Tribute to my martyred brother

Col Subhash C Sharma (Retd)

Updated At : 06:15 AM Sep 27, 2015 IST

I and my martyred brother, Capt Ramesh Chander Sharma, were on annual leave at Hoshiarpur when an announcement was made on All India Radio that the leave of all Army personnel had been cancelled. The next morning, we were seen off by our family for our journey to Poonch, where my unit, 42 Field Regiment, was located and my brother’s 8 Grenadiers had just moved in.

I was sent to Gulpur area where my battery of six guns was deployed. After discharging the duties of gun position officer for some time, I was told to move to Sarla piquet as the observation post officer. My duty was to direct artillery fire on the enemy positions. My brother was sent to Mandi area, 20 km from Poonch, for an enemy clearing operation. From there, his unit moved to Sialkot sector.

Sarla piquet, located on a hill, was occupied by a company of 3 Rajput, commanded by Major Rawat. At a distance of approximately 2 km, there was a Pakistani post called Pothi, located on a small hillock devoid of any vegetation. A Pakistani officer would often direct artillery fire on the Sarla piquet.

One day, I got the heart-breaking news of my brother having made the supreme sacrifice. The same night, the Pakistanis started pounding the Sarla post. We immediately took our positions in fire trenches. When I returned to my bunker at midnight, I found it destroyed as a shell had landed on it.

The next morning, Maj Rawat and I decided that enough was enough. We had tried a number of times earlier to punish the Pothi post with infantry unit mortars and artillery guns, but the shells would fall short or land over the target as it was located on a small elevated area. I thought of direct shooting of Pothi. Direct shooting is generally not resorted to by the artillery.

Around 10 am, one of the guns from Gulpur was brought to the area below Sarla, from where you could see Pothi clearly. The first shell landed beyond the target. However, the second landed bang on target. Thereafter, 30 shells were fired in quick succession. In half an hour, Pothi was reduced to rubble.

The Rajput troops watching the operation from Sarla were surprised and impressed by the accuracy and devastating effect of artillery fire.

It was a tribute to my brother.

The writer resides in Chandigarh

Tribute to my martyred brother

Col Subhash C Sharma (Retd)

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