‘Operation LEGHORN’ and the

Battle of the Namka Chu continued...

Brig Dalvi continues:

At this time I was handed my copy of the most fantastic order issued between the 8th of September and the 20th of October 1962.

The signal with a Military Operations Directorate file number (which

I knew by heart after four years) was from the Chief of Army Staff to the entire chain of command. The gist of the order was:

'9 PUNJAB will capture Thagla, contain Yumtsola and Karpola II by 19th September.’

This was not a feasible order based on an estimate of the situation.



It was another slogan sent as a result of political pressure. Apart from the gross impropriety of issuing orders directly to an infantry battalion, Gen. Thapar could have misled the Government into thinking that the operation could be carried out. Politicians do not expect their military chiefs to agree to undertake impossible tasks. A threat of resignation might have sobered the political bosses at that

early stage. Gen. Thapar owed it to the nation to have done so.

On September 11, the Indian government took the decision not to use

the Indian Air Force to provide tactical close air support to the ground

troops, for fear of reprisal by the Chinese air force. It was also decided to

send another brigade, 62 Infantry Brigade at Ramgarh, to NEFA.

On 12th September 1962, Lt. Gen. Sen visited the 4 Infantry

Division’s HQ at Tezpur and issued orders for Operation LEGHORN,

the operation intended to carry out the Prime Minister’s directive to

‘drive out’ the Chinese from the Thagla Ridge, which the Government

of India believed to be Indian territory.

On September 18, 1962, an Indian Government spokesman

informed the Press that the Army had been instructed to drive the Chinese out of the Dhola area in the Kameng region of NEFA.

Brig.Dalvi continues:

The Gorkhas and the Rajputs fetched up at Lumpu by about 26th September. Both the units were not ‘fit for war’ in their

present state. This then was the ‘brigade’ being assembled in the

‘requisite area’ to keep the rash promise made at Delhi.

To be continued...