Salute to a Soldier-1           Narasimhan Vijayaraghavan             It was  on 13th Dec 2022, fifty one years ago to the day that Sam delivered his forceful message to the Pakistani army to surrender to the allied forces. It was just after the US Seventh Fleet beat a hasty retreat upon sighting the Russian nuclear submarines which fleetingly surfaced to aid India’s noble cause.

Salute to a Soldier-1

Narasimhan Vijayaraghavan

 

 

 

It was  on 13th Dec 2022, fifty one years ago to the day that Sam delivered his forceful message to the Pakistani army to surrender to the allied forces. It was just after the US Seventh Fleet beat a hasty retreat upon sighting the Russian nuclear submarines which fleetingly surfaced to aid India’s noble cause.

 

Here is my starting salvo till Dec 16th,2022, a four part series, as my personal tribute to the man who inspired me to write “ Sam Manekshaw’s Beloved Armed Forces”, Kalaimagal Publications,2021.

 

 

 

 

December 16th is a few days’ way. We

would, on that date be celebrating the 51st anniversary of the liberation of East Pakistan a.k.a. Bangladesh. Indira’s India did it under the legendary leadership of Field Marshal  Sam Hormusji Framji Jamshedji Manekshaw. ( It was at the military academy he gave himself this longish name to challenge an English officer’s).

 

And he became a soldier,”Only because my father refused to sponsor me to become a doctor in England like my brother, as according to him my academic scores were dismal. I stole Rs.500/- from my mother to  secretly buy the application form to join the forces. I promise I returned it in full measure to my mother”. ‘What an investment  he made for We the Nation & We the People, from a simple steal’ said Nani Palkhivala, a fellow Parsi.

 

 

 

December 3: Operation Chengiz Khan by Pakistan Air Force launched airstrikes against Indian airfields in the Western Sector, including Amritsar, Pathankot, Srinagar, Avantipura, Ambala, Sirsa, Halwara, Agra.

 

December 4: Battle of Longewala takes place in Rajasthan where Pakistani advance towards Jaisalmer is thwarted

 

December 5: Battle of Ghazipur in East Pakistan. Battle of Basantar in the Western sector in Pakistan’s Punjab in the Shakargarh salient near Sialkot. Battle of Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur district of Punjab

 

December 6: India formally recognizes Bangladesh as an independent nation. The city of Jessore is liberated

 

December 7: Battle of Sylhet and Moulovi Bazaar begins in Bangladesh

 

December 8: Operation Trident- Indian Navy launches attack on the Pakistani port city of Karachi

 

December 9: Indian Army fights Battle of Kushtia in Bangladesh. Chandpur and Daudkandi liberated. A helicopter bridge airlifts Indian troops across the Meghna river and makes the fall of Dhaka a matter of time

 

December 10: Chittagong airbase in Bangladesh attacked by Indian Air Force aircraft

 

December 11: Tangail airdrop of a Parachute Battalion to cut off retreating Pakistani troops in Bangladesh

 

December 12 – Indian forces push through to Dhaka and enter the city.

 

 

Morale boosting visit to forward area

 

On Dec 13th, The advance party of the allied force reaches near Dhaka, only 5-6 miles away, crossing the Balu and Shitalakkhya rivers.The allied force in the northern region start advance towards Bogra from Govindaganj. The allied force cordons Bogra town. In midnight, three battalions attack from northern, southern and north-eastern part of the town.

 

On Dec,13 th at 11.00 am, Sam Maneskshaw’s voice boomed  across Dacca and beyond , urging the Pakistanis ‘to see the writing on wall and in my pocket’. “ In my pocket’? Yes, Sam will not be Sam, if he did not amuse himself  even when the  entire world was pregnantly tense.

 

You see, Sam was fond of the number 4. He received 4 bullets in Rangoon Burma in 1941, world war. He chose Dec 4,1971 to launch the operation. He drafted the Articles of Surrender in anticipation of victory, and kept 4 copies ‘in his pocket’. One to be signed by the Pakistanis. One to the Pakistanis. One to Indian Army. And One (on the sly- as he impishly said) to himself. And he never drank ‘less than four pegs’.

 

 

 

Major General David Cowan, commander of the 17th Infantry Division, spotted Manekshaw clinging to life and, having witnessed his valour in the face of stiff resistance, rushed over to him in 1941 on the battlefield in Rangoon. The general pinned his own Military Cross ribbon on him saying, “A dead person cannot be awarded a Military Cross” – as he feared Manekshaw would die before his valour was honoured.

 

A very loyal and loving subordinate – an orderly named Sher Singh evacuated an extremely wounded Manekshaw from the battlefield and took him to the Australian surgeon who initially refused to operate on Sam as he looked an unlikely candidate to make it. Sher Singh, however, would not take no for an answer and in the meantime, Sam briefly regained consciousness.

 

Look at the spirit and positivity of this badass soldier – a quality that helped him win many a battle for India throughout his life. The surgeon asked what had happened to him.

 

Sam replied: “A bloody mule kicked me.”

 

The surgeon laughed and said: “By Jove, you have a sense of humour. I think you are worth saving”.

 

The surgeon removed much of Sam’s intestines and stitched him up.

 

When Sam’s father got to know of his near fatal injuries, the old man of medicine cautioned,’Son, you have been shot in the liver; if you drink you’ll be a dead man. You have been shot in the lungs; if you smoke you’ll be a dead man. You have been shot in the spleen; if you eat unwisely, you’ll be a dead man.’.

 

Narrating this many years later, Sam would add his own twist, ‘I obeyed my father, and almost died’.

 

 

 

 

During a visit to USSR,he was driven to the hotel by the liaison officer Lt.Gen.Kupriano escorted Sam and his wife Siloo to their room. When Kupriano was about to take leave, Siloo requested that she may be taken to ‘her’ room. The officer was nonplussed. Sam explained,” Oh, you see, I snore like a bull dog in a war. She needs peace as she suffers from insomnia. Then Sam whispered into the ear of Kupriano, “ Of all the women I ‘knew’, Siloo was the only one who complained about his snoring”. The Lt.Gen. laughed heartily , slapping vigorously and repeatedly on Sam’s back.

 

Sam lived life full.

 

I loved it when Sam kept me company, when I wrote on him.

 

 

Sam’s Doodle during a Security Meeting

 

Let’s keep our date on Dec 14 with the one and only Sam Bahadur. Shall we?

 

( Author of Sam Manekshaw’s Beloved Armed Forces,Kalaimagal Publications,2021-practicing advocate in the Madras High Court)

 

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