Integrity Score 390
No Records Found
No Records Found
The Western Sector: The Ladakh Battle continues.....
‘C’ Company of 13th Kumaon, entirely composed of Ahirs (Yadavs), at Rezangla, and two companies of 1st/8th Gorkha
Rifles, of Magar and Gurung Gorkhas, in the ‘Gurung Hill’ area, made the Chinese pay heavily for their capture of the area up to their ‘Claim Line’ in the Chushul area, by making epic ‘last man-last round’ stands.
However, out of all the Indian troops deployed by 18th November, only these three companies of two battalions of one brigade had actually been engaged by the Chinese. The other two brigades had not been involved in the fighting.
The determined stand at Chushul was probably the only organized defensive battle fought by the Indian Army in 1962.
The Ministry of Defence’s ‘History of the Conflict with China, 1962’, speculates, based on official records, that an extra battalion and a full regiment of artillery, the standard fire support complement for a brigade, might well have enabled the gallout defenders of Chushul to smash all the enemy assaults on Gurung Hill and Rezang La.
NOTES
1. He belonged to the Kumaon Regiment, and was later to become Chief of Army
Staff.
2. Government of India, Ministry of Defence, op. cit., p. 338.
The Western Sector: The Ladakh Battle concluded!