Rifleman Sanjay Kumar : An Essay

Rifleman Sanjay Kumar

Unit : 13 Jammu and Kashmir Rifles

In 1999, Pakistani army occupied a large area in Kashmir in the winter, so an operation was launched in the summer to get this area vacated. This operation is known as Kargil war.

This is important to know that defeating a well-fortified enemy is a very difficult job, and in this war, the Pakistani soldiers had occupied strong bunkers on the hilltops, and defeating them there was a massive challenge. This challenge was even more difficult in view of the fact that the enemy was located at a height while the Indians had to move from below, so they could be easily seen by the enemy. However, the Indian Army, with help of the Indian Air Force, started to attack and occupy one peak after another.

Point 4875 is the name of one of the hilltops on which the Pakistani army had built strong fortifications. It was difficult for the Indians to attack these bunkers because all the routes leading to them were in the open and the enemy could easily see the approaching Indians.

At this, Sanjay Kumar took up the challenge and led a team to attack this point. Despite coming under direct enemy attack, he advanced with his small team inch by inch. Sanjay Kumar himself leapt from a distance and crossed the main hurdle killing three Pakistani soldiers. In this task, he himself too was wounded, but the goal was not yet achieved.

From a nearby bunker, the Pakistani soldiers were firing at Indians and it was necessary to silence them too. Despite being wounded, Sanjay Kumar jumped from this bunker to the next and attacked the Pakistani defenders there. The Pakistanis were so terrified that they fled from there leaving behind their machinegun. Sanjay Kumar took it up and fired at the fleeing enemies.

Enthused by his courage, the other Indians joined him and silenced the remaining Pakistanis in the area, taking control of the hilltop fully.

For his unique courage, dutifulness, loyalty and decision-making ability, Sanjay Kumar was conferred with the Param Vir Chakra.

Fg Offr Nirmaljit Singh Sekhon : An Essay

Flying Officer Nirmaljit Singh Sekhon

Arm : Indian Air Force

The air force plays the most important role in any modern war, so was the case in the 1971 India-Pakistan War. It defends the country from the enemy air attacks and also launches attacks well within the enemy territory. The Indian Air Force accomplished its objectives well and made victory possible in this war.

On 14 December, 1971, six Pakistani Sabre jets approached the Srinagar airfield to attack. At this time, Sekhon and Ghumman were on ORP duty, that is, they had to take on any intruding aircraft. They had the Gnats to defend the airfield, while the Sabre jets were far more powerful. But these two warriors were not scared of either the larger number of enemy aircraft, or the more powerful enemy. They scrambled their Gnats on the runway when the Sabre jets were on their heads, raining down bombs.

Sekhon and Ghumman took off facing these odds, and immediately started to chase the Pakistani aircraft. There was fog and visibility was poor, but they dared the enemy. Sekhon first shot down one Sabre jet and then chased the second one and hit it too. But the remaining Pakistani aircraft came behind him and shot at him. His aircraft sustained a hit. Sekhon spoke to Ghumman on radio and said, "It seems my aircraft is hit. Continue with the fight."

After this, his aircraft started to fall off the sky and was soon engulfed in fire. He died in the line of his duty. His effort disallowed the Pakistani intruders from causing any significant damage to the Indian installations. For his daring feat, technological skill and courage, Sekhon was conferred with the Param Vir Chakra posthumously.

Lt Col A.B. Tarapore : An Essay

Lieutenant Colonel A.B. Tarapore

Unit : 17 Horse

17 Horse is the name of the unit, but it does not have horses for fighting; when it was established long back, it had horses, which were by the year 1965 replaced with tanks, but its name continued as before. Tanks are armoured vehicles which play a major role in a battle. In the 1965 India-Pak War, this unit came to face the Pakistani tanks at Chavinda.

On 16 September, 1965, Tarapore was ordered to deploy his tanks at Chavinda. Taking part in a battle nearby, he was already wounded, but he continued to fight. He led a massive attack on the Pakistani tanks and destroyed 60 of them. In this effort, only 7 Indian tanks were destroyed. In this battle which lasted for 6 days, Tarapore laid down his life leading his unit from the front. For his exemplary courage and leadership qualities, he was awarded the Param Vir Chakra.

Subedar Joginder Singh : An Essay

Subedar Joginder Singh

Unit : 1 Sikh

An army cannot fight well in the absence of supplies, that is, it needs clothing, guns, ammunition and food. If an army is not provided adequate supplies, its defeat is almost certain. Somewhat of this situation was faced by the Indians in 1962 India-China war. At this time, Jawaharlal Nehru was the Prime Minister of India, who believed that China would never attack India, so he did not prepare his army well, and its consequences were disastrous.

Despite lacking supplies, the Indians proved their bravery par excellence. They established highest standards of bravery in the battlefield while facing a much stronger, well-supplied and well-reinforced enemy.

On 9 September, 1962, 7 Infantry Brigade was ordered to occupy Namka Chu which the Chinese had occupied and fortified it well. The attacking Indians lacked training, arms, ammunition, equipment, clothing, and even food. In Chinese retaliation, this brigade had to suffer a huge loss, and lost about half of its men.

However, the Indians fought well with whatever they had. A part of this brigade was 1 Sikh, which was armed with .303 rifles in which bullets had to be loaded one by one, while the enemy possessed automatic guns. At one post, Subedar Joginder Singh led his platoon to take on the strong Chinese army, but soon he was out of ammunition. At this, displaying extraordinary courage, his soldiers attached bayonets on their rifles and jumped out of their bunkers to launch a direct physical attack with their battle call "Jo bole so Nihal, Sat Sri Akal". The enemy was bewildered to see these turbaned soldiers attacking in the open. How long could they sustain their attack on the powerful army? Despite lacking ammunition, they caused huge damage to the enemy, before most of them laid down their lives while the remaining were badly injured.

Subedar Joginder Singh too was badly injured in the fighting, he was taken prisoner by the Chinese, but he did not survive long. For his inspiring leadership and glorious bravery, he was posthumously awarded the Param Vir Chakra, the highest bravery medal of India.

Major Somnath Sharma : An Essay

Major Somnath Sharma

Unit : 4 Kumaon

In 1947, soon after independence, Pakistan cast its greedy glances on Jammu and Kashmir, and sent its soldiers in the garb of tribals to occupy as much part of the state as possible. To beat back the Pakistanis, India sent its army from Delhi and Ambala. One of these forces included the D Company of 4 Kumaon Regiment, commanded by Major Somnath Sharma.

Just prior to airlift to Srinagar, Somnath was taking physical exercise in which he fractured his hand, so he was advised not to participate in the war; but he said, "How can I rest in Delhi when my men are going to war?" Despite his fractured hand, he became the first officer to land at Srinagar.

His D Company was deployed in Badgam to check the advance of the invaders. Somnath had only 90 soldiers under his command. At noon, he saw that just outside the village, several people gathered near a canal. Somanth thought that they were villagers, but they were in fact Pakistani soldiers who were dressed like local villagers.

These Pakistanis entered the village and launched an attack on the D Company from there. With this, Somnath ordered his soldiers to retaliate. He found that the enemy was in a great number and was armed with mortars, guns, rifles and other large guns. The invaders were attacking them fiercely, but the Indian soldiers had to be careful as the women and children in the village could be killed in their firing.

The D Company repulsed an attack from the invaders, who returned to attack in a larger number. Several of the Indian soldiers were getting hit and killed in the attack, but they were fighting bravely and inflicting a major loss on the enemy, piling up corpses of the enemy soldiers. Seeing the large number of enemies, Somnath called for reinforcement from the Brigade Headquarters.

Somnath established ground signals for the Indian Air Force to attack the enemy, while his soldiers were taking better of the enemy. With the increasing number of his soldiers laying down their lives, the number of Indian soldiers was dwindling rapidly, while the enemy was still strong. When he saw that his men were facing shortage of men to load the machineguns, he himself helped them do so despite his injured hand. About this time, a shell fell near him claiming his life.

In this battle, Major Somnath Sharma made the supreme sacrifice along with 21 more of his men, while another 26 were wounded. In this comparison, the enemy lost more than 300 men.

For displaying the rare courage, Major Somanth Sharma was awarded the Param Vir Chakra posthumously. He became the first person to get this award.

A.P.J. Abdul Kalam An Anecdote-3

In his childhood, Kalam was influenced by several people, one of them being Samsuddin, his first cousin. He was the sole distributor for newspapers in Rameswaram and catered to the reading needs of the 1,000-strong literate population of the town. Dr. Kalam recalls that the newspapers brought news pertaining to the national independence movement, astrology and bullion rates prevailing in Madras. Some people would discuss Hitler, Mahatma Gandhi and Jinnah as well as Periyar EV Ramaswamy. When the Second World War broke out in 1939, there was an unprecedented demand for tamarind seeds, which Kalam used to collect and sell to a local provision store. When India was forced to join the Allied Forces, there was something like a state of emergency, and its first casualty was in the form of the suspension of the train halt at Rameswaram station. Dr. Kalam recalls this much later in these words: "The newspapers now had to be bundled and thrown out from the moving train on the Rameswaram Road between Rameshwaram and Dhanuskodi. That forced Samsuddin to look for a helping hand to catch the bundles and, as if naturally, I filled the slot. Samsuddin helped me earn my first wages. Half a century later, I can still feel the surge of pride in earning my own money for the first time."

A.P.J. Abdul Kalam An Anecdote-2

In his childhood, Kalam was influenced by several people, one of them being Samsuddin, his first cousin. He was the sole distributor for newspapers in Rameswaram and catered to the reading needs of the 1,000-strong literate population of the town. Dr. Kalam recalls that the newspapers brought news pertaining to the national independence movement, astrology and bullion rates prevailing in Madras. Some people would discuss Hitler, Mahatma Gandhi and Jinnah as well as Periyar EV Ramaswamy. When the Second World War broke out in 1939, there was an unprecedented demand for tamarind seeds, which Kalam used to collect and sell to a local provision store. When India was forced to join the Allied Forces, there was something like a state of emergency, and its first casualty was in the form of the suspension of the train halt at Rameswaram station. Dr. Kalam recalls this much later in these words: "The newspapers now had to be bundled and thrown out from the moving train on the Rameswaram Road between Rameshwaram and Dhanuskodi. That forced Samsuddin to look for a helping hand to catch the bundles and, as if naturally, I filled the slot. Samsuddin helped me earn my first wages. Half a century later, I can still feel the surge of pride in earning my own money for the first time."