The name is Cotton, Sidney Cotton
On the 73rd anniversary of Operation Polo (the annexation of Hyderabad), I am re-posting a popular Masala History connected to those times (mid 1948).
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As the lockdown continues and many of us are focusing on getting essentials now & then, for this episode I am going to tell the story of how one state dealt for their essentials when they were locked down, albeit for a different reason. The interesting tale is how they enrolled James Bond to help their case! Wait..007? Yes.
We go back in time to 1947 and the state I am referring to is the Hyderabad State, which was ruled by Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan Asaf Jah VII. The regions that we know as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh today, comprised of 560+ princely states. As the Indian independence plan was being chalked out, Sardar Vallabhai Patel was entrusted in roping all the princely states to accede to India. Hyderabad State refused to accede to India. Given the complexity of the situation, the Indian Union entered into a standstill agreement with the State of Hyderabad in Oct 1947 and the parlays began between both governments. The Nizam had no plans to accede to India and ideally wanted to remain an independent sovereign as part of the British Commonwealth. He was the richest man in the World at that time and had enough money to do whatever he wanted. However Lord Mountbatten, the Governor General of Independent India was not very supportive of this idea. As things heated up, Patel and team were losing patience and at one point locked the entire Hyderabad State down.
Let’s pause for a moment and look at an interesting character now — Sidney Cotton. Born Australian, Sidney was an an inventor, photographer, aviator, businessman, army officer, spy. Adventures came knocking his door. During World War I, he was part of Royal Air Force of the United Kingdom and invented a suit for pilots to keep them warm — it was called SidCot. SidCot became very popular and was even used by German airforce and was the pilot suit standard for years. Sidney Cotton did not patent this because he didn’t want to make money off the war. Just before World War II, Cotton developed colour film and also built the ability to take clear colour aerial pictures. He made business deals with his only other competitor, Mr. George Eastman (who founded Kodak) for this. The crowning ceremony of King George VI was shot in full colour with Cotton’s technology.
As the World War came near, Sidney Cotton was hired my British Intelligence Service MI-6 and he fathered the department of Photo-Reconnaissance. He was so suave as a spy that he even flew the German senior Luftwaffe officer Albert Kesselring and took pictures of secret German army bases sitting next to him. Sidney Cotton also took clear photos of entire North Africa and also German coastal areas of top secret army bases which were used heavily by the allies. Cotton is also credit for flying the last plane out of Germany just hours before hostilities started.
Lets get back to Hyderabad now. In mid 1948, the Nizam, his Prime Minister Mir Laik Ali had decided to purchase arms and ammunition and train the Hyderabad army to prepare for an inevitable clash with the Indian Army. But they also realised that even if a European power wanted to help them to buy arms, they can’t import them simply because Hyderabad State was a landlocked state surrounded by India and had no access to ports. The only option was to smuggle arms and ammunition through air. As the Nizam’s government contemplated options, Sidney Cotton had just entered Hyderabad to purchase groundnut seeds at low cost for UK. He gained access to Mir Laik Ali and proposed that if paid properly, he could help the Nizam’s government.
Initially while he was considered with suspicion, Mr. Sidney Cotton made friends with powerful people and finally was bankrolled for the airways smuggle. Sidney Cotton recruited 24 out of work World War veteran pilots and purchased 5 aircrafts for the job. Hyderabad had 3 airstrips chosen for this clandestine job — Bidar, Hakimpet & Warangal. Flights had to land and take off only during nights so that they can avoid being spotted by Indian watchers. The flights would usually take off from Karachi and arrive at Hyderabad making a L shaped journey so as to avoid Bombay. The runways of the 3 landing sites were lit poorly with kerosene-wick lamps (hurricane lamps) and landing had to be done without help of radar. Cotton’s mercenary ran the ground ops and the whole landing and take offs were done with such unbelievable precision in utter darkness.
Between July to September 1948, Cotton smuggled in weapons — 25000 mortars, 1000 anti-tank mines, 4000 sub machine guns, 20000 rifles, Oerlikon cannons etc. He also smuggled in essentials — like medicines, newspapers, penicillin, baby food and other stuff as India was not letting anything to get inside the Hyderabad State. Inspite of the heavy dangers the whole operations was posing, Cotton was damn efficient and lucky. He became so cocky that once he sent a message to Jawaharlal Nehru, the PM of India asking “Where are your tempest?”, referring to the Indian Air Force flights, challenging the Indian might.
India’s Operation Polo or Police Action (dubbed as invasion of Hyderabad) started on September 13, 1948. The entire operation lasted 109 hours and Hyderabad surrendered after offering feeble resistance to the Indian Army. As always Sidney Cotton flew just hours before Indian Army marched into Hyderabad city and escaped. Inspite of all his smuggling, Hyderabad lost the war with Indian Union — the help had come too late.
Sidney Cotton was however put on trial for gun-running and ended up paying a fine of 200 GBP. His last flight from India allegedly carried 4 million GBP worth money in rupees. He profited well from this venture. He even made money from Pakistan government for smuggling arms and money into Karachi during the first India-Pak war.
And yes, Sidney Cotton was one of the most prominent people who inspired the creation of 007 James Bond. Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond was a very close friend of Sidney Cotton and was inspired from the man’s adventures, his smooth ways of doing dangerous things while having fun, using technology smartly and of course the women. Cotton’s spy life especially in 1939 has some insane & unbelievable adventures (like how he took his wife and girlfriend together for dinner so they can get to know each other!) — perhaps stories for another time!
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#masalahistory #hyderabad #nizam #sidneycotton #jamesbond #policeaction #operationpolo #hyderabadstate
