Concluding episode of articles on 1962 war, published on Dec 23, 2012

Rezang La: Death does not matter while defending motherland

While the Indian soldiers were trying to halt the advancing Chinese forces in West Kameng Division, the soldiers in Ladakh also were engaging the Chinese with all their might irrespective of inclement weather, inhospitable terrain, and an unusual altitude. In Ladakh sector also, Indian soldiers fought heroic battles. Still, the most fierce and inspiring battle was fought at Rezang La, an important feature at an altitude of 18,000 feet.
The battle fought on November 18, 1962 highlighted unparalleled courage of Indian soldiers and also revealed where the Indian side lacked in defence preparedness in equipment and clothing. The Chinese soldiers from the mountains of Sinkiang had been operating for years in the frozen, wind-swept plains and plateaus of Tibet. They were equipped with 7.62 SLRs and other modern weapons. Pitted against them were Indian soldiers -- the Ahirs from Haryana, born and bred in the plains. Many of the Indian soldiers had not seen a snowflake till they came to Ladakh. In addition, they were equipped with outmoded .303 single action rifles of World War-II vintage.
Around 4 am on November 18, a patrol from No. 8 Platoon under Naik Hukam Chand discovered a large body of the enemy scrambling up through the gullies towards the Platoon post. He immediately raised an alarm with a fire and a burst from a LMG. No. 7 Platoon had a listening post on north-west toe of Rezang La. Those manning it also had seen the enemy forming up. Within moments, every man in the Company was at his battle station. Between No. 7 and No. 9 Platoons were a couple of gullies that also led down to sandy Rezang Lungpa. To ascertain whether these were clear of the enemy, Maj Shaitan Singh ordered No. 9 Platoon to send out a patrol. It soon returned; these gullies too were swarming with the Chinese.
Once sure that it was going to be a big attack from the Chinese side, the Ahirs waited for it to start, with their fingers on triggers of guns they held. Around 5 am, came the first wave of Chinese. As the gullies through which they had decided to come were ranged and all of C Company’s LMG’s and mortars were trained on them. With every weapon in C Company firing, gullies in front of three Platoons were soon full of dead and wounded Chinese.
As their frontal attack failed, the Chinese changed their plan and began shelling Rezang La. There was heavy shelling of Rezang La, Mugger Hill, Gurung Hill, and Spanggur Gap. Indian Army’s records mention, “...from the blinds recovered it was evident that they employed three types of mortars -- 120 mm, 81 mm and 60 mm. To destroy bunkers, they used 75 mm and 57 mm RCL guns. They brought them on wheel-barrows to the flanks of Indian positions and fired them en masse. The four-foot deep craters found in solid rock around Company Headquarters and No. 9 Platoon were clear indication that they used a certain number of 132 mm rockets also.”
No bunker on Rezang La could survive the massive shelling. A revisit to the place in February 1963 revealed that corrugated iron sheets were in bits, wood logs and supports were reduced to matchwood and sandbags were just shreds of gunny. Still, the men were found in their trenches holding their weapons. Broken LMG bipods and men holding butts of their rifles while the other portion had blown off, bore witness to the intensity of enemy fire.
Every single man of this Platoon No. 8 was found dead in his trench. Everyone had several bullets or splinter wounds. The 2-inch mortar man died with a bomb still in his hand. Jem (short for Jemadar) Hari Ram was found with a bandage on his head. He had apparently tied it in a hurry while rushing from one of his sections to another and was killed there. Medical orderly Dharam Pal Dahiya of AMC attended to the wounded running from one section to another. He was still holding a syringe and a bandage in his hands when a Chinese bullet killed him.
The Ahirs also held fearlessly other positions and foiled the Chinese attack. Despite many casualties, as Chinese advanced, about a dozen Ahirs jumped out of trenches and charged the oncoming enemy having thrice their number. Fighting fiercely, brave Indian soldiers did not let the Chinese move further inside Indian territory till they were alive.
The Mortar Section on the reverse slope of Rezang La had been playing havoc with the enemy. Of 1,000 bombs in stockpile, all had been fired except seven. As the Army records tell, the only survivor was Nk Ram Kumar. With his nose blown off by a hand grenade and eight other wounds from bullets and splinters, he managed to reach Battalion HQs on November 19 after escaping from Chinese custody, tell the records.
Having finished two forward Platoons and Mortar Section, the Chinese turned to Company HQ and No. 9 Platoon. Shelling had almost ruined this position. Despite knowing well that he was surrounded on three sides, Maj Shaitan Singh reorganised the position and re-sited LMGs to take on the attack. Heavy gun-battle ensued. During reorganisation, Maj Shaitan Singh received a burst of fire in one arm. CHM Hav Maj Harphul Singh, who accompanied him, persuaded him to move out. But, the Chinese located them and CHM fell to enemy bullets. Maj Shaitan Singh also received a machine-gun burst in the abdomen. The remaining two men of the party bandaged his wound and picked him up to evacuate him safely, but were caught in cross-fire of enemy machine guns. Showing true leadership qualities, Maj Shaitan Singh ordered his men to leave him where he was and escape. Three months later, Maj Shaitan Singh’s body was found at that very spot.
Of 124 men deployed at Rezang La, 113 died fighting. Five were taken Prisoners of War all  injured, of whom one died in enemy custody. Only six injured survivors including Nk Ram Kumar Yadav, who had escaped from Chinese custody, staggered back to Battalion HQs. After the war, the nation’s highest decoration for gallantry, the Param Vir Chakra, was conferred on Maj Shaitan Singh posthumously; and when his body was recovered, it was flown to his home-town, Jodhpur, where it was cremated with honours befitting a national hero.
Even after 50 years of the war fought in 1962, one is overwhelmed by bravery of the Indian soldiers in unfavourable conditions. For them, even death did not matter while defending motherland. They are the real heroes in every sense of the term.

China declares unilateral cease-fire
The war that actually broke out on October 19/20, 1962, lasted for one month and ended with China declaring unilateral cease-fire on November 21/22 night. However, by the time, India had suffered heavy casualties in terms of loss of life and loss of image for the politicians occupying the highest seats. Of course, Indian soldiers did not let the country down and they ensured that the enemy did not advance till they stood their ground. In the process, they fought several battles valiantly and sent the Chinese to graves.
Unfortunately, as the higher-ups in the Indian Army, Defence Ministry, and even at the Prime Minister’s Office were not able to provide what is called ‘higher direction of war’ to the fighting forces, there was flip-flop in decision-making. Those sitting in Delhi interfered in the decision-making of the field formations. As a result, in many cases, troops fought the battles and even made the supreme sacrifice but later on, the remaining forces were asked to withdraw to lower positions. There were set-backs at many places and Indian soldiers were held captive by the Chinese forces. While China attacked simultaneously at various places as manifestation of its complete strategic and tactical plan, higher-ups on the Indian side appeared to have no idea of what to do.
After the war broke out on October 19/20, theatres in the North-Eastern Frontier Agency (NEFA) as well as Ladakh saw intense action. While the forces were fighting, diplomatic exercises continued between India and China but to no avail. By the end of October 1962, there was a lull in fighting. The Chinese utilised this lull to construct the destroyed bridges and to construct foot-tracks to ensure that reinforcements and supplies reached their troops that had advanced into the Indian territory. Indian side also got time to reorganise and re-shape the plans to counter the aggressors. Unfortunately, here also, higher-ups on the Indian side appeared to be more interested in pleasing the political masters.
On November 14, the birthday of then Prime Minister Pt Jawaharlal Nehru, the leadership of Indian Army formulated a plan to give a ‘gift of victory’ to Nehru. Accordingly, Indian side broke the lull in war and ordered troops to launch an attack on the Chinese at a position north of Walong. The plan was to attack Yellow Pimple in Walong Sector and capture forward slopes of the objectives. Little did the leadership that devised such a plan realise that the Chinese had already prepared for such an attack. As a result, on November 15, massive Chinese attacks on all locations simultaneously in Walong Sector forced Indian troops to fall back. The very next day, the Chinese had overrun Walong forcing 11 Infantry Brigade of India to order withdrawal of all troops from Walong.
For next three days, the Chinese again became aggressive and they ensured that no Indian troops remained in Aksai Chin in the north and NEFA in the north-east. By the time, the Indian leadership had started approaching the United States of America for help. The USA also started making up its mind to intervene into the matter. However, the Chinese sensed this development pretty fast. On November 21/22 night, Chinese Premier Zhou En-Lai announced unilateral cease-fire. As India accepted it, the matter of requesting military aid from the USA automatically got laid to rest.
In the hindsight, many strategists have pondered over the timing of the unilateral cease-fire declared by China. There are many in the Indian Army who believe that by November 21, already the snow-fall had begun and in the next week or so, it would have intensified. Heavy snow-fall would have blocked the supply and reinforcement routes for the Chinese who had moved in a great distance from McMahon Line. In that case, with a little thought, the Indian side would have been in a position to dominate gradually. That would have led to a major embarassment for the Chinese side. Besides, by this time, Chinese domestic problems had intensified and its leadership was facing criticism from some quarters. One of the major factors was the US’ mood to intervene and offer military aid to India. After giving all these and other intricate factors a deeper thought, the Chinese decided to announce unilateral cease-fire.
With India accepting the cease-fire announced by the Chinese, the 1962 war came to an end. From December 1, 1962, the Chinese and Indian troops withdrew 20 kms from new boundary lines and repatriation of prisoners of war started. The whole process took almost seven months to complete.

The Aftermath
There was a political storm over the ‘leadership debacle’ in 1962 war in India. The then Prime Minister Pt Jawaharlal Nehru’s image took a severe beating though he continued to occupy the highest position in the Government. However, the Defence Minister V K Krishna Menon had to lose his job. He was replaced by another Congressman, Yashwantrao Chavan from Maharashtra. There were changes in the structure of the Indian Army as well as the Intelligence Bureau also. To worsen the situation for political leadership of the time, several Army officers camp up with their own analytical accounts of the war. Several books written by others also continued to come in the market till at least 1967. Prominent among these books are Brigadier J P Dalvi’s ‘The Himalayan Blunder’, Lt Gen B M Kaul’s ‘The Untold Story’, ‘The Guilty Men of 1962’ by D R Mankekar, ‘India and the Chinese Invasion’ by V K Krishna Menon, ‘Chinese Invasion of NEFA’ by S R Johri etc. Many of these books are out-of-print now.

Brooks-Bhagat Committee
As everyone sought answers as to what went wrong and cost India so much of precious manpower, Chavan’s first task was to appoint a ‘NEFA Enquiry’ panel comprising of two top Army officers namely Lt Gen Henderson Brooks and Brigadier P S Bhagat.
Unfortunately, for the explosive content of the report, it was held back. Till date, the report has not been made available in the public domain. However, there are some books/records of which the authors have claimed that they had had access to the top-secret report. Journalist-author Neville Maxwell, in his famous book ‘India’s China War’ has claimed to have got access to the report. The official history of 1962 war instituted by the Ministry of Defence also claims to have incorporated content from the Brooks-Bhagat Committee report.