A War Record — All for a bottle of Scotch !
December 16 is celebrated as ‘Victory Day’ because on this day in 1971 a spectacular victory was achieved by India under the able political leadership of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi with brilliant military leadership provided by the Chief of Army Staff, Field Marshal SHFJ Manekshaw. This victory not only liberated erstwhile East Pakistan (present Bangladesh) but handed over the most humiliating defeat to Pakistan. Pak Army in the East surrendered unconditionally and India took 93,000 Prisoners of War who were released only after Shimla Agreement.
Maj. Gen. C. K. Karumbaya, SM (Retd.), now a resident of Mysuru, had the honour of taking part in this war, as part of 2 Corps, 4 Mountain Division, in the Western segment of Bangladesh which was defended by 9 Pak Division. Here is an account of the pursuit operation of 5 Maratha L I (Royals), under Maj. Karumbaya’s command which is considered as a post-Independence war record as the longest and fastest. Now read on. —Ed
by Maj. (later Maj. Gen.) C. K. Karumbaya, SM
It was a proud moment for our Bn, 5 Maratha L I (Fifth Royal) when our GOC Maj. Gen. M. S. Brar, PVSM, presented us a bottle of Scotch whisky, which he had promised during the height of the Bangladesh Liberation War. The occasion was the gala victory dinner for the officers of 4 Mtn. Div. (Red Eagle Division) at Jessore Cantonment. A proud moment indeed.
Mission with a Bait: I took over the command of Fifth Royal after our CO, Lt. Col. J. P. Torpy, VSM, was wounded in the battle of Elangi and evacuated on Dec. 6, 1971. On Dec. 8, we were ordered to move North to Jhenida and link up with 41 Mtn. Bde. I reached Jhenida at about 1100 hrs on Dec. 8 with B Coy commanded by Maj. P. K. Chatterjee, VrC, D Coy commanded by Maj. Shri Ram Singh and A Sqn 45 Cav (PT76) less two tps commanded by Maj. Batra. The rest of the Bn with a Coy of 7 Punjab (SCOTS APCs) who were placed under command were trailing behind as the APCs had problems traversing swampy areas.
Jhenida was still being mopped up by the troops of 41 Mtn Bde. On arrival, I was briefed by 41 Mtn. Bde. Commander, Brig. A. H. E. Michigan, MVC in the presence of GOC, Maj. Gen. M. S. Brar and my own 62 Mtn. Bde. Commander, Brig. Rajender Nath. I learnt that Pak 57 Bde. after its defeat at Jhenida was carrying out an orderly withdrawal towards Magura where HQ of Pak 9 Div. was located. Magura was a strategically located medium sized town. It was 30 km away from Jhenida and connected by a good concrete road. It was a communication centre with excellent roads connecting Khustia in the North, Kamarkhali-Faridpur in the East and Jessore and Khulna in the South.
My Bde. Commander then ordered me to lead the advance of the Bde. and instructed me to be cautious and take all precautions. Thereafter, the Div. Commander stressed the importance of the mission and said half in jest, “Karumbaya, 50 (I) Para Bde is also advancing towards Magura from Jessore and if your Bn succeeds in capturing it earlier than them, I shall present you with a bottle of Scotch!”
I was willing to take the above bait because the morale of Pak Army was in their boots due to a series of setbacks they had suffered earlier on. In contrast our own morale was sky high with our outstanding success, especially at Suadih. This psychological advantage had to be fully exploited.
Calculated Risk and Unorthodox Formation: I took a calculated risk. I used the tanks at my disposal aggressively and unconventionally. Instead of making the tanks move cross country on either side of the road axis (which could have slowed down our speed of advance and made the tanks vulnerable to any nuisance mines which enemy may have placed), I put them all in a road formation with about a 100 yd interval between each tank. I made my D Coy, R Gp and part of B Coy to ride piggy-back on the tanks and drive with full speed towards Magura. I ordered other coys to follow with whatever vehicles they could muster and the balance to march on foot to catch up.
The vanguard Coy Commander, Maj. Shri Ram Singh was in the second tank with Sqn 2IC, Capt. Metha. I followed in the fourth tank with the Sqn. Commander, Maj. Batra and FCO from the Medium Regt. I instructed Maj. Shri Ram Singh to keep watching the area in front and engage suspected delaying positions with prophylactic fire while on the move to scare the enemy. He was not to get bogged down dealing with small batches of enemy stragglers who would be taken care of by follow up troops. I kept a careful watch of the area in front with binoculars glued to my eyes so that we did not fall into a trap as cautioned by the Bde. Commander. As a commander, I realised that I should mix audacity with caution. The occasion certainly called for more audacity and willingness to take calculated risks.
Advance turns into pursuit: The advance (or pursuit) commenced at 1300 hrs and progress was very rapid as though we were in a road race! I was inspired by Field Marshal Rommel, who led his famous Afrika Korps in the deserts during the Second World War! Ironically, our Red Eagle Division had played a prominent part in his eventual defeat. On the way we saw some Pak stragglers running away from the main axis, but we pressed forward relentlessly and reached the outskirts of Magura at 1515 hrs. Infantry and tanks quickly got into assault formations for attack.
The enemy was taken completely by surprise. We were heavily shelled in which one of our artillery OP officer’s jeep was directly hit by a shell and all occupants were killed including the officer.
Capture of Magura: To our great relief, A and C Coys and SKOTS APCs (with their deadly machine guns) started trickling in. The enemy was in total disarray. They fled, leaving behind their 9 Pak Div. Operation Room complete with maps, Quarter Guard with their national and 29 Baluch Regimental flags, kotes full of weapons, ammunition dump (estimated to be about 300 truck loads) and ordnance stores, intact. They had started to make preparations to blow up their ammunition dump with a 6 hr delay fuse which would have been devastating had they had time to activate it.
Pursuit continues: We continued the pursuit beyond Magura towards Kamarkhali, leaving behind C Company and Pioneer Platoon to guard the captured stocks and the prisoners that we had taken in the process. At last light we observed enemy troops crossing a canal after demolishing a culvert on the road about 6 kms ahead of Magura. They were subjected to heavy machine gun fire from our newly arrived APCs and the enemy replied with 105 Howitzers. We firmed in there at night and waited for the tail to catch up.
Pursuit up to Kamarkhali next day: We the Fifth Royal continued to lead the Divisional advance next day, that is on Dec. 9, at first light. The PT 76 tanks and APCs had to be unfortunately left behind due to demolished culvert over sharp banks but the Bn in true Patton style continued the advance on foot at light infantry speed. We reached Kamarkhali Ferry area on the banks of Madhumati river which was about 24 km away by 1130 hrs and firmed in.
Pak defences at Madhumati and their concept of Operations: Pak troops had taken up hasty defences on the East bank of the Madhumati river. Their morale was naturally low due to pressures put on them by us. The Pak Army was mainly road bound whereas we were able to move cross country on man pack basis. Their strategy was to fall back from their forward defences by taking successive delaying positions to their strong points in the rear. The Pak plans that might have looked impressive on paper had gone awry on the first day itself. We had learnt with experience that the enemy was highly sensitive to any outflanking moves as they were afraid of their withdrawal routes being cut off by us.
The Madhumati river was about 300 ft wide and 30 ft deep; but we did not consider it as an insurmountable obstacle. The PT 76 tanks had the ability to swim, ferry troops and stores. In addition, my Bn. had gained expertise in crossing rivers with our own expedients. All ranks knew swimming. To top it, the locals were too willing to carry us across in their own country boats — after all, we were a liberating Army fighting for their freedom.
Disappointment: To our great disappointment, the tanks and APCs which we had left behind near the demolished culvert were withdrawn from us and allotted to 22 Rajput (7 Mtn. Bde.) who were operating in Khustia Sector and we were ordered to stop further advance and firm in at Majai near Kamarkhali. We were ordered not to attempt crossing the Madhumati river.
Thus, our long pursuit ended on the banks of Madhumati abruptly. I felt that instead of pulling out troops from us, if the higher ups had only reinforced us to exploit our success, the 2 Corps Operations would have been a lot speedier and even more spectacular.
Our achievements: I have turned the pages of post-Independence military history books in vain to find out if any other unit of the Indian Army had carried out as long and as rapid a pursuit operation during war as my Battalion. According to Col. Afridi, the Col. Staff of 9 Pak Div. who was taken as PW at Faridpur and remained in our custody, our lightning advance resulted in GOC 9 Pak Div. (Gen. Ansari), who had moved from Jessore to Magura on the first day of the war, losing all control over his brigades. His 107 Bde. (Brig Makhmad Hayat) was forced to withdraw southwards towards Khulna and his 57 Bde. (Brig Manzoor) was hemmed in at Khustia instead of falling back to Madhumati-Faridpur through Magura as visualised earlier.
Perhaps the circumstances were highly favourable to us or the offer of Scotch Bottle promised by the GOC was too tempting to resist; but the fact remains that we in the Fifth Royal are proud of the extremely fast pursuit operation we carried out not only to capture Magura, the HQ of 9 Pak Div; but after capturing it, pursue the enemy much beyond it up to the banks of Madhumati, till ordered to halt.
I am happy to note that the Scotch Bottle, its contents having been emptied on the day of the presentation itself, is now beautifully decorated, mounted and displayed in our Officers’ Mess along with the Pak flags which we captured at Magura.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Feature Articles / Tuesday , December 16th, 2014
