Though the 1962 war was a complete disaster for the country, there were many instances where Indian soldiers exhibited their indomitable spirit and unparallelled courage
Fiffy years ago, India suffered the ignominy of a military debacle at the hands of the Liberation Army (PLA) of communist China. Perceptive strategic analysts now attribute the Himalayan blunder to the untenable `Forward Policy’ and Jawaharlal Nehru’s diktat to a fund-starved, ill-equipped, ill-clad and unprepared Army to “throw out the Chinese: Painful memories of that defeat still linger in the national psyche.
In the early 1950s, the Chinese had built a road through the eastern Aksai Chin to Xinjiang. It went undetected for many years. At least since 1959, when the Dalai Lama sought shelter in India, it had become clear that the Chinese were spoiling for a fight to assert their territorial claims. With hindsight it is clear that the Chinese took umbrage at Nehru’s summary rejection of Chou Enlai’s offer to accept Chinese sovereignty over the areas occupied by them in Ladakh and, in return, they would forgo their claims over NEFA, now Arunachal Pradesh.
When the Chinese finally struck in October 1962, India’s forays across the Namka Chu river to the Dhola Ridge in the Tawang sector, which the Chinese claimed was clearly to the north of the McMahon Line, proved to be the last straw. Brig John Dalvi’s 7 Infantry Brigade and Maj Gen AS Pathania’s 4 Infantry Division bore the brunt of the Chinese offensive. In a series of hasty and unplanned withdrawals that did no credit to the reputation of the Indian Amy, the division suffered to complete rout and the Chinese troops almost reached the plains of Assam till they declared a unilateral ceasefire and withdrew from all occupied areas in NEFA. It is unbelievable today that not even one infantry battalion was allowed to fight from its prepared defences. Most battalions were ordered to with-draw prematurely and got caught in Chinese, ambushes while falling back.
Lt Gen BM Kaul, an officer who had no combat experience, had been placed in command of the hastily raised 4 Corps by the whimsical Krishna Menon who should have never been made Defence Minister. Kaul’s error of judgement and failure to provide leadership when it was most necessary led to a humiliating defeat in the eastern sector. It did not help matters that he tried to command his corps from his sick bed in Delhi for several days during the war. The people of Assam have still not forgotten how a distraught Nehru bid farewell to them in a radio broadcast shortly before the ceasefire.
However, what is not quite well known is that there were many instances of raw courage where Indian soldiers exhibited their indomitable spirit even during the embarrassing course of the 1962 campaign. Brig (later Lt Gen) NC Rawley’s brigade held out for 22 days against the Chinese despite overwhelming odds at Walong along the Lohit River in eastern Arunachal Pradesh till the Chinese finally withdrew. His brigade beat back many attacks and inflicted hundreds of casualties on the Chinese. Wherever the troops were well led, they gave an excellent account of them-selves. In the west, one such battle was fought at Rezang la, a pass at 16,000 ft on the south-eastern approach to the Chushul Valley in Ladakh.
In a battle without parallel in the annals of modern military history, 123 bravehearts of Charlie company, 13 Kumaon fought to the ‘last man, last round’ on November 18, 1962. Employing their famous ‘human wave’ tactics, the Chinese launched determined, multi-directional attacks against the isolated forward post. Surrounded and heavily outnumbered, the men fought back with rare determination and beat back wave after wave of attack. The gallant company commander, Major Shaitan Singh, crawled from trench to trench, personally motivating his men under withering fire even though he was himself wounded. The company suffered 114 casualties and finally ran out of ammunition, but these gallant warriors neither retreated nor surrendered.
It was only when the Chinese permitted the Indian Army to collect the bodies in February 1963 that the nation learnt the truth about the heroic fight put up by these valiant warriors. The body of Major Shaitan Singh, honoured posthumously with the Param Vir Chakra, lay in the open field where he had fallen while personally leading a charge to relieve a besieged platoon post. The bodies of 23 men lay around him, riddled with bullet and splinter wounds. Maj Gen Ian Cardozo (retd) has written in his book, Param Vir: Our heroes in Battle: “The two-inch mortar man died with a bomb still in his hand. The medical orderly had a syringe and bandage in his hands when the Chinese bullet hit him… Of the thousand mortar bombs with the defenders all but seven bad been fired and the rest were ready to be fired when the (mortar) section was overrun.”
All over the Rezang la defences, brave young men lay dead in their bunkers and trenches. There were multiple shell, shrapnel, bullets and bayonet wounds on their bodies. They were still clutching their cold weapons in their stiff hands. Ammunition ’empties’ were strewn all around them. Some had even charged the attacking Chinese in a last inspired burst of raw courage. In Lest We Forget, Capt Amarindra Singh has written: “In an unusual mark of respect for which the Chinese are not usually noted, their bodies had been covered with blankets, pegged down with bayonets. There could have been no greater tribute to their courage than this acknowledgement by their enemy.”
In all, 96 bodies were recovered from the Rezang La battlefield. Subsequently, in 1965, almost three years later, a shepherd recovered two bodies, at a light machine gun (LMG) position on a flank. Ten men of Charlie Company remained unaccounted for. The Chinese took six severely wounded men POW. Of these, two escaped miraculously and rejoined the battalion. In its desperate fight back, Major Shaitan Singh’s outstanding outfit had killed over 500 Chinese.
Indeed, on that cold November day, Charlie Company, 13 Kumaon, added a new chapter of unflinching devotion to duty and supreme courage under the most adverse circumstances to the Indian army’s glorious traditions of valour and sacrifice in the service of the nation. No nation could have expected more from the young keepers of its frontiers; no trained body of spirited young soldiers could have possibly fought to the muzzle as these men did.
Inscribed on the war memorial at Chushul are the following :
How can Man die Better than facing Fearful Odds,
For the Ashes of His Fathers and the Temples of His Gods.
To the sacred memory of the Heroes of Rezang La, 114 Martyrs of 13 Kumaon who fought to the Last Man, Last Round, Against Hordes of Chinese on 18 November 1962.
Built by All Ranks 13th Battalion, The Kumaon Regiment.
The supreme sacrifice made by the bravehearts of Charlie Company, 13 Kumaon, deserves greater recognition than it has received. Sadly, India has not yet learnt how to honour its armed forces martyrs in a befitting manner worthy of their sacrifices. The country has so far failed to build a war memorial in its capital, though sanction has finally been accorded to build one. Many lessons of the 1962 war with China still have not been learned as the Henderson-Brooks report has not been declassified. It must be done without further loss of time so that nation learns the truth about the of 1962 and the armed forces can ensure that history is not repeated .
