Longewala Attack Front

Pakistan / Sind / Daharki /
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Pakistani Infantry Brigade supported with an Armoured Regiment, with a total strength of 2000 men, encircled this lone Indian Army Post, manned by a small company strength(192 men) of the 23rd Battalion, Punjab Regiment, on a night of December 1971.
Outnumbered roughly nine to one, the sikhs of 23rd battalion were crack units. They held the sandy dunes like the nest of vipers, and scarcely budged. Their defensive network was a balance of rigidity and flexibility with individual stongpoints held stubbornly. By the early morning the the Pakistani attack which had fallen upon the 23rd battalion lay in smoking ruins. Reinforcement for the longewala post began arriving in early morning and changeover to offensive operations followed without pause. The Pakistanis were hurled back towards their own capital with a wrathful counterattack and left a field of burned out tanks and shattered men. The ruins still litter around the post to this day. The battle of the longewala will be remembered with likes of the battle of Thermophyle (300-Spartan)and Gloucester Hill.
Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Longewala
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Coordinates:   27°31'23"N   70°8'36"E

Comments

  • True spartans. Unbeliveingly true/ I researched it.
  • salutes to the Indian Army... JAI HIND...
  • Actual accounts of 1971 Indo-Pakistan War bear testimony to the fact that no ground battle had taken place in Longnewala area of Thar Desert between India and Pakistan. As a matter of fact, there were no noteworthy regular troops in this sector on both sides. On Indian side, save for a few regular troops, the sector was mainly held by Border Security units. On Pakistani side, the area was primarily held by para-military troops scantily deployed on distant border outposts. The story of the battle given herein is one of many such tales fabricated by Indian Army for getting war medals etcetera. It reminds me that an Indian soldier had been awarded with the highest military award posthumously in the aftermath of Kargil conflit in 1999. Later it revealed that the soldier had not yet died and that he had rather deserted from the battlefield out of sheer cowardice. The Battle of Longanewala is no different than the said episode. Wikipedia must be fair enough and careful enough while publishing such "tactical tales". It is a matter of credibility for Wikipedia.
This article was last modified 4 years ago