysian Navy participating.[44] Under him, the ship also called onPenang and spent five days on a goodwill mission.[45]
In June 1961, Krishnan was appointed commanding officer of the Navy's Engineering CollegeINS Shivaji inLonavala. Shortly thereafter, in December, he was asked by the Chief of the Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ram Dass Katari, to take command of theDelhi immediately and prepare her to put to sea in two weeks. The ship was to participate in theAnnexation of Goa providing distant support to theIndian Army units stormingDiu. On 11 December, he positioned the ship close to the coast and fired a barrage on theDiu Fortress. She also sunk four ships off the harbour and sent a landing party to the citadel of the fortress and hoist theIndian Flag.[46][47] After the annexation, he returned to INSShivaji and was in command for a year.
On 16 April 1963, Krishnan was appointed the second commanding officer of theaircraft carrierINS Vikrant, then the only aircraft carrier in Asia.[46] While the carrier was indry dock, he did a short operational stint on board Royal Navy'sHMS Hermes, which later joined the Indian Navy asINS Viraat. He led the carrier in a commonwealth joint exercise offSingapore as well as on joint exercises with the Indian Army off the coast of Madras in August 1964.[48] After an eighteen-month stint, he was selected to attend theImperial Defence College in the United Kingdom.[49] After completing the course, Krishnan was promoted to the rank ofCommodore on 1 January 1966.[50] He was appointedNaval Advisor to theHigh Commissioner of India to the United KingdomJivraj Narayan Mehta atIndia House, London. After a year as Naval Advisor, he took over as Chief of Naval Aviation at Naval HQ on 17 January 1967.[39] In May, the appointment was re-designated as Assistant Chief of Naval Staff (ACNS).[51] In June, he was sent toGhana as an advisor to theGhana Navy in the aftermath of the1966 coup d'état.[52]
On 12 December 1967, Krishnan was appointedVice Chief of the Naval Staff (VCNS) with the acting rank ofRear Admiral (paid from 18 February 1968).[53] He was promoted to substantiveRear Admiral on 16 June 1968.[54] During his tenure as VCNS, he was involved in the acquisition ofOsa-class missile boats.[55] On 26 March 1969, the post of VCNS was upgraded to the rank ofVice Admiral, with Krishnan being promoted to the acting rank from the same date.[56]
On 26 January 1970, Krishnan was awarded theParam Vishisht Seva Medal for distinguished service of the most exceptional order.[57] In February 1970, he was appointed Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief (FOC-in-C)Western Naval Command and took over on 25 February.[58] He was promoted to substantiveVice Admiral on 1 March 1970.[59] On 1 March 1971, he moved to the helm ofEastern Naval Command as the FOC-in-C.[60]
His command in the eastern theatre during the 1971 war led the crew of theAircraft CarrierINS Vikrant to earn twoMahavir Chakras and 12Vir Chakras. Under his leadership in 1971, the aircraft carrier'sSea Hawks struck shipping in theChittagong andCox's Bazar harbours, sinking or incapacitating most ships in harbour.[51]Krishnan was present during the signing of thePakistani Instrument of Surrender at theRamna Race Course. He also received the Naval surrender from the Flag Officer Commanding of the Eastern Naval Command of the Pakistan Navy, Rear AdmiralMohammad Shariff.[61] Sharif surrendered hisTT pistol to at 16:31 hrs saying"Admiral Krishnan, Sir, soon I will be disarmed. Your Navy fought magnificently and had us cornered everywhere. There is no one I would like to surrender my arms to other than the Commander-in-Chief of the Eastern Fleet."[62] His TT Pistol is still placed in acovered glass display at theIndian Military Academy's Museum.[61] For his leadership of the Eastern Naval Command, Krishnan was awarded thePadma Bhushan in January 1972.[63][64]
Krishnan was to retire in 1973, but was given a two-year extension in service. In February 1973, he was appointed chairman and managing director (CMD) ofCochin Shipyard Limited.[65] The two-year extension was given to enable Krishnan to be in the running for the post ofChief of the Naval Staff (CNS) whenAdmiralSourendra Nath Kohli retired. In January 1976, the Government of India announced thatJal Cursetji would be the next CNS.[66] Krishnan retired from the Indian Navy on 29 February 1976.[67] In August 1977, when the system of Captain Commandants of the branches of the Navy was instituted, he was appointed the first Captain Commandant of the executive branch.[68] He continued as the CMD of Cochin Shipyard Limited till 1979, when he retired.[6]
Krishnan married Sita, his cousin and childhood sweetheart, on 15 December 1943. He referred to her as hisconsort battleship. The couple had two children - Chitra and Arjun.[69] Chitra was an educator and author of children's books and died in 1987, aged 41. Arjun is an information technology professional based in the United States. He edited Krishnan's autobiography and released it in 2014.[6]
After his retirement, Krishnan wrote a book on the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 -No way But Surrender — An Account of the Indo-Pakistani War in the Bay of Bengal.[70] He also wrote his autobiography titledA Sailor's Story, which was edited and released by his son Arjun.[71]
Krishnan died in his sleep at Hyderabad on 30 January 1982.[2]
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Source:[6]
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)Military offices | ||
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Preceded by | Commanding Officer INS Vikrant 1963–1964 | Succeeded by |
Preceded by | Vice Chief of the Naval Staff 1967–1970 | Succeeded by |
Preceded by | Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Western Naval Command 1970–1971 | Succeeded by |
Preceded by | Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Eastern Naval Command 1971–1973 | Succeeded by |