08/01/2024
1965 – A Western Sunrise -Indias War with Pakistan by
Shiv Kunal Verma Reviewed by Major Agha H Amin
(Retired)
1965 -A Western Sunrise -Indias War with Pakistan by Shiv Kunal Verma
Reviewed by Major Agha H Amin (Retired)
• September 2021
• DOI:
• 10.13140/RG.2.2.21404.00645
• Project:
• MILITARY HISTORY
• AghaHAmin
This is a very interesting new addition to books on 1965 war.
The writer gives very interesting background details to each
relevant person or subject , which did not interest this scribe
as a military reviewer.
The authors assertion on page-43 that 6 Infantry brigade was
an independent brigade is not correct as this brigade was a
part of 8 Division.
On page.99 the writers assertion that 19 Baluch (Special
Services Group or SSG) was formed with 7/10 Baluch as
nucleus is TOTALLY INCORRECT . 7/10 was
renumbered 15 Baluch while 17/10 Baluch was later
renumbered 19 Baluch or the SSG.
On page.106 and 107 the authors undue praise of then
Brigadier Harbaksh Singh is highly disputable as per both
Pakistani and Indian accounts.
Pakistani official history published in 1970 thus stated that
on reaching Tithwal which was defended by a weak infantry
company Brigadier Harbaksh Singh ordered a two day halt
and thus lost a golden chance to change history and possibly
threaten Muzaffarabad. In these two days Pakistan Army
reinforced Tithwal with a brigade.
Colonel Achutan Singh of Indian Army in a recent article
published in Indian Defence Review analysed in detail
Harbaksh Singhs incompetent siting of Indian defences of
they Chunj position as a result of which Indian Army lost
they key Chunj ridge and was pushed on defensive at
Tithwal and driven out of Pir Sahaba Ridge.
The authors assertion on page. 123 that Brigadier Masters
was spotted by an aircraft and artillery fire ordered is
disputable. The Pakistani accounts stated that his O group
was spotted by a fighting patrol of 1 Punjab and the 4 Corps
Artillery Brigade carried out a massive brigade level artillery
concentration.
This was no ordinary affairs as Brigadier Masters liquidation
by artillery fire was carried out by 60 Pakistani artillery guns
commanded by Pakistan Army’s best gunner Brigadier Amjad
Ali Chaudhry.
The authors assertions on page.126 about 16/10 Baluch in
which later general Bakshi was commissioned are inaccurate
and fallacious. This battalion was never allotted to Pakistan
and was disbanded in March 1946 .
The authors claims on page.127 about Indian 163 Brigade
advancing towards Muzaffarabad are totally misinformed ,
false and exaggerated.
He states that
“The brigade was poised to advance towards Muzaffarabad
which was a mere 30 km away, when operations were halted
by Army HQ following the United Nations resolution.”
First – Tithwal is not 30 km from Muzaffarabad but 30 miles
which comes to about 50 km .The road hardly existed in
1948 and was a very difficult jeepable track.
Second- On 31sth December 1948 when ceasefire was
about to take place the area had snow and advance was
very difficult.
Third- Indian Army had no plan to advance from Tithwal as
is clearly proven by Indian official accounts in December
1948.
Fourth – Indian Army lost an excellent opportunity to
advance from Tithwal to Muzaffarabad on 23rd May 1948
because of Brigadier Harbaksh Singh’s fatal blunder of
ordering two days halt.
Fifth- Starting from May 1948 Indian Army and Pakistan
Army had nearly equal strength at Tithwal , hence it was
impossible to advance for both sides.
The advice to military historians of both India and Pakistan
is not to make such wild assertions.
On Page.152 , the author makes a totally ludicrous and false
claim that the main gun range of Indian AMX 13 tank was
500 Yards.
One of the most reputed books in the world states the
following about AMX 13s armament:--
“The gun adopted for the AMX13 Mle 51 was the Canon de
75 S.A. Mle 50 (usually shortened to Cn 75 Mle 50 or CN
75-50). This French design employing a shortened version of
the barrel of the wartime German 75mm KwK 42 L-70 gun
with a new chamber and breech. The weapon had a muzzle
velocity of 1000 m/s, an effective range of 1100 metres and
could pe*****te 175mm of armour at 1000m. It could fire
armour piercing and high explosive rounds. This weapon
was perfected at the Atelier de Bourges under the direction
of Ingénieur Général Maurice Carougeau. Over 2600 of the
CN 75-50 guns were manufactured by the late 1950s. The
coaxial armament was the venerable 7.5mm MAC31
machine gun fed with 150 round drums, a reliable weapon of
prewar vintage. The CN 75-50 gun was also designed to fit
the M4 Sherman turret with minimum modification. This
option was undertaken for Israeli orders in 1954–1955.”
1
1 Page-42- THE AMX 13 LIGHT TANK RARE PHOTOGRAPHS FROM WARTIME ARCHIVES M P
ROBINSON, PETER LAU AND GUY GIBEAU-Pen and Sword Publishers -London -England-2018.
Even Indian armoured corps historian admitted that AMX 13
tanks in Chamb could engage Pakistan Army Patton tanks at
battle ranges.
What the author missed in Chamb was Pakistan Army was
dumbly led as far as 12 Division’s armour was concerned . A
dumb armour plan was thrust on my regiment 11 Cavalry
whose armour was divided in two parts rather than
concentrated as a punch !
This dumb employment of 11 Cavalry (FF) by headquarters
12 Division led to heavy losses and 11 Cavalry lost 19
including a major .
Admitted that Indian armour was massively outnumbered
numerically and overwhelmingly inferior technically , but
what rescued Indian Army was not Major Bhaksar Roy, as
mistakenly thought but Pakistani dumbness , in badly
employing armour on the first day of the battle of Chamb !
THE BILLION DOLLAR QUESTION IS WHERE WAS BHAKSAR
ROYS MARVELLOUS TACTICAL SKILLS WHEN 11 CAVALRYS
MAJOR RAJA IQBAL REACHED CHAMB ABOUT 0830 HOURS
ON 1ST SEPTEMBER 1965 MORNING !
Ironically there was no second day of battle for Major
General Akhtar Hussain Malik who was removed from the
command of Operation Grand Slam .
The harsh part of Operation Grand Slam was that Major
General Akhtar Hussain Malik could have crossed the Tawi
River on the first day of battle and imposed a MASSIVE
DISLOCATION on Indians ! But he failed because of bad
employment of armour .
Even the Pakistani official historian Major General Shaukat
Riza noted that “The Indians had only covering troops on the
border outposts” . However here petty personal rivalry and
jealously overwhelmed Shaukat Riza who was intensely
professional jealous of his brother artillery officer Brigadier
Amjad Ali Khan Chaudhry !
So Shaukat blamed poor artillery fire plan for failure of
operation Grand Slam on 1st September 1965 , instead of
most incompetent and inept handling of tanks by
headquarters 12 Division. Thus Shaukat stated “the
distribution of our artillery fire enabled them to delay our
crossing of Munawar Tawi on 1st September 1965”.2
Also it was politically inconvenient to critique Akhtar
Hussain Malik regarding as an icon . So Shaukat found an
excellently convenient scape goat in Brigadier Amjad Ali
Chaudhry.
2 Page-123-THE PAKISTAN ARMY- WAR -1965- Army Education Press-General Headquarters-Rawalpindi1984.
Later Lieutenant General Mahmood unjustly scapegoated
Brigadier Azmat Hayat Malik for failure of Grand Slam on 2nd
September 1965 whereas the greatest failure of Operation
Grand Slam ,not being able to cross Tawi had already
occurred on 1st September 1965.
11 Cavalry (FF) regimental historian , Colonel Sardar Yahya
Effendi whose history titled Punjab Cavalry is full of major
factual and analytical mistakes , instead of having the
intellectual honesty of analysing HQ 12 Divisions failures in
handling armour , instead snidely blamed Lieutenant Colonel
Aziz for 1st Septembers failures , because he was an outsider
and had joined 11 Cavalry on posting from 19 Lancers !
Effendi’s snide remarks include stating that Mian Raza Shah
was sent on his death ride and that Lieutenant Colonel Aziz
was a suspicious man.
His books caliber can be gauged from the fact that he
fallaciously claimed that 11 Cavalry fought WW 2 with only
Punjabi Muslim and Sikh squadron whereas a third
Hindustani Muslim/Ranghar Squadron was raised in 1942 to
replace a Dogra Squadron given to Central India Horse to
replace Sikh squadron that had rebelled at Bombay.
My father recollected Risaldar Shabbir father of Major
Kanwar Javed Shabbir from our village in Lyallpur since 1898
specially visiting his father at Delhi , where he was an
assistant secretary in Ministry of Defence , to pursue the
raising of Ranghar/Hindustani squadron about 1941-42.
Effendi also inserted a painting of an alleged Punjabi muslim
of 1st Punjab Cavalry whereas 1
st Punjab Cavalry never had
Punjabi Muslims as per all records and army lists etc from its
raising in 1849 till merger with 3
rd Punjab Cavalry (which had
a single Punjabi Muslim troop).
Effendi failed to admit that a lieutenant colonel commanding
a tank regiment in the slavish Indo Pak armies , in an infantry
division was heavily wet nursed by his divisional commander
and infantry brigade commanders and had little say in
planning .
Headquarters 12 Division officers had no clue about
employment of armour and in the shoddy Pakistan Army
style , two tank regiments were placed under command of
this division who had the vaguest idea of what to do with
them in actual war !
Thus 11 Cavalry suffered higher fatal casualties in percentage
as compared to all infantry units of 12 Division in Operation
Grand Slam.
The author conveniently ignores massive Pakistani higher
level incompetence like commander 102 Brigade Zafar Ali
Khan who wasted whole day in attacking Burjeal despite the
fact that he was told to bypass it.
The author also ignores the fact that field of fire was
extremely limited in Chamb and this helped AMX 13 who had
six main gun rounds in a two magazines each which could
be fired in seconds. Further M 36 B 2 tank destroyer that
Bhaksar encountered was a massively inferior tank.
All this still does not justify Pakistani higher command
interference.
Brigadier Z.A Khan in his book distributed by Pakistan Army
to all officers about 1998-99 states that General Musa Khan
ordered change of commands as he did not find conditions
satisfactory when he visited 12 Divisions tactical
headquarters on 2nd September 1965.3
ZA Khan described low caliber of tank regiment commanders
on page.160 of his book that both 13 Lancers CO Lieutenant
Colonel Sher and Major Saeed Azhar failed to report that they
were just 4 kilometres from Akhnur .4
The writer makes unacceptable chronological mistakes like
he incorrectly that Pakistani 1st Armoured Division offensive
started on 9th September on page.304 whereas it started on
8
th September morning.5
The writer blames the GOC of Pakistan’s 1st Armoured
Division . However I interviewed the leading tank squadron
commander then major Sami who presented an entirely
different picture as below :---
6
3 Page-159- THE WAY IT WAS – Brigadier Z.A Khan – Dynavis Publishers -Karachi -1998.
4 Page-160-Ibid.
5 Pages-230 and 231- Shaukat Riza-Op cit.
6
Podcast interview by the author with Lt Col Samiuddin Ahmad leading tank squadron commander of 24 Cavalry in
1965 war-- 1st Armoured Division Leading Armoured Regiments Leading Squadron Commander
describes Battles of Assal Uttar-Part 1" by Military history . anchor[anchor.fm/omnibusdubitandum/episodes/1st-Armoured-Divisio...](https://anchor.fm/omnibusdubitandum/episodes/1st-Armoured-Division-Leading-Armoured-Regiments-Leading-SquadronCommander-describes-Battles-of-Assal-Uttar-Part-1-e3itg4)
• As per Sami his commanding officer 24 Cavalry
Lieutenant Colonel Ali Imam collapsed before the actual
operations started during the orders group . Sami
narrated that off and on he regained consciousness but
was not operationally fit. Later on after the war a story
was invented that he was shell shocked during actual
operations.
• Sami described 6 Lancers as demoralized while within
Pakistani territory when their Squadron Commander
Major Utra was drowned in canal once his tank
overturned and fell inside the canal.This was at a time
when the war had not started.
• Sami described commanding officer of engineer
battalion Lt Col Altaf and GSO 2 Intelligence Feroz Alam
as adviser of Major General Nasir as main advisors of the
GOC , and off course knew nothing about employment
of tanks.
• Sami narrated that the whole idea of dividing one tank
regiment EACH on two highly divergent axis was
unsound and this plan was prepared by Sahibzada Yaqub
Ali Khan .
• Sami also noted that Sahibzada Yaqub did not have the
moral courage to insist that he be sent to 1st Armoured
Division where Sahibzada’s armour attack plan was
being executed.
• Sami described Indian infantry having fled on 8th
September 1965 but regained resolution on 9th
September as there was only one tank squadron of Sami
attacking on first day of the attack on 8th September
1965.
• Brigadier Z.A Khan who I interviewed in 2002 described
that 90 % of Pakistan’s 1st Armoured Divisions
commanders including GOC , brigade commanders and
tank regiment commanders were in state of
collapse/nervous breakdown.
However our author has not consulted these views although
I interviewed ZA Khan in 2002 and his interview was widely
available on the web. Sami I interviewed in early 2019 and his
interview was also available on the web.
The book is very interesting for the layman reader but so
much has already been written about 1965 war that another
book , unless based on radical and extensive research and
reinterpretation does not add much to the story.
The fact remains that :--
• Both armies were total failure in attack . A difficult form
of war. If Pakistani armoured division failed at Assal
Uttar , Indian armoured division was total failure at
Chawinda.
• Indians and Pakistanis , the entire sub continent could
not win a single major battle against the British East
India Company barring Chillianwallah which was also a
draw.
• The power of defence had massively increased since
1945 and breakthrough in Punjab with limited fields of
fire, boggy terrain and above all mediocre indo pak
commanders was not possible.
• In all four major cases , Chamb , Lahore , Khem Karan and
Chawinda both Indian and Pakistan Army were total
failures in attack .
The writer did not send me a book with maps so I am unable
to comment on his maps.
The writer who is not known to me asked me to review the
book . I took the pain of reading the book and want to
commend him for writing a good book .
But the million dollar question remains how to rationalize or
whitewash , Indo Pak mediocrity ?
Thus my conclusion on Indo Pak armies as reached below in
August 1999:--
CONCLUSION.
The Pakistan Army in 1965 had
the potential keeping in view its
equipment, particularly tanks and
artillery,vis a vis the state of Indian
Armour and Artillery to inflict a
decisive defeat on India.
Poor Military leadership at the
higher level in the final reckoning
stands out as the principal cause of
failure of the Pakistan Army to
inflict a decisive military defeat on
India.
Ayub Khan was directly
responsible for the leadership
failure of the Pakistan
Army.Conversely it was superior
equipment and in particular tanks
and artillery apart from the BRB in
the Ravi-Sutlej Corridor which
enabled Pakistan to contain the
Indians despite their considerable
numerical superiority in infantry.
Valour , Morale, Motivation
played a part,but we must
remember that valour alone did not
save the Poles from being overrun
by the Russians and Germans
repeatedly during the period from
late 18th Century till 1939!
Valour did not save the Serbians
from being over run by the
German-Austrian¬Bulgarian force
in WW One.The tragedy of the
Pakistan Army was that it failed to
achieve even 50 % of what it was
capable of achieving and only
because of Qualitative reasons.
The definite edge over equipment
was lost after 1965 and in 1971
Pakistan was saved largely because
of the fact that Indian superiority
in infantry coupled with superior
equipment was divided between
the Eastern and WesternFronts.
The year 1965 was crucial and
Providence gave an opportunity to
Pakistan to achieve something
militarily.
The Seeds of defeat were sowed
long before partition and the seal
of mediocrity was laid once the
Ayub-Musa duo headed the army
during the period 1951-1965!
The Indian Army was handicapped
because of an indifferent political
leadership.Racially both the armies
were largely similar and only fools
can think that one was inherently
braver than the other!
Long ago Hobbes had rightly said;
"Nature hath made men so equal,in
the faculties of the body and
mind;as that though there be found
one man sometimes manifestly
stronger in body or quicker of
mind than another; yet when all is
reckoned together,the difference
between man is not so
considerable,as that one man can
thereupon claim to himself any
benefit to which another may not
pretend as well as he " . 126
The Pakistanis failed to do as well
as they potentially could in 1965
,keeping in view the on ground
tangible realities,because in terms
of intangible qualities ,by virtue of
a common historical
experience;they were as
qualitatively mediocre as the
Indians!
My service in Pakistan Army from
1981 to 1994,and an intense study
of Sub Continental Military
history, has reinforced this
conviction that I first developed as
a student of Forman Christian
College Lahore during the period
1977-1978!The rest is Fiction!
END NOTES
126 Page-140-Great Traditions in
Ethics-An IntroductionEthel.M.Albert,Thedore.C.Denise
and Sheldon.P.PeterfreundAmerican Book Company-San
Francisco-1975.
1st Armoured Division Leading Armoured Regiments Leading Squadron Commander describes Battles of Assal Uttar-Part 1
