Lost Between the Two Tracks
It was nightfall now, darkness comes suddenly in the mountains and we stopped unable to proceed further. We could hear some stray firing, next day also we could hear small arm firing, I reckon that we were just going round and round in circles in same area of a few square miles. At dawn we would start moving but where to we had no clue. Our knowledge was that of Hatungla- Shakti route, which in case was not followed. Now we were in wilderness, some where between the Hatungla-Lumpu and the Karpola- Lumpu tracks. On fourth or fifth day Lt Col RN Mishra the CO 9 Punjab runs in to us. He was quite lost himself. Having got separated from his protection section which was marching, all this time, with us. He did have a few boys with him. The protection section boys assured him. 'Sir don’t worry we are with you'. From some where they produced some biscuits ,some nick knacks some and milk for him and they fed their CO. I have never forgotten this. These small things and how they matter in Army life. This is the strength of the Indian Army; the Soldier.
Meeting up with 9 Punjab
With the arrival of CO 9 Punjab we got some assurance, at least he knew the area, the tracks and various places, and where we had to head for. Earlier the problem was that the regiment had come to the area only in early October and was unfamiliar with the area and on top saddled with an IO, the points- man, totally new to the area. I was running up and down like a monkey, up and down the hills, but there is a limit to human endurance. I think it was on the 8th day that we reached a huge open area with a spur running from right to left in front, this I think was the Karpola track going down and leading to Lumpu. It was a sunny day, we were tired, eight days hungry, living on leaves and shrubs. We plonked down to rest our dog tired limbs. We were so tired that LMG was being carried in parts, if I had the barrel some one else had the bipod and another the piston group. Fatigued to the limit it was no more possible for one individual to carry the whole weapon in one piece. The mortars in any case had been abandoned in deep a ravine earlier. You can see the morale, a lot of wounded persons from other battalions had some how smelled and joined us. We lay in the sun resting but not for long, soon resuming the march. My CO's party and the party of the CO of 9 Punjab was in the vanguard. Col Mishra was now leading every body. In the absence of Maps sun was guiding us in trying to cross in to Bhutan. As this group crossed the spur and went on the other side, suddenly fire opened on us. Now in hindsight I feel, a Chinese patrol was coming down the Karpola track and they saw a group of 100 or 150 soldiers resting in the open, realising that this was roughly the line on which we will cross the spur, they went past and laid an ambush.
Battalion Spirit
When they fired the people who were ahead, my CO's party and the Punjabis took off. It was an open patch and on the other side also it was open for some distance till the tree line became thick once again. When the firing started on top I saw people slithering down in sheer terror down he steep slope. I had a group of soldiers lying around me and I did not know what to do. Some senior officers were still resting in the rear and two very senior officers had crossed over, and then came a lesson which I have carried all my life and fought for what is the value of the Regimental System in the army. I looked at a six foot tall Jat, Jeevan Singh, one of the finest specimen of human being and admonished him in the most foul language. "Jeevan you so and so, lying like a widow, go put on a skirt". The vanity of the Jat being hurt, Jeevan got up, standing all his six foot; 'You want us to be killed , OK I get up now tell where to go'. He picked up his rifle, Jeevan got up, Ram Singh got up, Shyam Singh got up then some other boys got up, fifteen or sixteen of us got up and others got up, and then we charged up shouting our battle cry at the top of our voice. We fired a few rounds, Chinese who were a small group of eight or ten ran away. We climbed to the top and looked at the other side for our two CO's party. I could see them about a Kilometre away, I shouted from the top of my lung 'CO Saihab please stop the Chinese have run away'. No one stopped, next we met the two CO's only at Tezpur after a break of two weeks when we also arrived there after wandering in the wilderness for so long, hungry, tired, some even wounded. But with sad memories of those left behind; friends and colleagues, some who could walk no more and others dead. Had they stopped on my hailing them, many more would have returned to the anxiously waiting near and dear one at home.
Chinese Mortar Fire
The remnants of the other two companies also joined us on top. Oscar Thomas and Major Balbir, now the senior most after the CO also joined. We started, moving down. As luck would have it, we were still to hit the thicket when the Chinese engaged us with mortar fire, We hid under the cover provided by the trees and planned to get away during the night to avoid being observed. Though a moon lit night, yet our movement was painfully slow, once again we halted and sat down. We were almost in the snow bound area. I can't help narrating the death of barber Ganpat, a man who was in the fifties. The company commander 'B' Company, my company told him; 'Go back to the centre, you are too old for NEFA tenure'; which he ignored. I still wonder what he was doing there at this age. Our solders were young.
Death and Rum to keep our spirit alive
That night two things happened. One Ganpat died, he froze stiff, sitting in the snow, before he died he cried like an animal, for nearly an hour, not aware that he was crying while others kept shouting at him to shut up worried that Chinese would hear his cries. The second thing that happened wasthat one of my Gorkha Instructors, when I was doing the D&M course, had come to take a promotion examination and got caught. Hav Chhatri shook hands with me and we sat, shivering with cold, huddled together in our two blankets. 'Saihab would you have Rakshi (Rum)', Chatrtri came out with a most welcome query after some time. I do not know from where he produced a bottle of rum, and that night the two of took turns taking swigs from the bottle.
Lost
For the next couple of days we were totally lost and kept wandering aimlessly. Maj Balbir at this point of time gave up, in that he was not coherent enough to lead and Oscar Thomas took over the leadership, who provided excellent leadership otherwise we would all have perished. He daughter had a born recently and that too after three sons, he had not yet seen her being away at the time of delivery. He used to say that nothing could keep him from seeing her, possibly that was his will to survive,
Fall of Tawang
We knew where the Chinese were and that Tawang had fallen courtesy, All India Radio, Capt Nagrani had a Transistor Radio and that’s why we never approached a track. We had a war council and observed that all the nallas must be flowing down into Twang Chu, so we took a painful decision to follow one of the nallas. It was a trail, each one for himself. Some fell down and broke their limbs others fell behind and could not be helped yet later joined the group at midnight where you were resting. Some gave up some continued. Our doctor Kasyap, the fifth officer, we lost him some where there, luckily he did survive.
In these three four days we came across an area full of bushes laden with some kind of berries. We went at the bushes with our hands at the back, like hungry animals. If some one came to share your bush, he was shooed away. I was shocked to see this animal instinct in all of us.
Escape to Bhutan
Going further down, we encountered the welcome sight of Gorsem Chorten on the wrong side of Nyam Jang Chu, the river joining Tawang Chu some distance ahead. We started moving down stream on our side on the hill till we reached a spot from where further progress was blocked. Down below we could see the Shakti Bridge now guarded by the Chinese. We halted there for a day and half, we even made a plan to attack the Chinese guarding the Shakti bridge even if it was certain death. We took stock of the ammunition with us, some were down to ten others to eight cartridges or so. Better sense prevailed and we stayed put for one more day. Next day early in the morning, one of the boys who had gone to ease himself stumbled on a narrow track going down from the solitary Chori Hut right on top, on our side of the river. He came running with this good news. Without wasting any more time we moved down this track at a fast clip and came to a village from where we hired a guide to take us to Bleeting (with the bridge across Tawang Chu into Bhutan).
Brig Lakshman Singh, VSM (Retd)
Note: Last episode of Gen Kahlon
Tawang Slideshow: Praveen's Tawang Album
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