By Major General Shashikant Pitre (Retired)
As the month of November slides into December every fading year, a doughty nostalgia grips and takes me to those entrancing days between November and December of 1971 of the Bangladesh War when the Indian Armed Forces inflicted a decisive defeat on their Pakistan counterpart. It was my great fortune to be its part, a rare opportunity any soldier can desire.
I was then a faceless Major commanding a field company of Sappers.
Three Corps size forces of the Indian Army advanced into East Pakistan; 33 Corps from Northwest, 101 Communication Zone from North, 4 Corps from Northeast and East and 2 Corps from Southwest. All headed for Dacca. Corps, a recently raised Headquarters, had 9 Infantry Division and 4 Infantry Division. 9 Infantry Division was tasked to capture Jessore and Khulna and then head for Dacca.
I commanded 97 Field Company of 102 Engineer Regiment which was in close support of 9 Infantry Division. The task of the Engineers, also called Sappers, is to build bridges, construct operational tracks and diffuse land mines laid by the enemy, in short, to enhance the mobility of the force that they support during thick of the battle.
In the initial phase of planning the main axis of (see map below) 9 Infantry Division was Bangaon-Jhingergacha to Jessore. Had we adopted this frontal approach along the main axis, it would have been nothing short of massacre since Pakistanis also expected us along this only possible approach and waited with heavy deployment all along the axis.
In September 1971, the Corps decided to execute a Coup de Grace and apply the main force along Boyra-Asra- Jessore and land directly in front of Jessore, bypassing the enemy forces on the main axis. This was a game changer as the enemy was totally caught off guard and contributed ti Jessore almost being handed over on a platter. This entailed expeditious construction of a floating bridge at the border village of Boyra over River Kabadak, a daunting task. My field company, 97 Field Company was made responsible to undertake this task.
A special bridging equipment, called Krupman, was imported from West Germany only few months back. It comprised Aluminium bridge components assembled on huge rubber floats filled with air on the spot which formed sections of the Bridge. These floats were then joined with each other to provide a bridge of desired length over a water obstacle, an ingenious concept indeed.
The equipment on arrival in India was transported to a thickly wooded area close to the border which was suitable from security considerations, having a good camouflage from ground and air observation and having a water obstacle where my men could be trained on its construction from the scratch in total secrecy without even inkling to the adversary.
On 20 November 1971 at about 11 am, the advance of 9 Infantry Division into East Pakistan commenced with the crossing of the river by 14 Punjab Battalion in boats and by a squadron of tanks of 45 Cavalry Regiment floating across the river. The famous battle of Garibpur, subject of the movie “Pipa” took place on the night of 20/21 Nov in its close vicinity.
The orders to move the equipment of the bridge forward through 15 km of a clogged artery and to commence construction were received at about 1 pm on 20 November. The time catered for the bridge construction was 7 hours, but it was completed in three and half hours under battle conditions. The other young officers in my Company were Yudhvir Bakshi, MH Samuel, RK Gopal and Manik Saha, to whom the Lion’s share of the credit must be given.
Gen Raina GOC 2 Corps, Gen Dalbir Singh. GOC 9 Inf Div and Col Mohinder Gosain, CO 102 ER were present when it was completed. “I am proud of your Boys. This would be called “The Bridge to Victory”, Gen Raina said when I gave the report of completion. His prophesy was proved right.
The Forward echelons of 9 Infantry Division commenced crossing at 6 pm. We soon discovered to our horror that a large no of vehicles were stuck in the marshy area of the far bank. It took a gruelling night and tremendous engineer sense to pull them out. It was a task more challenging than construction of the Bridge itself. If this was not successful, the Artillery Guns and the Armoured Tanks would not have been available across the river.
By 6 am on 21 Nov a field battery of guns, a troop of medium tanks and all priority vehicles were passed across the bridge. The bridge was closed for traffic at 6 am since enemy air attack was expected after the first light.
As expected, the bridge was attacked by two Sabres of Pakistan AF early morning on 21 November. The Bridge shown on Pak TV on that night. A float was damaged by the enemy air fire which was quickly removed and the traffic was resumed.
Since more air attacks were expected, orders were received at 11 am on 21 November to dismantle the bridge immediately and assemble it after evening for passing the traffic in dark hours of the night. This was the beauty of Krupman equipment. This was done. This proved to be prudent since more sorties of the enemy aircraft soon arrived. They went back not finding the Bridge. For them, it had mysteriously disappeared. They kept coming back and carrying out straffing missions on us for the next two days.
On 22 Nov, three Indian Gnats arrived while the enemy aircraft were circling over the area and shot down two of them just 3 km from the Bridge site. We witnessed the epic air fight, famous as the Boyra Air Battle. It was then that orders were received to assemble the bridge and continue to pass the traffic irrespective of the time of the day. The nerve raking suspense of the past three days was over and we heaved a sigh of relief.
9 Infantry Division captured Jessore on 7 December and Khulna on 16 December. We did not have to go further since the Pakistani forces surrendered on 16 December 1971.
I had the privilege to command 9 Inf Div when it celebrated the Silver Jubilee of the Victory. It’s indeed a great honour for an officer to command the Division with which he went to War as a young officer. Come the end of November every year, the nostalgic memories of those divine hours crowd the mind, the sole favourite time of a fading Veteran, I reckon!
Special thanks to Dr Jai Singh, Managing Director and Trustee of IIEBM for arranging this article (www.iiebm.com)
A very valuable account of the engineer part of the operations of II Corps.