Anil Bhat
The first of battle tanks were manufactured by Britain during the First World War, fought from 1914 to 1918. Begun as Small Willie, used only for designing, the final product, Big Willie were used operationally for the first on 15 September 1916 in both the battles of Flers Courcelette and Somme.
If at Flers Courcelete they had little success at Somme, on the same day they had even less, with only 36 out of fifty tanks making it to launch an en masse attack.
These 30 ton machines could not cope with the harsh lunar landscape of the churned up ground, where fourteen broke down or got bogged down. Regardless of these drawbacks, a new era in warfare had begun.
The process of the Indian Cavalry bidding adieu to horses and getting equipped with tanks/armoured cars began in 1939 with The Scinde Horse getting Vickers light tanks and Chevrolet Armoured Cars.
Other regiments were given Sherman and Stuart tanks of American origin in 1943. Regiments so equipped like 7 th Light Cavalry, Deccan Horse, 16 th Light Cavalry formed the spearhead of the 14th Army against the Japanese in the liberation of Burma. Thereafter Indian regiments got a more extended assortment of tanks/armoured cars of British (Centurion and Churchill tanks and Humber armoured cars), American (Sherman, Stuart and Grant tanks and Dodge weapon-carriers) French (AMX-13 tanks)and even German (Daimler) armoured cars.
WW II, which began on 01 September 1939, ended on 02 September 1945. On 18 February 1946 some simmering issues among Indian ratings of the Royal Indian Navy resulted in a mutiny, which, as it spread, left the Brits with no option but to begin working towards an early exit from India. But not before implementing a partition that trifurcated India.
For undivided India’s armed forces it meant partitioning of men, material and weapons between India and Pakistan. This left India with twelve armoured regiments, while Pakistan got six. Independent India’s founding politico-bureaucratic combo unfortunately laid the foundations of discord in civil-military relations and a disconnect with matters military and national security which not only led to a long-term conflict with Pakistan and little later, with China too, but also fighting the first war with both these counties on greatly disadvantageous terms.
Independence came with a war already thrust on India by the newly sliced out Pakistan army. Over a year after that war began 7 th Cavalry was ordered to move to Zoji La. By then 7 th Cavalry’s configuration had changed from all 3 squadrons of Stuart tanks to one squadron of Stuarts and one each of Humber and Daimler armoured cars as well as Dodge weapon carriers.
While transporting this regiment to Zoji La was a complex feat, it shocked the daylights out of Pak troops and created a new global record of mountain warfare in military history. Because for the western world ‘mountains’ meant 8000 feet, whereas ZojiLa is at 11580 feet.
India’s political leaders and bureaucrats had neither learnt any lessons from the 1947-48 Indo- Pak war, nor heeded the advice/ requests of the military leadership before the Chinese forces on 20 October 1962 launched simultaneous offensives in Ladakh and across the McMahon Line, capturing Rezang la in Chushul in the western theatre, and Tawang in the eastern theatre. Yet again a military decision was taken to move tanks to Chushul and in this case it was 20 th Lancers, equipped with AMX-13 tanks, which was selected for the task. (The move and actions of both 7th Cavalry and 20 th Lancers are briefly described in this feature separately by officers of these regiments)
The two intense tank battles of the 1965 Indo- Pak war, fought at Phillora (Punjab, Pakistan) by Hodson’s Horse (4 Horse) and Poona Horse (17 Horse) and at Asal Uttar (Punjab, India) by 3 Cavalry, 8 Cavalry, Deccan Horse (9 Horse) and Scinde Horse (14 Horse), debilitated Pakistan’s armour and depressed it men’s morale. Pakistani tank crews began to avoid engaging Indian armoured units and even abandoned many of their fully functional tanks which were captured intact. Many tank crews hiding after abandoning their tanks were also captured. By the end of the war Hodson’s Horse had destroyed 79 tanks and 17 recoilless guns of the enemy. Pakistan suffered a crushing defeat in Asal Uttar due to the resolute stance of the Indian troops. It lost 97 tanks, including 72 Pattons; 32 tanks were captured in running condition.
India in contrast lost only five tanks. Near Khem Karan, a stretch where over a 100 destroyed Pakistani tanks were lined up, came to be known as the Graveyard of Pattons. Out of 471 Pakistani tanks destroyed in the war, as claimed by India, over 100 each were destroyed in battles of Phillora and Asal Uttar and 38 were captured.
In the period following the 1965 war, the Armoured Corps got T-54 and T-55, both made by former USSR.
In the 1971 Indo-Pak war,4 Horse led the advance into Pakistan across the Basantar river, known as Degh Nadi in Pakistan and remained in the lead till the end of the 13 day war, destroying disproportionately large number of Pakiatani tanksmostly Pattons tanks with World War II vintage Centurians. Major (later Brig) Amarjit Singh Bal was commanding a squadron of 17th Horse , which was to establish and defend a secure bridgehead on the Basantar river in Shakargarh area. Located at Jarpal, overlooking the river, his squadron was most vulnerable to enemy attack.
Despite heavy shelling by Pak artillery, repeated counter-attacks while being heavily outnumbered for over two days, Major Bal was able to inspire his men to repel destroying as many as 27 Pakistani Patton tanks.
Major Bal was awarded the MVC. Another officer of The Poona Horse and the youngest to get the PVC-postumously- was Arun Khetarpal whose role in the Battle of Basantar, did not end with this thirteen-day war, resulting in the demise of East Pakistan and the creation of the newly liberated Bangladesh.
Major Khwaja Mohammad Nasir, the squadron commander of Pak army 13th Lancers fighting against Poona Horse, who came bandaged the next day to collect the dead bodies of his fallen comrades, wanted to know more about the officer, who stood like an insurmountable rock and whose troop of three Centurian tanks was responsible for decimation of his entire squadron of fourteen Patton tanks.
His bandages were owing to injuries sustained by him in the final engagement of his and Arun tank. 13th Lancers is the same regiment which exchanged its Sikh squadron with the Muslim squadron of The Poona Horse, during partition in 1947. Regiments of T-55 and PT-76 amphibious tanks were deployed effectively in the Eastern sector during the 1971 war contributing to actions in the liberation of Bangladesh.
The Battle of Longewala, Rajasthan, during the 1971 Indo-Pak war, inspired film- maker J.P. Dutta, who made ‘Border’ a war film adapted from real life events and also depicted the tank actions.
During the run-up period prior to Exercise Brass Tacks in 1987, Pakistan army became so jittery apprehending that Indian Army in the guise of an exercise had set out to target its nukes, that it reacted in the Western sector, leading to Indian Army mobilising for war under an operation codenamed Trident. Although Pak army remained deployed in forward posture, it did not start a war, as it had done in 1947, 1965 and 1971 and the mobilisation ended after five months of stalemate.
It was after Operation Trident that a considered decision was taken to deploy a full squadron of 14 tanks in the Ladakh sector, for which 91 Independent Reconnaissance Squadron of The Scinde Horse, equipped with T-72 tanks, was detailed.
For the first time, after some modifications, a T-72 tank was accommodated in IL-76 aircraft without removing the turret. Of the 66 gallantry awards conferred on Indian Army’s Armoured Corps personnel, apart from Arun, who got one of this war’s two Param Vir Chakra, there were three Maha Vir Chakra (one posthumous and one awarded for the second time to the same person), 23 Vir Chakra, one Vishishtha Seva Medal, 17 Sena Medals (including one posthumous) and 21 Mentioned-in- Despatches. The second- time Maha Vir Chakra awardee was Brig. A.S. Vaidya of the Deccan Horse, who later became the Army Chief. 1990s onwards the Armoured Corps started getting T-90 and the Arjun tank indigenously produced in India.
To mark 100 Years of the Tank, in August-September 2016, Indian Army’s Directorate General of Mechanised Forces will organize an exhibition on the lawns of India Gate, where all tanks used by Indian Army in all wars fought since Independence will be displayed along with photographs and accounts of various battles and other operational engagements over the past 69 years.
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