When fighter planes took off from Red Road, in heart of Calcutta, 80 years ago

India Today

06-06-2025

It was the early 1940s. After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour, the Americans joined World War II. Japan advanced westward across Asia, running over the Malay peninsula and territories in Mainland Asia. By 1942, the War had reached the Indian subcontinent. The Raj's erstwhile capital and commercial hub, Calcutta, was destined to see some action. It was then that the Royal Air Force (RAF) began using the city's iconic Red Road as an emergency airstrip. The 60-foot-wide boulevard in the city's heart turned into a wartime runway, as the Japanese bombed the city's docks, nearly 80 years ago.advertisementThis historic Red Road, now known as Indira Gandhi Sarani, recently made headlines over namaaz prayers on Eid al-Adha.The Red Road was thrust back into the spotlight when the Indian Army initially denied permission for the Calcutta Khilafat Committee to hold Eid al-Adha prayers on the road, citing "military use". However, a couple of days later, the Army gave the go-ahead for the Eid Namaaz at Red Road, which has been held there since 1919. The exceptions were World War II and the Covid years.
However, 80 years ago, Red Road witnessed the most fascinating chapter of its history, as Japanese forces closed in and the morale of the British and the residents of Calcutta waned.While the use of highways or roads as airstrips has gained attention in recent years in India, such as the Indian Air Force's exercises on the Lucknow-Agra Expressway, the Red Road's wartime role predates these by decades.CALCUTTA WAS CRITICAL MILITARY BASE FOR ALLIED FORCES IN WORLD WAR IIadvertisementDuring World War II, Calcutta was a strategic hub for the Allied forces in the China-Burma-India (CBI) theatre. With Japanese forces advancing through Burma and the Indian Ocean in the south, India's eastern frontier was under threat.Calcutta, the former capital, became a critical base for military and commercial operations, and a logistical nerve centre, to keep the Allied war machine running.It wasn't just a lack of airfields that brought the RAF to Red Road. Converting the boulevard into a runway and landing military planes there also served as a public morale-booster. Its wide, straight stretch in central Calcutta made it ideal for landing planes and visual display, according to aviation, maritime and military historian, KS Nair."The very group of six Japanese aircraft carriers which attacked Pearl Harbour in 1941 moved westwards a year later, with one of these carriers venturing into the Bay of Bengal, and from it, dive bombers, much like Germany's feared Stukas, were launched to bomb Calcutta," Nair tells India Today Digital."A handful of Japanese bombers at night triggered utter panic in Calcutta [in December 1942]. The docks were bombed in the city of over a million people. Many terrified labourers, including workers at the dock, deserted the city overnight," adds Nair.advertisementNot just Calcutta, Madras, Vizag, Colombo and Trincomalee were bombed by the Japanese in the Indian Ocean Region. WHY KOLKATA'S RED ROAD WAS IDEAL FOR USE BY FIGHTER PLANESThough Calcutta had only a handful of British officers on the ground, it was a key Allied base in the region. The Red Road's location and open layout, stretching over a kilometre, made it ideal for use of small fighter aircraft."To project calm and convey that the city could be defended, the British turned Red Road into an airstrip, both a symbolic and practical move in their war effort," says Nair.While it served to lift spirits, the Red Road airstrip was practically used until about 1943.This adaptation, however, was not unique to Calcutta.Around the world, especially during World War II and the Cold War, highways were repurposed as emergency airstrips; Germany's Autobahns, for instance, were designed to double up for Luftwaffe operations. But Red Road's central location, flanked by the Maidan and the Victoria Memorial, made it stand out.Military historian Nair says it was a major event, and journalists were welcomed to cover it, while crowds of people also came out to watch the city at war.advertisementHOW RED ROAD READIED FOR RAF'S SPITFIRES, HURRICANESJayantilal Mehta, a businessman from Calcutta, in his interaction with The Telegraph in 2020, fondly recalled sneaking off to the Maidan to catch glimpses of those rare planes, an unprecedented spectacle for the city's people. The Calcutta businessman in his 1980s, added that every time he crosses the road, he eagerly shares the story with his grandchildren.RAF aircraft such as the Supermarine Spitfire and Hawker Hurricane, key to British air operations in the War, used the strip for quick deployments and emergency landings.The transformation of Red Road into an airstrip was also a logistical challenge.The boulevard, originally designed for ceremonial parades under British rule, was cleared of traffic and reinforced to handle the weight of aircraft.Temporary ground crews and air traffic control units were stationed nearby. The RAF's operations from Red Road were critical to maintaining air superiority in the region. The airstrip also facilitated the movement of supplies and personnel to forward bases in Assam and Burma.But Red Road was far from an ideal runway. Its cambered surface and corner railings made plane operations tricky."For one thing, the smoke and haze that habitually hung over the city often made it difficult to locate. Not only was it narrower than a regular runway, it was also lined on both sides with marble balustrades and, like any well-engineered road, it crowned in the middle," Toronto-based scholar and author Robert H Farquharson noted in the book, For Your Tomorrow: Canadians and the Burma Campaign, 1941-1945.advertisementDue to these constraints, only light fighters like the Hurricane and Spitfire were used on Red Road, as heavier aircraft like the De Havilland Mosquito and Bristol Beaufighter were unsuitable for the tricky conditions."The heavier aircraft risked skidding off the uneven surface, and their larger wingspans could have struck trees or lampposts lining the Red Road," says Nair.CALCUTTA'S RED ROAD AIRSTRIP RETURNED AS STREETBut whatever the limitations, the conversion of Red Road into an airstrip proved to be "an effective morale-boosting move," Nair says."Calcutta Airstrip Again Is Street," the Associated Press headlined, as Red Road, once echoing with the roar of RAF fighters skimming past rooftops during the war, was returned to civilian use after the Japanese threat subsided.Why was it called the Red Road? According to historian Soumitra Sreemani, who told The Telegraph, the name came from the red dust that would rise whenever vehicles sped along its length.Tomorrow, on Saturday, thousands, if not lakhs, will gather on this very road to offer Eid prayers, as has been the tradition for years. Over time, Red Road has worn many hats: from hosting parades to prayers to celebrations. But perhaps the most fascinating chapter in its long history, its brief makeover as an airstrip during World War II, is sadly tucked away like a footnote.Must Watch