‘Operation LEGHORN’ and the

Battle of the Namka Chu continues...

The next attack came in at 1200 hours from three sides, the north, east and west, and developed into hand-to-hand fighting. Finally, realizing that the position was unable to hold on any longer, Brig. Dalvi

issued orders at 1230 hours for the troops to withdraw, but the post was

over-run when their ammunition ran out.

To their credit, the Chinese did not resort to savagery after capturing the post, but allowed the defeated garrison to withdraw with honour, carrying their weapons and

dead. The 9th Punjab troops suffered numerous casualties: 6 dead, 11

wounded, including Maj. Chaudhary who later died of his wounds, and

5 missing. Peking Radio announced the Chinese casualties as 77 dead

and approximately 100 wounded.

Apart from the brigade commander, the two generals above him, his divisional commander Maj. Gen. Niranjan Prasad and the corps commander Lt. Gen. Kaul, had both also had a grand-stand view of the battle.

He immediately sought permission from EasternCommand to go to Delhi to personally explain the position to Army Headquarters. He was thus in Delhi the next day at a high-powered meeting chaired by the Prime Minister and attended by the Defence Minister, the Army and Air Chiefs, the Cabinet, Foreign and Defence

Secretaries, GOC-in-C Eastern Command [Sen], the Director of the Intelligence Bureau, and the Joint Secretary ‘G’ [Mr. H.C. Sarin] from the Defence Minstry. Explaining the seriousness of the situation and the likelihood of major reverses, Lt. Gen. Kaul asked for orders to pursue

one of the three alternative courses of action:

A. Continue build-up in the Kameng sector and launch an attack on the Chinese.



B. Cancel the orders for an attack, but to hold the line of the Namka Chu.

C. Hold a more advantageous position elsewhere.

To be continued...