Blog by Vanshi | Digital Diary

BATTLE OF BOGRA  Her capture of Hilli complex by Indian forces paved the way for their advance towards BOGRA. In a way the battle of BOGRA was an extension of the battle of Hilli. The battle was found on 14_15 December 1971. BOGRA was an important town and vited Communication centre of East Pakistan. It was also the tactical head quarter of Pakistan 16 Infantry Division they had also made a light air strip here. The town was well connected with Dhaka and other East Pakistan towns by rail road and air. In view of the impending war with india the town had been turned into a strong military base.

AIR BATTLE OF SAINAGAR Pakistan sounded the bugle of the War by attacking major Indian airbases in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir at 1740 hours on 3 December 1971. But the first Pakistani air intrusion over Srinagar had come earlier on 39 November though it was a recce mission. The real air attack on Srinagar, however came on 3 December when six Pakistani Air Force PAF Sabres dropped bombs on Srinagar airfield causing some damage to the runway. However Indian pilots launched a number of attacks from the airbase on Pakistani troops intruding into Indian territory. No 121 Squadron based at Srinagar carried some 64 missions to attack enemy troops. Sixty Pakistani air raft raided the Srinagar base during the 14 days of the war but could cause little damage to the aircraft on the airbase. During the war airbase had become a favourite target for the PAF Pakistan Air Force as they knew that no radar could detect their intrusion owing to mountainous terrain of the surroundings. The reports of observation posts located alongside the border alone could be of some help. But such reports or say warnings could reach the base only a couple of minutes before the approach of the raiding craft  This hardly allowed time to the airbase to react to the threat. Luckily many of these PAF missions failed due to inaccurate firing and unexploded bombs. Some attacks which really threatened the airbase were tackled by the Indian Air Force IAF appropriately. Many such raids led to dog fights in which the Pakistanis were worsted. In one of these dog fights in 6 December, sqn Ldr VS Pathania engaged two Pakistani Sabres which came to strafe the airfield. On the Morning of 14 December six Pakistani aircrafts came to attack Srinagar airfield.soon these aircraft started orbiting over the airfield. Soon these aircraft started orbiting over the airfineld. At this juncture any attempt to take off with enemy aircraft overhead was inviting a mortal dander indeed. But unmindful of the grave danger two Gnats detachment of 18 Squadron which were in operational readiness scrambled to intercept them. Flt Lt BS Ghumman and Fg Offer Normal Hit Singh sekhin immediately got airborne. But Pakistani Sabres sooner than Fg offer sekhin took off a bomb landed on turned left to take position behind off Flt Lt Ghumman Meanwhile seakhin headed straight to engage the two enemy aircraft sekhin headed straight to engage the two enemy aircraft which had bombed the airfield.

BATTLE OF PUNCH It was the 3rd of Decemder 1971. Lt Col KL Rattan, the Commading Officer of 6 Sikh was scanning the reports cming in From his companies deployed along the border in Punch. the events were unfolding just as he had visualized and planned for. The enemy attack was imminent and the Battalion was fully prepared to face it. 6 Sikh had moved into 93 Infantry Brigade sector and had taken over the task of defending Punch in May 1971. Punch was strategically important to capture it earlier in the wars of 1947-48 and 1965 also. Pakistan was bound to make yet another attempt to grab it so as to have an easy route of access to the kashmir valley. The indin observation posts at the Forward Defended Localities (FDLS) had been reporting large movement of Pakistan vehicles carrying troops and stores for the past few months. Their recce and surveillance parties had also been seen all along the Line of Control (LoC), obviously gathering intelligence on Indian trioop deployment.

FORCE ALPHA OPERATIONS IN THE EAST Fsorce Alpha a makeshift maritime task force conducted daring operation during the 1971 war in the eastern waters. The force comprised of two gunboats Padma and Plasah a watercraft Panel and Ship Chitrangad a. Commander Mohan Narayan Rao Samant an ouystander submariner was the leading officer of this force.According to him After war was declared.Lt General Aurora andajor General Jacob ordered me to organize a maritime attack on chaln and Mongla. This was because the Indian Army 41 Brigade was directly locked in combat with its Pakistani counterpart to take over the chalna and Khulna area but was facing difficulties. So the next best alternative was to mount an attack from seaward to dislocate the Pakistani troops. The task assigned to force Alpha was to launch a maritime attack on the port complex of chalna and Mongla to dislocate enemy forces. It was a maritime attack enemy forces.

THE MEGHNA HELI- - LIFT Iv Corps under the command of Lt Gen sagstsingh located at Teliamura about 40 Kms from Agartala was tasked to carry the Eastern thrust into East Pakistan. Go capt Chandan Singh the station commander at jorhat was to support the corps in the offensive. 110 Helicopter Unit HU with 10 Soviet Mi4 helicopter based at Kumbhirgram near silchar was also support By 3 December 1971, the helicopters were positioned at Teliamura with corps.Their strength was later augmented with some helicpters from 105 and 111 helicopter units. The task of the Mi4 helicopters is primarily casualty evacuation and transportation and were engaged on the job during the first four days. The first special Heli Borne Operation SHBO for crops was carried by the IAF on 7 December evening from Kailashar. From here troop of 4/5 GR and their equipment were Heli lifted to the outskirts of Sypher. Eight Mi 4s carried 254 troops and 400 kgs of equipment in 22 sorties ground fire. This SHBO was the trigger for more such operations in the coming days.  The operational directive given to corps did not envisage the capture of Dhaka. The assigned task was to protect Indian Territory from Assam to Mizoram. In doing so a limited offensive could be launched against Pakistani forces east east of River Megha to occupy comila chandpur, Reno and Chittagong .

BATTLE OF GADRA ROAD India has a lond bvorder with Pakistan in Rajasthan spreading over 1070 km. The land on both sides of the border is a desert marked by sand dunes shaped in long ridgrs. The movement of vehicles and the logistic support is best maintained by the camels. Gadra village, situated on the  indo pak border is obout 75 km from barmer. As eight km sand track linked indian gadra Road railway station to Pakistan gadra city khokhrapar is the first Pakistani station across the border while Munabao is the last on the Indian side. both are of straegic significance.  During Indo Pak War of 1971 the conduct of operations in the sind Rajasthan Sector as entrusted to soutern command. the sector was divided in Bikaner jaisalmer barmer and kutch sub sector for the purpose of operations. Lt Gen GG Bewoor GOC in C Southern Command had assigned the Barmer area to 11 Infantey Division It deployed 31 Infantry Brigade Group 15 kumaon 18 Madras 13  field Regiment and 3 Independent Armoured Squadron in Barmer sub sector to deny any intrusion into barmer and also to undertake operations to capture varea khokhropar and gadra city the 15 Kumaon planned the attack on gadra city on the night of 4/5 Decemder in complete secrecy in three phases; Phase 1. Capture of Whale Back area by 2100 her on 04 Dec. Phase 2. Capture of Dune area by 0200 hrs on 05 Dec. Phase 3. Capture of High Ground and Ridge area by 0800 her on 05 Dec.  As per the plan phase one the operation was launched at specified time. The Battalion did not encounter munch resistance and whale Back area in Pakistan was occupied. It the Second Phase Pakistanis fought back the indian attack with small area and medium machine guns MMG. But the relentess charge with war cry kali mata ki jai by kumaonis unnervedyhe enemy.

BATTLE OF ISLAMGARH In the heart of the desert of Rajasthan ISLAMGARH fort was built during the regime of Raja Rawal Siri Bheem Singh in 1665. Initially it was named as Bheem war fort but later in 1780 a Muslim ruler Ikhtiar Khan renamed it as Islamgarh fort. After partition it became a part of bahawalpur district of Punjab Pakistan. Strategically, Islamgarh is important as it lies on the line of communication in Rajasthan. The road from here leads to Rahimyar Khan in  the North an Jaisalmer in India. During the Indo Pak istan army in good strength. It was well fortified and extensive minefields around made an approach to it difficult. In 1971, the 3 Battalion of the Rajputana Rifles was deployed at Kishangarh in the Rajasthan sector to deny the enemy Islamgarh shakirewala passage to tanot. The enemy Islamgarh shakirewala passage to tanot. On the evening of 4 December 1971, 3 Rajputana Rifles was ordered to advance to Islamgarh and capture it by 0600 you're the next day. As lslamgarh was 16 km away from the international  border the battalion had to march around 30 KMS in one night to accomplish the task at 1739 hours a company commented march as vanguard followed by battalion headquartered and B company. 

BATTLE OF DERA BABA NANAK During the 1971war the defence of the Punjab sector was ntrusted to the corps commanded by Lt Gen NC Rawlley. It's area of responsibility extended approximately 650 km along the international border. The corps had assigned different defended sectors to it's formations and the 15 Indfantry Division under AJ Gen BM Be hattacharjea was assigned the responsibility of Amritsar sector, including the prominent towns of Amitd, DERA BABA NANAK and A BM also. The 86 Infa me try Brigade of the Divisio MN he LL d in For era Baba M as nak area. Against the Indian c ok Ros Pakistan has deployed 4 crops commanded by LL t Gn Bahadur sher. It's 19 infantry Division under Maj agen SAZ Naqvi was arrayed opposist 15 Indian infantry Division. The small town of Derek Naha NANAK formed a part of Amritsar sector. The re re were two strategically important enclaves in it's cvicinity the Indian enclave to the nort of the Ravu river called kasowak and the pk enclave south poo f the Ravu river caked jassar. The latter included the Ravi rail road bridge which connected Indian Punjab with the potential to outflank Indian defences at Amritsar and  pathankot. In the DERA NANAK area the main Pakistani thrust was likely to come across the Ravi as these was the danger of the enemy breaking out with armour particularly through thebared between Rania  and DERA BABA NANAK three armoured regiments were located north of amirtsar. An artillery brigade less two regiments wea also moved north to provide artillery support. As stated earlier, the bridge over the Ravi near DERA BABA NANAK lay within Pakistan territory and that a Pakistani enclave lay to the south of that bridge. The town was a gateway to major towns of Gurdaspir batala bras and Amritsar and it's occupation by Pakistan could easily unbalnce the Indian defences. After the pre emptive strike by Pakistan on 3 December, India decided to eliminate the Pak enclave there. As the area were marshy and covered by thick growth of elephant grass kikar and shisham trees, the strength and disposition of Pakistani forces could not be assessed accurately. However, it was estimated that there were 3 Ranger posted in addition to a network of defences occupied by the units of regular army. DERA BABA NANAK akal the layout of the important features was as follows.

​​​​During the Indo Pak war of 1971, Indian Navy named its most daring and awe inspiring operation as operation Trident. It was of course symbolic of Trishul the invincible three pronged weapon of shiva the Great God. When the war of 1971 was looking large on the horizon, Indian Navy was headed by Admiral SM Nanda the then chief of the Naval staff. Vice Admiral N Krishnan and vice admiral later admiral SN kohli were.learding the eastern was western commands respectively. They meticulously planned the naval response in the emerging scenario. In the event of war was the western Navel command based at Mumbai was to engage and destroy as many Pakistani naval ships as possible so that the Pakistani Navy became incapable of attacking our shipping and launching attack on Indian soil from the sea. It was during this time that the plan to attack Karachi was fine tuned and operation Trident was conceived. By the time the bugle of war was sounded on the evening of 3 December 1971 the Indian Navy had already deployed it's western fleet in the North Arabian sea. A special Task Group comprising two Letha class Corvettes and four  Missile Boats intended to launch an urgent missile attack was awaiting orders off the coast of saurashtra. The plan of operation was clear and simple though risky. The special Task Group was to approach Karachi during the night launch missiles from a distance of about 20 nautical miles and withdraw before dawn to avoid Pakistani Air Force attack. The plan provided that the Group after reaching 159 miles from Karachi at sunset would go at maximum speed during night to carry out attack and withdraw again at a maximum speed. Invisiblity in the night was to be exploited as best as possible. As per the plan, on the Moonless night of 3 December three missile boats, Nirghat Nipat and veer and the two Letha class ships katchall and Iran proceeded towards Karachi Lt CDR later code Sharma commanding officer INS Nirghat. 

BATTLE OF LONGEWALA Longewa, a border village is located in the jaisalmer district of Rajasthan. It is said that in earlier times the trade of Laing or cloves between some and Ajmer passed through this place and hence the place got this name. The village is a desert area some 16 km from the international border with Pakistan. There were no roads to connect LONGEWALA to the border and a camel or camel cart fitted with lsand tyres were the only means of transport. It was here that the Indians fought on e of the fiercest battles during the war of 1971. The LONGEWALA post was held by a platoon of border security force before the war. In octOcto1971 when the cloude of was started the gathering a company of 23 Punjab Regiment was deployed to defend the post. It is notable that 23 Punjab was a part of 45 infantry brigade of the 12 Indian Division which was responsible for the defense of the jaidlamer sub sector. Indians did not expect any major offensive by the pakistani army in thisp desert area. Also no military a ctivties were observed on the Pakistan side of military activities were observed on the border opposite LONGEWALA by Indian patrols till the commencement of the war. Indians thus believed that Pakistan would concentrate more on protecting rail and road communication opposite jaisalmer on their side of the border. But Pakistan had some different plan. In fact Pakistan had deployed an infantry Division 18 infantry divison for operations in LONGEWALA while one more Division 33 Division to reinforce it required. On the Indian side only one company of 23 Punjab Regiment under Major kuldip Singh chandpur was deployed to defend the area totall unaware of the lurking danger. On the cold breezy night of 4|5 December captain Dharam Vir a young officer of the company was leading a patrol near the border. Suddenly, at midnight, he heard the rattling of tanks from across the border. The noise gradually became louder indicating the movement of the Pakistani army towards the Indian post .captain Dharam Vir reported the matter to company commander major kuldip Singh chandpur. Another patrol in the area also confirmed the movement.