Responsibility
I had to provide the line communication irrespective of the fact that I had no dispenser packs hardly any cable and even the full contingent of linemen some of those still en route. Every one who was fit and some not so fit cook barber dhobi and available linemen were pressed into collecting the few drums of cable from the Dropping Zone and making coils of the cable for hand laying.
Maj Ram Singh
It was the first time that I saw the famous Assam Rifles post at
Dhola from where it all had started. I was not much impressed by the few huts for living and may be a few rifle and LMG posts surrounded by trees bushes and no view or field of fire. It is there that I met Maj Ram Singh who had been sent by the CO to contact Gen Kaul and had some how missed him. It was also the last time I saw him.
CO's Compassion
Having completed the task it was night time by now I wanted to return back to Tsangdhar but the Commander would have none of it he ordered me to stay put for the night. He was a worried man expecting a Chinese reaction to the clash earlier in the morning possibly the same night. However he still had time and compassion to worry about his young Signal officer's welfare and safety night had fallen and it would have been fool hardy of me to try moving up the trail back to the DZ at Tsangdhar.
Sharing Sleeping Bag
Interestingly there was no food or place for me to sleep. I shared the one- man sleeping bag that is how the bags are designed with Maj Kharbanda. A unique experience luckily both of us were on the thin side even then we had to synchronise between the two of us whenever we wanted to turn in the sleeping bag which was fairly frequent on the hard rocky ground. Turning and twisting both of us spent the night like this.
Escape to Bhutan
I came back to Tsangdhar leaving very early and reaching there by 9 am in the morning. I had no food now for about 24 hours. I have been talking about food all the time rather lack of it but it does give one an idea of our administrative back up during OP Leghorn as the operation was known. Missing meals which had become with us a rule rather than exception since we either had no time to eat or no meals were available due to administrative failure. Having got used to this helped us later when we had to be without food for days together on our escape via Bhutan to India.
Brig Lakshman Singh VSM (Retd)
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