How Pak bridge was blown off in risky conditions

Maj-Gen Mohan Singh (retd)

Ex-officer of Corps of Engineers

Dera Baba Nanak (DBN) is a small town near Gurdaspur in Punjab, located on the banks of the Ravi river. Though the international border between India and Pakistan generally runs along the river line, there are certain areas of Pakistan which are across the river towards the Indian side. One such area is near DBN and is called the Pakistan DBN Enclave. In this enclave, there was a rail-cum-road bridge over the river which connected the enclave to Narowal and Sialkot towns in Pakistan. This bridge was used to provide logistics support to the Pakistani troops deployed in the enclave.

One of the operational plans of Pakistan was to launch an attack through this enclave and capture the towns of DBN, Gurdaspur and Pathankot and cut off the supply lines to Jammu and Kashmir. Hence, this was a critical area as far as India was concerned.

The war broke out on December 3, 1971. On the night of December 5, 86 Infantry Brigade of the Indian Army, under the command of Brig Gauri Shankar, launched an offensive and captured the enclave by the morning of December 6, pushing the enemy back across the river.

I was commanding 83 Engineer Field Company (55 Engineer Regiment). We were operationally under 86 Infantry Brigade. On the evening of December 16, I had just finished my dinner in the underground bunker at Dera Baba Nanak, when I heard the news over the radio that the Pakistan Army in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) had surrendered and India had declared a unilateral ceasefire with effect from 8 pm the next day, i.e., December 17, 1971.

I had been earlier warned by my Commanding Officer, 55 Engineer Regiment, that the rail-cum-road bridge of Pakistan over the Ravi at DBN would have to be demolished before the ceasefire. Now that ceasefire had been declared with effect from the next evening, it meant that the bridge would have to be demolished that night itself. Sure enough, at 10.15 pm, I received a telephone call from my commander engineers that the bridge be demolished by the first light next day, i.e., December 17.

I took my 2IC, Lt PB Vartak, one JCO, one Havildar and a section of sappers for the task. We moved out from the company location, carrying explosives and stores that would be required for the task. Normally, it would have taken about 20 minutes to reach the bridge site. However, heavy mortar firing and artillery shelling was going on and twice, we had to stop and take cover in the folds of the ground to avoid being hit by the shells. We reached the bridge site by 11.15 pm, tucked the vehicles behind earthen bundhs to prevent them from getting damaged and moved to the bridge site along with the explosives. It was 11.30 pm.

The bridge had a dual carriageway: the roadway on the top and the railway line running below. We decided to tackle the road bridge first. Our explosives were put in five wooden crates, each having 200 kg of explosives. It required eight men to lift one crate and haul it up to the top of the bridge.

Due to the continuous shelling in the area, we had to stop work many times when the shelling was heavy and take shelter in the trenches. Also, the enemy had put one machinegun on ‘fixed line’ over the bridge and was intermittently firing bursts. Hence, we could not stand and work as the bullets would have hit us.

Therefore, we had to crawl to push the crates into place. It was a very tedious and difficult task and took a considerable amount of time. All this time, the Engineers’ party was fully exposed to the shelling and firing that was going on. Having placed all five crates, we connected these with cordtex and put primers in the explosives (gun cotton slabs). It was already 2.30 am and we still had a lot of work to do. Then, we moved down to the railway track to prepare the heavy steel girders for demolition.

This was an old bridge, constructed with steel plates and girders braced together. Since it supported the road bridge on the top, the steel columns, plates and girders were very thick and heavy. To destroy these, we planned to use cutting charges. However, we found that the PEK explosives would not stick to the steel girders as the girders were very cold and damp. We tried using mud from the river bank to make the gun cotton (GC) slabs stick, but that also did not help as the mud was mostly sandy. Ultimately, we used a combination of GC slabs and PEK explosives and used steel wire, thin ropes and mud all together to put these in place. Also, we used a combination of both footing and cutting charges. A total of 1,400 kg of explosives had been used for the demolition. We were finally ready by 5 am.

We had been working on the bridge now for more than five hours, fully exposed to artillery and mortar shelling and machinegun fire. Had any shell or bullet hit any of our crates with explosives, all of us on the bridge would have been blown off.

As per the engineering practice, we tested the rate of burning of the safety fuse and set it for a burning time of two minutes. We rechecked the circuits and put the detonators in place. The weather was very cold, damp and foggy, and it took a considerable amount of time to light the fuses.

Once the fuses were lit, we ran back to the safety of our bunker in the rear. We felt great anxiety while waiting for the explosion. We put fingers in our ears and waited for the big bang. Finally, in another minute and a half, there was a huge blast and the bridge was blown off. The bang was so loud that it shook the enemy, and they opened fire with all their weapons.

We waited inside the bunker till the firing had subsided. Then we moved out cautiously to see the result and check what damage had been done to the bridge. It was dark and the whole area was full of smoke and dust and tree leaves were flying all around. We could hardly see beyond 20 metres. All trees and the sarkanda grass within a 100-metre radius were charred black. The leaves of trees within 50 metres had been blown off. A brick building near the bridge was completely destroyed. The infantry bunkers/ trenches up to 150 metre alongside the bridge had collapsed. The road bridge was completely destroyed and it had slumped to the ground. The railway bridge was totally shattered and it had fallen into the river.

There is now no possibility of the bridge ever being repaired or reconstructed. In future, a major offensive by the enemy through this sector is ruled out. Due to the demolition of this bridge, the operational plans of the enemy in this area have, perforce, to undergo a change.

This demolition is a milestone in the history of the Indian Army. It is the first time ever that a huge bridge of this size had been demolished during operations.

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