4 Guards’ stirring saga of courage and sacrifice

Col DPK Pillay (Retd)

Research Fellow, MP-IDSA, New Delhi

THERE are several paltans and then there are the ones that are legendary. The 4 Guards (1 Rajput) is one of those whose rank and file have proved their mettle time and again, challenging odds and human limits. It also has had the honour of providing India’s finest Generals, including the first Indian Commander-in-Chief of the Army, Gen (later Field Marshal) KM Cariappa.

In 1947, this paltan was in Razmak, the tribal badland of Pakistan’s frontiers. Besides the threat from the tribals, orders had been issued by Pakistan General HQ that no stores, including regimental silver, could leave Razmak and only 20 rounds per soldier were allowed. The story of the evacuation from Razmak to Amritsar, not only with all men and material but also several hundreds of non-Muslim women and children, is a thriller by all accounts. Knowing the odds of evacuating from a hostile tribal territory, Col Bakshi Kuldip Singh, Commandant of 1 Rajput, volunteered for road-opening duties. Using this cover, he moved all his stores, equipment and weapons to Bannu and thereafter to Gardai. By the third week of October, the entire unit was relocated, surprising Gen (later Field Marshal) Ayub Khan, who was then in command of the brigade there. He claimed that no Muslim train driver was available so as to prevent the unit from moving by train. On the paltan’s roster was a former railway officer who volunteered to drive the narrow gauge to Mari-Indus and then took the broad gauge to the Attari border.

From Bannu, the battalion also evacuated a large number of women and girls to Amritsar, reaching there on November 3, 1947. The unit was inspected on arrival and it was learnt that not only did it have surplus clothing but had also brought along surplus weapons, including machine guns and mortars.

Gen Cariappa diverted the paltan from Ranchi to Gurdaspur with the responsibility of the border from Dera Baba Nanak to Madhopur since he felt that the battalion would do better in active combat — and the paltan did so, for very soon the onus of defending Naushera from raiders fell on the shoulders of young Naik Jadunath Singh’s picket in Taindhar. Gandhiji famously said the West had but one Thermopylae, but in India every pass had one. The unequal battle took place under an equally legendary commander, Brig Usman of 50 Para Brigade. Despite the winter setting in, the enemy had succeeded in keeping up the pressure and intended to choke the road between Akhnoor and Jhangar. On December 25, 1947, the enemy captured dominating heights that overlooked Jhangar road. Brig Usman, under whom 1 Rajput served, decided to hold every possible approach and that is where Naik Jadunath and his brave men had made their last stand on the morning of February 6, 1948. As the enemy pressed on in waves, Naik Jadunath and his men repulsed each wave long enough for reinforcements to arrive. The story of a small band of men overcoming an overwhelming enemy is always the basis of a legend and Naik Jadunath and his band of men were no less valorous than the warriors at Rezang La or Saragarhi. Naik Jadunath became the second recipient of the Param Vir Chakra (after Major Somnath Sharma).

The paltan was stationed in Gaza during the 1962 war with China. But in the race to Dacca in 1971, the paltan, under inspirational Lt Col (later Lt Gen) Himmeth Singh, fought battles that were epic by all standards and rewrote history. There are two parts in a battlefield: one is tactical, the actual combat where soldiers carry out bloody actions to capture, destroy or kill, and the other is strategic — the cold, calculated mind that plans the operation harmonising all elements in a battlefield. At one end is the primordial violence of a physical war and at the other end is the lonely and intellectual strategy that runs in the mind of the commander.

After a formidable 72-hour operation against the enemy stronghold at Akhaura, a squadron of PT-76 tanks led by Major Shammi Mehta of 63 Cavalry, aided by other elements of 311 Mountain Brigade, pulverised Akhaura, triggering a hasty retreat with 4 Guards and the tank squadron in hot pursuit. Gen Sagat Singh, Lt Col Himmeth Singh and the tank squadron were in perfect harmony as they executed this masterstroke.

The mastermind, Gen Sagat Singh, decided that the knockout punch would be delivered elsewhere and ordered 4 Guards (1 Rajput) to reassemble at Brahmanbaria, while allowing 18 Rajput and 10 Bihar to pursue the enemy, who assumed that the objective was the Brahmanbaria bridge and thus blew it up. The enemy had thwarted the advance but had not taken into consideration the wily warrior’s experience in combat and the guardsmen under his command. He shifted his sights to Dacca and established a heli bridge over the Meghna with Group Capt Chandan Singh. It remains a feat unparalleled as a battalion was flown across the mighty Meghna by a squadron of helicopters, while the PT-76 squadron swam across the ocean-like river. The fall of Dacca was thus a matter of time and it remains an exemplary example of humanitarian intervention.

The battalion is celebrating its 225th anniversary today, having chosen the Taindhar Day to do so. In the 75th year of the Indian republic, there can be no greater tribute to the country’s tradition of valour and courage. In joining 4 Guards (1 Rajput) in their celebrations, we honour the valour of the immortal Indian soldier who, like PVC awardee Naik Jadunath Singh, often makes the supreme sacrifice for what he holds dearer than his own life.

The author, a Shaurya Chakra awardee, is a veteran of 4 Guards

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