Chapter 13 - Eastern Arunachal Pradesh: The Walong Battle begins....

The earthquake of 15th August, 1950, and the consequent floods had left the Walong-Hayuliang Valley cut off from the rest of Assam, and therefore the Rima (Tibet) - Walong approach to Lohit Frontier Division (FD) was a minor threat at best.

Infantry Division on induction had been given the responsibility for the entire NEFA front of about 500 km, a totally impractical assignment. The Walong Sector, at the eastern end of NEFA, the operational responsibility of 5 Brigade of 4 Div from end-1959, was too far away for HQ 4 Infantry Division to coordinate or command from Kameng or even Tezpur.

There was initially, from June 1962, just an Assam Rifles platoon in this area. When 62 Infantry Brigade from Ramgarh [Jharkhand] arrived in NEFA in September 1962, two of its battalions, 4th Sikh and 2/8 Gorkha Rifles, were sent directly to Jorhat and put under 5 Brigade.

On 19th October, due to reported Chinese activity across the McMahon Line, ‘A’ Coy of 6th Kumaon, the third battalion was sent forward to the Dichu area, while 4th Sikh was in the process of being inducted into the sector. A platoon from the Kumaoni company was moved further forward before 20th October. Both these forward platoons were pushed back by the Chinese when they attacked them on night 21st-22nd October.

With two battalions, 4th Sikh and 6th Kumaon, in Walong, there were problems of coordination in the sector. It was decided that operations in this sector would be handled by an independent infantry brigade.

For this purpose, on 25th October, 181 Infantry Brigade under Brig. J.C. Hartley, Military Cross, of the Sikh Regiment, arriving from southern Assam and Tripura, was made responsible for the Walong Sector. On 27th October, Hartley had just taken over command of this active sector from 5 Brigade. By lucky coincidence, 4th Sikh, now under his brigade command, was his own battalion, and this battalion at least would have taken great heart from the fact. 5 Brigade would take over responsibility for Central NEFA.

To be continued....