THE GARUD STRIKES (24 page)

Dusk was falling when Paunchy, accompanied by a radio operator and a couple of men, reached the outskirts of Methikanda, surrounded of course by a raucous mob of Bengalis. A company of Pakistanis held Methikanda, about two or two-and-a-half kilometres away from the landing ground.

By now, the Pakistanis deployed at Methikanda were so badly spooked that they had loaded up all their stuff in a railway wagon and were using locals to push it along the track, rapidly making their way towards Narsinghdi.

‘Though they were really far away, we fired a couple of rounds in their direction to encourage them to keep moving,’ Paunchy laughed. ‘Of course we were mindful of the locals pushing the wagon, and therefore aimed high.’

In any case, the Pakistanis had had enough. They withdrew towards Narsinghdi, leaving Methikanda to the guardsmen.

At the landing ground, Colonel Himmeth settled down to wait for the rest of the
paltan
to fly in. The plan had been to complete the build-up as soon as possible, and then resume the advance. However, shortly thereafter, a message was received that there would be a delay before the next sortie landed due to some problems at the other end.

It was around 2300 hours that the sorties resumed.

It is hard to forget Daljit running around organizing the makeshift landing lights. Of the thunderous roar of ten choppers coming in out of the darkness, only switching on the lights when they were barely hundred feet off the ground. Of Daljit standing there like Misa, billowed and buffeted by the downdraft, and illuminated eerily by the flashing strobe-like landing lights, as he cajoled the choppers in.

Going over Colonel Pyarelal’s notes, I could imagine the sight Himmeth had painted. I could almost hear the volley of shouted orders and see the heart-warming sight of guardsmen racing out of the choppers, guns at the ready.

Five times, the choppers returned that night and by 0300 hours on 10 December 1971, the last guardsman had crossed the Meghna.

Just to give you an idea of the intricacies of a heliborne operation: a MI4 carries between eight to twelve men, depending on the combat load being carried. In the six sorties (of ten choppers per sortie), 4 Guards managed to get about six hundred men across. They also ferried across four MMGs, four of their 81 mm mortars, two 106 mm RCL guns, their entire complement of 1st and 2nd line ammunition, and a troop of 120 mm heavy mortars.

Meanwhile, a few kilometres away, at Methikhanda, Paunchy went to ground and settled down to wait for Granthi to link up with him.

Methikanda was a critical link (more of a railway yard, actually) on the Ashuganj-Dacca railway line. Its importance lay in the fact that it lay west of the Meghna, and hence could be used to move cargo by road via Ashuganj, as well as via rail. Mehtikanda could also be used for cargo that was carried along the Meghna and could be off-loaded in the vicinity.

Strict radio silence was in place, so Paunchy had no way of knowing what was happening back at the landing ground. However, he was within earshot and his worry began to mount when no choppers could be heard coming in for a while. Eventually, he could hear the choppers again, but there was still no sign of Granthi, who was supposed to link up with him.

As the hours ticked away, and the dawn of 10th December inched closer, Paunchy was concerned about Granthi’s absence.

DAY TEN

10 DECEMBER 1971

U
nknown to Paunchy, things were not going very well for Delta Company. They had landed safely alongwith the rest of the battalion, and immediately on landing, as per Himmeth’s plan, had set out to link up with Paunchy at Methikhanda.

Delta Company was barely a mile away from the landing ground when, silently, without any warning whatsoever, the deadliest enemy known to any Army anywhere in the world struck—a young officer trying to make sense of a map.

‘Look,’ Paunchy explained, ‘I don’t blame the poor guy. It can happen to anyone. I mean, even I have gotten lost. But that night, it was the limit. I was sitting there, almost alone. There were just a handful of us, deep inside enemy territory, and Granthi didn’t show up and I was sitting there cursing him.’

Unfortunately for Granthi, Paunchy’s curses were the least of his worries when he misread the map and took a wrong turn. Unknown to him, Granthi was now headed straight into the lion’s den—the main Pakistani 14 Division defences at Bhairab Bazar.

As soon as 4 Guards landed across the Meghna, the final major hurdle to Dacca had been crossed. The Indians knew that the bulk of the Pakistani Eastern Army stood between them, un-blooded and well equipped. But they also knew they had the Pakistanis on the run. The psychological war had already been won: the Pakistani brass had been tested and found wanting.

Perhaps the Pakistanis had been misled by the experiences of the 1965 Indo-Pak conflict, where the Indian Army had conceptually fought many battles with limited aims and small manouevres. They may have expected this conflict to be a replay of the previous one. It is certain that they had not expected the Indians to have Dacca as the final objective.

‘And certainly, they had not expected us to maintain the kind of speed that we did, considering the arduous and treacherous terrain we had to navigate. In either case, we had them on the run,’ said Glucose. Having been the adjutant during the operations, he had obviously been most exposed to the thinking of the Indian high command. ‘Once we had broken past the outer crust, the Pakistanis had little in depth to contain us.’

Sagat’s decision, once he decided to use heliborne forces to cross the Meghna, was the final nail in the Pakistani coffin; it sealed the deal for them. They lost all hope of winning the war, and withdrew rapidly. They were now as shaky in the mind as on the ground. The only thing left to be delivered now was the coup de grace.

The panic in the minds of the Pakistani leadership was evident from the message sent by General Niazi to the Pakistani Army HQ: Enemy heli-dropped one brigade at Narsinghdi. Keeping this in view, it was hardly surprising that on 9th Decemeber 1971, General Yayha Khan approached the United Nations pleading for a ceasefire.

The first nail in this coffin was driven in completely inadvertently. And that was by the misguided Captain Surinder Singh and his mistake with the map.

Granthi only realized the gravity of his situation when he blundered into the main Pakistani defences and all hell broke loose.

‘My detachment was now with Delta Company,’ Mukund came to life suddenly. ‘We were moving from Raipura to Methikanda to link up with Major Chandrakant when we got lost. We only realized something had gone wrong when enemy artillery began to rain down on us. They had told us back at Raipura that the enemy had already withdrawn from Mehtikhanda to Narsinghdi, so we knew something had gone seriously wrong. The firing was very intense, and to make it worse, the Pakistani Artillery OP directing the fire was really good and the shells landed spot on. With no time to dig in, we scattered and took cover as best we could.’

Gurdev and Mukund, both mortar platoon men, hunkered down in a fold of land, trying to take cover as best possible.

‘When the firing finally eased off, we started moving again,’ Mukund’s voice had gone soft. ‘But Gurdev did not get up. I nudged him, but he did not move. That is when I realized he had been hit.’

‘Did you know him well?’ I asked, when it became obvious that he was not going to say any more.

‘Of course, I did. We were from the same village,’ Mukund nodded, still pensive. ‘I even met his family later, after the war. He didn’t have any children, which is good, but his wife went through a very bad time afterwards. She, too, died a little later. I am not sure exactly when, but I remember it was not too long after the war.’

This time it was I who felt the compelling need for silence. Excusing myself, I walked out for a breath of fresh air. I was contemplating the Army widow’s legacy. Finally I knew I had to get back. To the war that was still alive in the handful of men waiting for me in that room.

Granthi eventually managed to extricate his men and get back on track. He eventually found his way back to Methikhanda and linked up with Paunchy in the early morning. By now Paunchy was fuming.

‘Although, as it turned out, in a way, Delta Company getting lost and blundering into the Pakistani defences turned out to be a real boon,’ Glucose’s smile was a strange blend of pleasure and pain. ‘The Pakistanis had been hearing our choppers coming back again and again. They couldn’t have really known how many choppers there were or how many sorties we eventually carried out. That’s why when Granthi blundered into their defences, they simply assumed that we had gotten a brigade across the Meghna and this was a deliberate attempt by us to probe their defences.’

‘Precisely!’ expressed Paunchy as he thumped the arm of his chair firmly. ‘It didn’t help that they were already pretty spooked by now. So deep had the siege mentality set in, and so used to had they become to finding our troops suddenly emerge in their rear, that Granthi’s walking into their defences seriously sent the wind up their sails.’

The dawn of 10th December 1971 saw 4 Guards firming up at Methikanda. They were still doing so, when, at about 1000 hours, a chopper landed on the roof of
a school building in Methikhanda and out came the Corps Commander Lieutenant General Sagat, 57 Mountain Division Commander Major General Gonsalves and Brigadier Mishra, the 311 Mountain Brigade Commander.

They arrived like the proverbial three kings from the Orient. However, instead of gold, frankincense and myrrh, they had brought along a big pile of oranges.

‘Usually, the arrival of so much brass cannot be anything other than a pain, but not when one is in the field, in the thick of a war,’ Naik Hoshiar Singh, who had been Himmeth’s radio operator throughout the sixteen days, spoke up all of a sudden, taking me by surprise. A rather taciturn man, he had been silent all this while. ‘We were quite thrilled to see our senior commanders out there in the front lines with us. It made us realize that they cared for us,’ he said further.

Glucose gave a big nod, and said, ‘The first thing they asked us was if we needed any help.’

Fortunately, the Pakistanis had failed to contest the fly-in across the Meghna or the landing at Raipura. In fact, during the entire operation, 4 Guards encountered no opposition from the enemy barring Delta Company, and its unfortunate encounter when it blundered into the main Pakistani defences at Bhairab Bazar. Other than this and some aching hands caused by some seriously enthusiastic locals, it had been smooth sailing till then.

Perhaps the Pakistanis had been deluded about the importance of the heliborne operation. Or perhaps they had been too caught up in dealing with the holding attack that was launched by the balance of 311 Mountain Brigade on Ashuganj and Bhairab Bazar which lies contiguous to Ashuganj, but on the western banks of the Meghna.

This holding attack launched in conjunction with the heliborne operation may have led Pakistani GOC 14 Infantry Division to believe that Sagat would continue to try and attempt a surface crossing of the Meghna, somewhere in the vicinity of Ashuganj. This in turn would have made it imperative for the Pakistanis to try and deny the Indian forces the general area of Bhairab Bazar. So that is where the Pakistanis concentrated their forces.

‘Consequently, we were in pretty good shape. Well, as good as could be expected, considering we had been in non-stop contact with the enemy for nine continuous days now,’ said Glucose. ‘Nonetheless, like he mentioned,’ he nodded towards Hoshiar Singh, ‘seeing our top brass with us at the front line, and this gesture on their part, went down very well with the men. Not everyone may have gotten an orange, but everyone certainly felt great.’

The guardsmen’s morale, which was already high, soared. They showed their appreciation by giving a return gift of a handful of bananas to the brass. Bangladeshi bananas are quite delicious, and bearing this priceless gift, the generals departed after giving 4 Guards their latest orders—to advance and secure Narsinghdi. And hold it open for the balance of the brigade and an artillery battery to be heli-landed.

‘Along with the oranges, Sagat had also gotten maps of the Dacca area,’ Paunchy said with a wry smile. ‘On these maps, the routes to Dacca had been clearly marked. This was the first indicator we got that Dacca would most likely be our next objective.’