Tawang September 1962 The Balloon goes up

Lull before the storm
It was the proverbial ‘Lull before the Storm’ that day on 8th of September of 1962, a Saturday, a weekend the legacy left by the British. In bracing cold Tawang at 10000feet plus was basking in bright sunshine. A clear day with the greens of the meadows, the deep blues of the sky, the silver of the river Tawang Chu flowing deep in the valley, the browns and reds of houses of the Tawang village, the majesty of the Tawang Monastery visible not far away was over powering. It was not too cold, not too hot but just pleasant Tawang that day was a tourist’s delight. However, there were no tourists in Tawang those days except the occasional VIP's who choppered to stay for lunch, give sermons, talk in platitudes and fly back again to civilisation in plains of Tezpur, Lucknow or Delhi.

Bde HQ
In any case it was too quiet and peaceful to resemble a noisy and bustling tourists resort with the Brigade HQ equally quiet. There was no officer present in the HQ except Lt Sharma the Brigade Ordnance Officer the duty-officer of the day; all others had gone off to attend a Bara Khana in one of the battalions.

Tension
It was my practice to go for an evening walk in the afternoon. I was reluctant to go out on this day as there was no one in the Bde HQ. However Lt Sharma insisted even though he was the duty officer. We had been lulled to the extent that even the duty officer was willing to leave his post with firm faith that nothing could happen especially in our Brigade Sector. We left via the Signal Centre as was my practice. It was all quiet there nothing on the air or line: some how too peaceful to my liking. We may have been away from the HQ at the most for an hour. However as we approached the HQ I could feel a tension in the air resulting in quickening of our pace. The scene had completely changed. It was getting dark and gloomy and there was unease in the atmosphere. Some thing was wrong very wrong.

Assam Rifles Post Surrounded
Wondering as to what had happened to bring about the sudden change both of us gingerly trooped in to the BM’s room apprehensive and expecting a rocket for our absence from the HQ where in every one seemed to have gathered. No one took notice of our entry. Kharbanda a bit worse for wear due to some extra beer incoherent with his eyes- bleary red and watering but a soldier to core - he was all decked up in full battle gear with his large pack ready for move. It transpired that Bingo the Assam Rifles post had been surrounded by more than 600 Chinese earlier in the day. This was according to a message received in a round about manner late in the evening; that is how the communication system was functioning those days. Kharbanda as we could see was all set to relieve the post single handed. All of us were more worried about him desperately trying to hold him back than the Chinese or Bingo. The scene would have definitely appeared a bit comical to an outsider ideal for a sequence in the war movies being produced in Bombay.

Suddenly Hindi Chini ‘bhai bhai’ became Hindi Chini ‘bye bye’

Ops Room Buzzing
Kharbanda’s small room, the telephone ringing continuously with incoming and out going calls to Tezpur where all of us of the Bde HQ had gathered resembled an ad hoc Operational Room. With so many of us crowding around the air had become charged with combined energy of diverse emotions; excitement apprehension uncertainty and even fear of the unknown all adding to the whole in various proportions depending on the attitude of the particular individual. With the BM being out of action Pereira the DQ the only possible link with the Commander at Tezpur and possibly me the Signals officer had a role to play others apart from the mess staff providing unending supply of mugs of coffee and tea were just hanging around trying to look involved and useful not unlike friends and relations holding vigil outside the Operating Theatre with some near and dear one on the surgeon’s table inside.

Commander Recalled
Willy- nilly the Brigade HQ swung into action Maj Pereira took charge of the situation. Commander was located in the guest room of the Mahar Regiment at the Tezpur airfield next door to the airfield from where his IAC plane was to take off early next morning carrying him thousands of miles away to Meerut in North India. The plane did take off the next morning. However his seat was empty. He took another seat but in a helicopter back to Tawang.

Brig Lakshman Singh, VSM (Retd)