The 5th Battalion the 4th Gorkha Rifles, is an infantry battalion of the 4 Gorkha Rifles (4 GR), a Rifle regiment of the Indian Army. The 5th Battalion the 4th Gorkha Rifles (GR), was raised in January 1963, in the wake of the Chinese Offensive, in Arunachal Pradesh, and Ladakh, India, from bases in Tibet, in 1962.
Raising The 4th Gorkha Rifles has five battalions. The 5th Battalion the 4th Gorkha Rifles (abbreviated as 5/4 GR), was raised on 1 January 1963, at Ambala Cantonment, Haryana, the sprawling cantonment town, north of Delhi. The first Commanding officer of the battalion was Lt Colonel Ranjit Singh Chandel, formerly of the 1st Battalion the 4th Gorkha Rifles(1/4 GR). He assumed command of the battalion on 1 February 1963.
The officers who joined the battalion on its raising at Ambala were: Major R K Malgwa, Second in Command, Major Aman Singh Ahalawat, Company Commander, Major Prem K Gupta, Company Commander, Lieutenant K P Choudhary, Adjutant, and Subedar-Major Shree Prashad Gurung.
Names and spelling Within the regiment, 5/4 GR is often referred simply as 5/4, or 'five phor', or the Fifth Battalion, and, as the youngest of the five battalions of the regiment, it is affectionately called (Kanchhi). '4GR', in black metal, is worn as regimental signage on the shoulder straps by all ranks. The official, and correct, spelling of 'gorkha', since February 1949, is Gorkha, and not Goorkha, Goorkah, or Gurkha, as the British and Tata motors still choose to spell it, or Ghurka, as the American retailer of luxury leather bags and 'fine men's accessories' has, profitably, chosen to spell it.
Bakloh In early 1963, the still-forming 5/4 GR, moved by rail from Ambala, to Bakloh, District Pathankot, Punjab (district Chamba in the state of Himachal Pradesh, after Reorganization of Punjab in 1966).
Bakloh was chosen to raise the battalion, by Lt Gen Motisagar, the then Chief of General Staff and Colonel of the Regiment, and senior officer of the regiment, because of its excellent training facilities, temperate weather, but most of all because of Bakloh's legacy relations with the regiment spanning over a century. After the First Battalion arrived in Bakloh, in 1866, the Second, Third, and Fourth Battalion of the regiment were raised in Bakloh.
Bakloh had been home of the 4 GR from 1866, till the 4 GR Regimental Centre was moved following the partition of India, to Dharamshala, then Chakrata, and finally to Sabathu, to be amalgamated with the 1st GR Centre, to form the 14 Gorkha Training Centre (GTC).
To mitigate the loss of Bakloh as a Regimental Station, the Army Headquarters, at the regiment's bidding, had informally agreed to periodically post one of the regiments battalions to Bakloh, to sustain the Regimental legacy relationship with Bakloh. This arrangement was subsequently formalised by classifying Bakloh as an 'asterisk' station for the regiment. This meant that the regiment had priority claim to having one of its battalion located in Bakloh, preferably in the prestigious 1/4 Lines.
In the decades since 5/4 GR first arrived in Bakloh, in 1963, Bakloh has lost its sheen, and the officer and the men of the regiment appear no longer as keen on Bakloh as they were in the fifties. They complain that it is on a limb, and small and boring. As a result of the constant gripe against Bakloh, it has lost its 'asterisk' status. This is a cause of big disappointment for the 4 GR pensioners in Bakloh. Many older officers, Junior Commissioned Officers(JCOs), and men, especially those who started their regimental careers in Bakloh, are unaffected by those who grumble about Bakloh, and remain fond and attachment to Bakloh; and committed to the idea that Bakloh should have a Battalion from the regiment to sustain the Bakloh legacy and take care of the regimental properties, remains, and the sizeable population of regiment's pensioners, and widows.
Arrival The battalion's arrival in Bakloh in 1963 was big, much-awaited event, to which the town had long been looking forward to. The entire cantonment – pensioners, women, girls, children, shop-owners from the 1/4 bazaar, cantonment board employees – lined up along the road and the parade ground to greet, cheer and wave as the convoy carrying the battalion heaved into Bakloh.
Officer's mess In the centre of the Bakloh ridge, not far from St Oswald Church, is the old officer's mess, a low, modest stone structure, with a view of the plains, and on clear sunny days of the River Ravi as makes its way into Pakistan. In 1963, the mess was empty. It contents, the remains of the Raj and the regiment, of mess silver, battlefield memorabilia, war trophies, billiards table, leather sofas, pieces of art, Persian rugs, hunting trophies of skins and horns, scores of old albums, and thousands of books, made famous by evocative description by John Masters in the Bugles and A Tiger, had been crated off to Sabathu, following the move of the 4 GR Centre to Sabathu.
The regiment was particularly lucky in being able to retain the pre-1947 regimental remains, which were handed over 'intact' by the departing British officers, to the new legatees of the regiment, unlike the departing British officers of the 3rd Gorkha Rifles, 5th Gorkha Rifles, 8th Gorkha Rifles, and 9 Gorkha Rifles, who instead of handing over the regimental properties 'intact' vandalised the mess property, stole mess silver, and carted off the most valuable mess assets to the UK., only to return some of them decades later, and that, too, after some coaxing. Brigadier Osborne Hedley, British Army, formerly 5 GR, has recorded that " The 4 GR was alright, 3rd and 8 bad" and that in 5 GR Regimental Centre, " the mess had been practically stripped of furniture, silver, crockery, and cutlery". In 9 GR, it seems, it was even worse. Maj General Palit, who took over from the departing British officers later wrote that in 3/9 GR 'cutlery and whiskey bottles were smashed' and that "All our mess silver had been either appropriated by individuals or given away to British regiments".
In 1963 the big challenge for 'Kanchhi' was how to deal with the empty glazed verandah, with the much-touted view of the plains, the cozy living room, the not so cozy dining room, the low detached billiards room, and the bare walls of this venerable building which had served for almost a century as a museum and mess for the regiment.
Subalterns In Bakloh the battalion had 16 Subalterns. Thirteen joined in 1964. Their overseer, as the senior subaltern, was the handsome, affable, and popular Virendra K Dhawan, who loved three X rum, crumbling roller cigarettes, and KL Seghal's melancholy melodies. On 6 April 2011, a year before the Golden jubilee, to the regret of legions of friends and admirers, Virendra died.
The thirteen subalterns, commissioned in the wake of the 1962 War, who joined in Bakloh, and were destined to be the vanguard in the 1965 war were: R L Bhanot, V K Dhawan, S P Mishra, Anup S Rawat, SVS Tyagi, Prem S Saraswat, Verma, Baldev K Chatli, R Rajendran, B S Khattri, Satinder Pal, Sachdev and John Taylor.
Bungalow number 5 Bungalow number 5 is the austere two-storied stone building of small comfort which has been the traditional home of Bakloh bachelors. This is also the first big Bungalow that one sees on the promontory that dominates the parade ground, and office complex, as the daily bus from Pathankot trundles into Bukloh and makes its final stop at the corner of the parade ground. To this building which at the best of times had housed no more than three or four officers, almost a dozen young officers were assigned, some thought consigned.
Visits In 1964 Lt Gen Henderson Brooks, General Officer Commanding (GOC) XI Corps, and the co-author of the controversial, and the still-secret Henderson Brooks–Bhagat Report on the 1962 war, was the first senior officer to visit the Battalion.
Samba In December 1964, the battalion moved from Bukloh to Samba, Jammu and Kashmir. In Samba, Lt Colonel Vasant B Sathe, 2nd Joint Services Wing (JSW) Course, formerly of the Second Battalion the 4th Gorkha Rifles, succeeded Lt Colonel Ranjit Singh, as the Commanding Officer.
1965 War The 1965 war, which consisted of three Pakistan offensives, and one Indian counteroffensive, began in Jan 1965, with the occupation of a large swathe of the territory in the North of the Rann of Kutch, by Pakistan Para-Military Units, in an area under the operational jurisdiction of somnolent elements of the Gujarat Reserve Police, under the command and control of Indian Ministry of Home Affairs. The India response to the occupation, first by the Gujarat police, then the CRPF, and later by Indian army units, was late, limited, and timorous. It was contested aggressively, by 8 Infantry division of the Pakistan Army under the command of Maj General Tikka Khan. In April 65, in a succession of operations code-named Desert Hawk Pakistan army consolidated and expanded its gains. In response to the Pakistan incursions and occupations, the Indian army along the entire India-Pakistan border was placed on alert, and formation and units were deployed to their operational location. In April 1965, the 5/4 GR, moved from Samba to its operational location. All persons on leave were recalled, and leave stopped.
Encouraged by the easy success in the Rann of Kutch, on 5 August 65 Pakistan launched Operation Gibraltar, the invasion of Jammu and Kashmir, by a 'guerrilla' force of some 30,000 men in mufti, led by regular army personnel. In response to Operation Gibraltar, 5/4 GR for much of August 65 was deployed on counter-infiltration tasks.
On 1 September 65, Pakistan, in support of Operation Gibraltar, launched Operation Grand Slam, an armour led invasion in the Chhamb and Akhnur sector aimed at cutting off J and K. Grand Slam provoked the Indian counteroffensive. 5/4 GR participated as leading component of the Counter-Offensive.
1 Corps The Order of Battle (Orbat) of 1 Corps, Headquarters Kaluchak, raised in May 65 as India's first strike corps by Lt Gen Patrick Dunn of 3rd Gorkha Rifles, included 1 Armoured Division, the 6th, 14th, and 26th Infantry Divisions. On 4 September 1965 1 Corps formations and units were concentrated between rivers Ravi and Chenab, for an offensive in the Sialkot Sector.
26 Infantry Division 26 Infantry Division, commanded by Major General ML Thapan, had four brigades, including 162 Infantry Brigade and 168 Infantry Brigade. 26 Infantry Division, in Phase III of the Corps Plan, was to secure the northern flank for the Armored Division break-out battle and contain Pakistan forces in Sailkot. Divisional outline Plan in Phase 1 was to capture Uche Wains NW 8228 and Niche Wains NW 8128, with 162 Infantry Brigade (Brigadier R.S. Sheoran), and Anula NW 879, and Bajragarhi, with 168 Infantry Brigade. The H Hour was 2330 hours, 8 September 1965.
168 Infantry Brigade 168 Infantry Brigade( Brigadier Pran K Luthera) included 2/1 GR, 8 Jammu and Kashmir Rifles (8 JAK RIF), 5/4 GR, A Squadron, 18 Cavalry(Shermans), and 168 Field Regiment in direct support. 168 Infantry Brigade plan was to attack in two phases: Phase 1 capture Anula. south of Aik Nallah, and in Phase 2 capture Bajragarhi. The "bridgehead across the international Border" was to serve as spring board for launching India's main strike element, 1 Armoured Division, concentrated in Ramgarh.
5/4 GR 5/4 GR, in Phase 1 of the 168 Infantry Brigade attack, was tasked to capture 'high ground' north of village Anula, East of Bajragarhi, on the Sailkot-Phagowal Road, in the Sailkot Sector. At 2300 hours, on night 7/8 September, as leading troops of Operation code named Nepal, 5/4 crossed the international border, as Phase I of the Brigade attack.
Anula assault