The Brave: Param Vir Chakra Stories (13 page)

On 27 August 1965, war was declared. Maj Ajai Singh of17 Horse, who was home on leave for his son’s birth, got to know of it when his father-in-law told him that Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shashtri was addressing the nation on the radio.

The 17 Horse was at Kapurthala when the war was declared. Officers on leave, like Maj Ajai Singh, located their regiment following what they heard from locals about the tank movement. When Maj Ajai Singh finally found his unit and his CO, they had reached a village ahead of Samba. ‘The reality of that war was that there were no maps, no one knew where to go; we were just told to be ready to go whenever the orders came, ‘ he remembers nostalgically. The orders finally came one night.

It had rained in the night and the fields were full of slush. It was a cold winter morning when school-going children and women on their way to fill water in Barkhania, a border village of Pakistan, were surprised to see green battle tanks splashing past. They stood and watched in awe waving to the men in dungarees, who were standing upright in open cupolas. Some called out to the soldiers, who smiled back at them, while others just gaped at the 45 monster machines rumbling past languidly, one behind the other.

What the Pakistani villagers did not know was that these were the feared Centurion tanks of 17 Horse. They had received orders in the night to cross the Indo-Pak border at first light and that was exactly what they were doing. Lt Col Tarapore had passed on strict instructions that civilians were not to be harmed. ‘Our fight is with the Army. We shall not touch any innocent men, women or children, ‘ was what he had said, his voice cracking on the wireless sets. All the men could hear it. And that was why the villagers had mistaken them for friendly Pakistani soldiers.

Till the night before, the men of 17 Horse had been waiting patiently in their tents, 8 km inside of the border. In the night they could not only hear, but also see the firing between the two clashing armies. Needless to say, they were raring to join the battle. When the orders finally came, the nervous tension of the wait was immediately relieved and the men started preparing for war in earnest. They would finally see some action.

It was the first day of the battle of Chawinda. The regiment was deployed in Sialkot district of Pakistan’s Punjab province. When Lt Col Tarapore called his second-in-command Maj N. S. Cheema (now Lt Gen [retd]) aside, the latter thought it was a regular war briefing that the CO wanted to give him. However, it seems that the colonel had had a premonition about his own death.

Maj Cheema was surprised when Lt Col Tarapore went on to give him detailed instructions on what do in case he was killed in battle. ‘”I must be cremated in the battlefield,” he said. “My prayer book must be given to my mother; my gold chain to my wife; my ring to my daughter; my bracelet and pen to my son,”’ Col Tarapore told (then) Maj Cheema, who later recounted this to
Sakal Times
in an interview. ‘He paused and then added, “And, Niranjan, please tell my son Xerxes to join the army”.’ Five days later, on 16 September 1965, Tarapore was fatally wounded after being hit by an enemy artillery shell.

The biggest tank battle of the 1965 Indo-Pak War took place at Phillora in the Sialkot sector. During the southern thrust of the Indian Army on the Kaloi-Phillora axis, 17 Horse commanded by Lt Col Tarapore advanced on the right flank.

The battle for Phillora started on 10 September with the Indian troops launching a massive attack. On 11 September, the regiment was assigned the task of delivering the main armoured thrust for capturing Phillora. It decided upon launching a surprise attack on Phillora from the rear. The 1
^st
Armoured Division, equipped with four armoured regiments, was on the offensive in the area. Unstopped by the enemy, the tanks just kept moving into Pakistan. At around 11 a. m. the first air attack came. Till then the buggers had had no idea that we were so much inside their country, ‘ chuckles General Ajai Singh, who was a young major in the C Squadron of 17 Horse, which was leading. Pakistan surprised the advancing Army by sudden strafing though the air attacks did more damage to lorry and infantry columns and less to the tanks. The toll was heavy, however, Gen Ajai Singh remembers; the regiments 16 Cavalry and Hodson Horse were butchered. There was complete chaos. Many of the men standing in their cupolas were hit and just collapsed or were badly injured. Gen Ajai Singh remembers he was standing on his turret when a shell hit his toolbox and his blanket caught fire. The fire was quickly put out and no damages were incurred.

The Patton tanks of Pakistan were facing the armoured units 16 Cavalry and Hodson Horse. The air attack had taken such a heavy toll that they were reeling back. The morale of the men was at a low. It was at this time that, on Tarapore’s initiative, 17 Horse moved in to stabilize the situation. As was typical of him, he did not wait for instructions and just attacked the Pakistanis without any warning. ‘And what a ferocious attack it was, ‘ says the old General remembering that smoke-filled morning with pride. ‘We destroyed 13 tanks in the first go.’ Intense fighting continued for two days and Pakistani forces were forced to beat a retreat towards Chawinda. Phillora was captured by the Indians 3. 30 p. m. on 11 September. Pakistan’s 11 Cavalry fought well, but lost so many tanks that from that day onwards it ceased to function as a complete tank regiment. Tarapore was wounded in the operation. A splinter had smashed through his arm leaving a gaping wound. Since he was not able to move his arm, it had to be put in a sling.

After the capture of Phillora, the brigade commander and general officer commanding came over to compliment 17 Horse. Immediate awards were discussed but Lt Col Tarapore brushed them offsaying his regiment was just doing its duty. He refused to be evacuated insisting that the wound was ‘just a scratch’. Besides, he still had to oversee the attack on Chawinda. Meanwhile the Pakistani forces retreated and regrouped. They would put up a last fight at Chawinda.

The plan was that Chawinda would be attacked by the infantry on the afternoon of 13-14 September and 17 Horse would encircle it. The task was given to C Squadron. Gen Ajai Singh remembers how his squadron’s tanks started moving in with 9 Garhwal as support. The Indian Army did not realize that Pakistani tanks were already hiding under cover in Buttar Dograndi, waiting for the attack. When C Squadron’s tanks broke cover to attack the village, six out of ten were shot on the spot by the Pakistani Pattons. Since the enemy was hidden and the 17 Horse tanks had to move out of the sugar cane fields and expose themselves for the attack, the situation quickly took a turn for the worse. Maj Ajai Singh immediately called his CO on the wireless and informed him about the situation.

‘I asked him for immediate reinforcements otherwise Buttar Dograndi would be lost.’ He recollects how Tarapore moved in at once with his own tank while directing A Squadron to join the battle as well. ‘I don’t know if the message got relayed properly or not in the complete chaos of war but when the others saw the CO’s tank moving towards Buttar Dograndi, some started following him as well. The result was that I had reinforcements.’ says Gen Ajai Singh.

While the Pakistani Pattons were well-hidden in the foliage in the village a km away, the Indian tanks had broken cover from sugar cane fields for the attack. It was a daring attack, but the nine Centurions— which included five of Maj Ajai Singh, three of A Squadron and one of CO Tarapore—attacked the Pattons and destroyed all six of them. Buttar Dograndi was captured.

It was a moment of silent celebration for 17 Horse and its CO. Not only had Lt Col Tarapore defied the enemy’s charge, he had held his ground and gallantly attacked Phillora. Though under continuous enemy tank and artillery fire, he had remained unperturbed throughout this action. When wounded, he had refused to be evacuated.

On 14 September, he again led his regiment to capture Wazirwali. Unmindful of his injury, he captured Jassoran and Buttar Dograndi on 16 September. In this battle his own tank was hit several times. But despite the odds, he maintained his pivots at both these places and thereby helped the supporting infantry to attack Chawinda from the rear. Inspired by his leadership, the regiment fiercely attacked and destroyed approximately 60 enemy tanks, suffering only nine tank casualties.

The valour displayed by him in this action, lasting six days, was in keeping with the highest traditions of the Indian Army. But soon, he would meet a painful though glorious end.

Tarapore is quite relaxed. He has finished his prayers in a relaxed way, the daring capture of Buttar Dograndi is fresh in his mind and he is proud of the men he has commanded. The battle is still on, but he knows it is just a matter of time before Pakistan caves in. Standing at his tank hatch, he is watching the battlefield, a cup of tea in his right hand, the left arm still in a sling. He is discussing the situation with his intelligence officer who is also on the tank and standing to his right. It is typical of him to stand in the open, unguarded, giving instructions or just surveying the area. At that unfortunate moment, a freak shell whizzes in and hits his tank, setting it on fire at once. Both Tarapore and his intelligence officer are enveloped in flames. They have taken a direct hit.

Maj Ajai Singh is evacuating a gunner who has fallen off his tank, and he freezes when he hears from his operator that the CO has been hit. Shocked, he rushes to the spot to find Lt Col Tarapore’s lifeless body laid out on the ground, bathed by the orange rays of the setting sun.

It is 6 p.m. While Lt Col Tarapore’s body is tearfully taken back, his disabled tank Khushab, named after a famous battle honour where the 17 Horse got two Victoria Crosses, has to be left behind. It is later captured by Pakistan.

For the valour displayed by him in this action, lasting six days, which is in keeping with the highest traditions of the Indian Army, Lt Col Ardeshir Burzorji Tarapore is decorated with the highest war-time gallantry medal, the Param Vir Chakra, posthumously.