India-Pakistan Border Part-III

1983-84     

 (LINE OF CONTROL on India-Pakistan Border)

(This is a continuation to the conversation set between me (S.G) and my nanu (grandfather),a former brigadier, (Y.R).This initiative was taken so that people know about the incidents that have taken place in the army unfiltered by the media.RAW.)

Thursday,June 2020

S.G- 

   Good afternoon nanu

(At this point my nanu didn't bother to say good afternoon and continued the story)

ISOLATION & INTERACTION

Y.R-

    I, as Commanding Officer (C.O. Saheb, as generally referred to by all the 1000 men & officers of The PALTAN), realized soon after going into the Valley that there were chances of almost all of us feeling isolated from the civilization & ,in turn, getting a feeling of gloominess & disappointment. Having been in a very beautiful hill resort of Dehradun (now State capital of Uttarakhand) the officers & men had got used to living a fairly good & civilized life for 2-3 years. The THAMBIES are very fond of bathing twice a day, using talcum powder, face creams & perfumes etc. quite lavishly ,dressing well & going out to the town or just taking evening walks in the unit area itself ( which was very beautiful with a river flowing next to our living accommodation & lots of parks & fruit gardens around our unit lines. However, here in the Valley, it was just not possible or any scope for anyone to get any of those luxuries. All of us had to be in our uniform all the time, with our personal weapons on our side, & had to be ready for any military action/ emergency. I realized that it was most important for all of us to keep in touch with each other, have some kind of activity to keep ourselves physically active & fit; and  have some entertainment for the troops so that they did not feel bored or neglected.

Y.R-

    In the Army, there is a system of connecting various POSTS & key commanders of The PALTAN through FIELD TELEPHONES so that any important information or message can be conveyed from one Post or Commander to the others quickly & safely (“safely” implies that the enemy should not be able to listen into your conversation). There are small & large Radio sets also which are provided in each Post as stand-by but any message sent on radios can be intercepted by the enemy. That’s why most of the communications/ interactions take place through telephones.

Y.R- 

     Let me tell you something about Army’s Field Telephones & Radio Sets, before proceeding further.  The telephones are made of steel & not plastic so that they can withstand some rough handling  & do not break or get severely damaged even if they fall from a height of couple of feet. Every PALTAN has a small Telephone Exchange which can give about 20 to 25 telephone connections to various POSTS & Commanders within 4 to 6 hours. Though, when a PALTAN attacks an enemy’s positions, all the conversation/ communication is done through Radio Sets because it is not possible to lay the telephone cables under those circumstances but the soldiers responsible to provide telephonic communication keep following the attacking soldiers with their telephone cables & instruments & start laying the telephone lines as soon as there is a lull in the battle. And, all these personnel are Infantry Soldiers & not the communication experts. Apart from carrying the telephone cables & instruments in battle, they also carry their personal weapons & ammunition. They & the fighting soldiers can exchange places, if the need arises. 

Similarly, those who carry the Radio Sets, accompanying their respective Commanders, are also Infantry soldiers & they too carry their personal arms & ammunition, in addition to the Radio Sets.

Friday,June 2020

Y.R-

    Now, coming back to the topic of the necessity of instituting measures to keep those 1000 odd soldiers ( including the 12-15 Class-1 officers, about 40-55 Class-2 Junior Commissioned Officers & approximately 900 + soldiers) operationally alert, physically fit, mentally active & emotionally healthy in that gloomy & isolated environment. The THAMBIES, i.e. the South Indian soldiers, had never ever seen either the snow

Y.R-

    or the snowfall in their lives, except in movies. This aspect of not only seeing the snowfall but also living in the snowy environment was absolutely new to most of them. This was one more aspect of our life in that area to which the soldiers had to be physically & mentally trained not only to survive in those harsh living conditions but also to get accustomed to fighting the Pakistanis Army & defeating them. And, all these things had to be done without losing any time because the enemy would like to exploit such a situation when new troops arrive who are neither familiar with the area nor with he environment nor with the weather conditions etc. It was a mammoth task & responsibility on my shoulders & we just could not afford to relax our guard.

BEING A C.O

Y.R-

    It took one week for the outgoing PALTAN to hand over the areas of responsibility, tactical localities/ POSTS for fighting battles with Pakistanis in case of war or local skirmishes; administrative & logistical areas in each POST for cooking of food, resting/sleeping & for playing some games etc. 

For that one week, we had double of the normal strength of troops in our area ( the troops of the outgoing unit  plus our troops) & we had to make some extra efforts to make sure that nobody slept in the open in that extremely cold weather. After all, the number of bunkers was limited to accommodate only one PALTAN whereas there were two of them during that one week’s time. But our Indian soldiers are most adaptive & most accommodating in this respect. Though the troops belonged to two different units but the  very fact that they all belonged to the same Army, made them make many adjustments even at the cost of some conveniences by both sides. While all this was going on, the C.O. of the outgoing PALTAN & I were in constant discussion & dialogue about various aspects of operational, logistical, administrative & miscellaneous issues. I was trying to understand everything as quickly as possible since I knew that after one week I would have be on my own & there would be none to guide me. Fortunately for both of us, we were not strangers to each other. In fact we were ( & still are, even till today) good friends. We both have settled down in NOIDA ( part of National Capital Region) & meet quite often. During that one week both of used to go around our area of responsibility on the ground; sometimes riding the local ponies & sometimes on foot. Finally after the prescribed one week, we bid them adieu / good bye & were on our own.

Y.R-

    From the next day itself, I set out on my mission to brighten up the lives of my troops. All my officers were staying with their respective sub/unis (Companies / Platoons/Posts), far away from my Headquarter. The operational situation demanded such deployment. In my Headquarter, I had only three officers, beside me. Out of these three, one was a doctor (referred to as REGIMENTAL MEDICAL OFFICER or R.M.O.).His job was to only treat the sick & injured/wounded troops. He had two Nursing Assistants to assist him, four Stretcher Bearers & a small First-Aid Post. The stretcher bearers move the sick soldiers from one place to the other, as per the doctor’s instructions. Of the remaining two officers, one was the ADJUTANT (who issues all operational, administrative & executive instructions to everyone in The Paltan, on behalf of the C.O.)& the other one was the  QUARTER MASTER (generally known as Q.M.), who manages all the logistics, rations & supplies, clothings, hired ponies /porters etc. Incidentally, out of these three officers (all CAPTAINS), two (the R.M.O & the Q.M.) became LIEUTENANT GENERALS later in their careers. 

Thus, I had no senior officers (MAJORS) in my Headquarter whom I could consult on my own thoughts & make plans to alleviate the difficulties faced by my troops. Although all six (only six MAJORS are authorised in an Infantry PALTAN) of them were available on telephones for consultations /advice but, as we all know, discussing things on telephone is not the same as face-to-face discussions. Therefore, from the 8th day itself, I started going around to all the POSTS, sometime on the ponies but mostly on foot, to meet everyone, to see for myself how everyone had settled down, what were their immediate needs, how was their morale & how could I help them. The deployment  of the unit was such that I needed at least 4 to 5 days to reach everyone.

Y.R-

    During this whirlwind tour of mine, I spent four nights at the POSTS ( away from my Headquarter), including one night at ATMA-1 Post, met each officer, Junior Commissioned Officer( J.C.O.) & soldier; and interacted with them to know their needs. I purposely spent one night at ATMA-1 POST, despite knowing  that this POST had not been adequately stocked with rations & clothing etc. & my visit would put those 10 soldiers to lot of inconvenience & put lot of physical strain on my body because the climb to that Post was very steep & dangerous. But, at the same time, I also knew that because of my visit all their needs would be met by various functionaries, they would be connected by telephone & these 10 isolated soldiers would know that I cared for them, as much as I cared for the remaining 990 soldiers of our PALTAN. A few of my well wishers advised me not to undertake this tour so soon & wait for the people to settle down so that they could show their best to me. But for me it was a case of “now or never”. In my opinion, this was the right time for me to show to everyone how concerned I was about their well being & how physically fit I was, as their C.O., to cope with the problems which all of us were facing. And, I think my strategy worked.

S.G-

    (I was speechless,my eyes had became numb as yours must have become while reading this article)

    

To be continued...