Bharat Rakshak

Okay guys, time for another of my "human interest" profiles of top Indian commanders. My previous profiles were for Lt Gen Arjun Ray and, more famously, Lt Gen Pankaj Joshi. <p>Now we have another candidate for our hall of fame... and his claim to fame is Operation Pawan. Let me quote LNS (Subra) on this, from his BR Article on Operation Pawan:<p>http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/CONFLICTS/Pawan/Chapter03.html<p> <blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>A bold plan to make a
heliborne assault on Jaffna University to capture the LTTE leadership was made. The plan involved a company of 10
Para Cdos. to act as path finders. They were to be followed by a company of Sikh LI. If all went to plan the heliborne
troops would be linked with troops coming by land.<p>On the night of 11/12th October 1987, the plan was put to effect. But unknown to the Indian troops, was the fact that
the LTTE had sophisticated Japanese radio sets which were monitoring IPKF communications. Heavy & sustained
machine gun fire pinned down the commandos killing six of them instantly. The Mi-8s were damaged but made it
back to base.<p>A further flight of helicopters brought in a platoon from the Sikh LI. These came under even more intense fire. As the
men from the Sikh LI ran out of ammo, they made a valiant bayonet charge. All but one perished. The commandos
had conserved their ammo but were close to running out. Still they managed to hold out the entire night. Next
morning their battalion commander, Lt. Col. Dalbir Singh personally led a column of T 72 tanks to relieve them.<hr></blockquote><p>The battalion commander is now a division commander. He commands the vital Kilo force in the valley, and was awarded the AVSM this year for his contribution to the counterterrorism effort.<p>Now let's look beyond the person, and see what his elevation signifies to IA as a whole. He is among those officers who have had extensive field experience of India's dirty wars in the 80s and 90s. The generation previous to his got their experience in the wars of 65 and 71. Dalbir Singh's compatriots had to fight more often that not with their hands tied behind their backs. They had to bear the brunt of policies that neglected basic needs of the soldier - look how his paras had to suffer because LTTE intercepted their comms; how Dalbir had to wait until morning for mounting the relief because his tanks had no nightfighting capabilities.<p>US Army underwent a revolution when the field commanders of Vietnam, such as Powell and Franks, became formation commanders. IA is now reaching the stage where the LtCols and Cols of 80s and 90s will slowly become Maj Gens and Lt Gens, and will start leaving the impression of their experiences on the army. Good Luck and happy hunting, Gen Singh.<p>And this, friends, is my 500th post. Thanks for putting up with me. I look forward to 500 more - hopefully I will have some equally good reason for my 1000th post.

Thanks Vikram !Wonderful post.MajGen Dalbir's tank was hit by a RPG-severing his ring finger-was it not?His column iirc continued--using the railway tracks behind the LTTE lines in Jaffna.Catching them by surprise and rescuing the paras!What a man.<p>Think LNS has all this in his great write-up.<p>When such people with such invaluable combat expeience get into the IA's top ranks...it seriously bodes well for the IA's future!<p>regards,
nitin

Nitin - that was not Major Dalbir IIRC it was a Major Kaul whose ring finger got severed.

Vikram, as always, fascinating post -- thanks for the info (and congratulations on your 500th!).<p>One tiny comment -- if I'm not mistaken, the AVSM comes before the VrC, in the precedence order of decorations (even if we on this Forum are always more interested in the actions that resulted in the gallantry awards than in the distinguished service ones!!). So Maj-Gen Dalbir Singh's decorations should be listed as AVSM, VrC, VSM; rather than with the AVSM last as you have it in your topic subject.<p>Come to think of it, you probably know this, and the sequence you have was just a typo! Is it not worth correcting?<p>Thanks and congratulations again.

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Administrator:
Nitin - that was not Major Dalbir IIRC it was a Major Kaul whose ring finger got severed.<hr></blockquote><p>My bad.Just went back and checked.<p> <blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Meanwhile the commandos were still holding out. Their commander, Lt. Col. Dalbir Singh, led a rescue mission with three T-72 tanks. The roads were hopelessly booby trapped. The commander of the tank group, Major Anil Kaul, improvised brilliantly. Knowing the rail tracks passed behind Jaffna University, he drove his tanks on the Palaly-Jaffna rail line. Passing through the narrow lanes, an RPG-7 fired on him, hitting the turret. The explosion severed his wedding ring finger. Splinters hit him in the eye and arm. His men put him on morphine and they fought their way to the Para Cdos. A little later the 4/5 Gorkhas and remainder of the 13 Sikh LI linked up.<hr></blockquote><p>http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/CONFLICTS/Pawan/Jaffna.html<p>Incredible men.<p>regards

Vikram
Another nice post congrats! Hope you put up your 1000 post in the next couple of months. It is always interesting to read your posts.<p>Any Photograph of Maj. Gen. Dalbir Singh ( Sanik samachar or some source)?

Thanks, guys. Sree you are right - I just put the decorations chronologically, not by order of merit. <p>Dave, speed is not my forte It took me four years to complete 500 posts, so you can expect MajGen Dalbir to be LtGen or Gen by the time I reach 1k. Tell you what - here's to the wish that my 1k'th post is to congratulate Gen Dalbir Singh on his promotion to CAS or CDS. How about that?<p>Subra do you have any additional info on Dalbir Singh? How is he regarded by his troops right now?

If I may add to the round of applause, I'd like to say that Vikram's posts are always informative, insightful and illustrative of why the BR Forum is such a valuable resource.

If Vikram does not mind I would like to know who are the officers presently severing as Maj. Gen or Lt. Gen who have won a Vrc or MVC?<p>Lt. Gen. G. S. Sihota, Artl , Vrc GOC SC
Lt. Gen. A.S. Khanna, Artl, VrC, Dep. Chief IA
Lt. Gen. J.B.S. Yadhava, GR, GOC 16 Corps

Not surprisingly very little info actually turns up when you are trying to search for it. Till Vikram mentioned it here, I had no idea that Maj Gen Dalbir Singh is the same Dalbir mentioned in LNS's Account.<p>1. I do however have a very curious question. Is the command of "Kilo Force" considered a prestigous posting. I am sure most Maj Gens would prefer comands of Divisions. Has Dalbir Singh commanded any divisions?<p>2. Are we jumping the gun to concentrate on a relatively small fish in an army of 1 Gen, 50 Lt Generals and more than a 100 Maj Gens? If no, what makes Dalbir Singh stand out in the lot?<p>3. Can we do a timeline analysis on who is going to retire when, or get promoted when, to predict who will be the next Army/Air Force or Navy Chiefs? I dont think its impossible, With lot of permutations and combinations, we can arrive at a list which will give us who will be the next Chief?<p>Anyway, Interesting post Vikram, thanks for bringing some "military" topic back into the forum (As opposed to technology and "Strategic" issues )<p>BTW I hit the 1000 posts mark today..( :p Four years to reach this)

Duplicate Post

Darn i hit 1069 posts(this should be 1070!) and never even realised it! <p>I second Amitabh in clappin' for VVyas.After reading his analsyis,i actually started likin' &understanding(the latter bein' more important)ORBATS.<p>Regards,
Nitin

Those are fair questions, Jagan. Let me see if I can handle them.<p> <blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>1. I do however have a very curious question. Is the command of "Kilo Force" considered a
prestigous posting. I am sure most Maj Gens would prefer comands of Divisions. Has Dalbir
Singh commanded any divisions?<hr></blockquote><p>We have atleast one army commander (GS Sihota) who was GOS Romeo Force. Sihota went on to command 2 strike corps, and was DGMO. Dalbir's predecessor was DDGMO before he was hand picked to raise Kilo Force. So certainly does not seem to hurt. These forces have almost entirely taken over CI duties from regular Divs. Pre 12/13, I counted only one regular div with significant CI duties, and even that was being slowly withdrawn. So these Forces are key to our CI ops, and indications are that their commanders are hiand picked menm,emen (see more below). <p>Dalbir Singh seems to be too young to have commanded any div before this. Other Force commanders have gone on to command actual divs, but that was in that late 90s hiatus when promotions were frozen for a while. <p> <blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr> 2. Are we jumping the gun to concentrate on a relatively small fish in an army of 1 Gen, 50 Lt
Generals and more than a 100 Maj Gens? If no, what makes Dalbir Singh stand out in the lot?<hr></blockquote><p>62 LtGens and 210 maj gens, but who's counting. Hey, any newspaper dork can tell you that GOC 2 corps is going to make it big. What's the fun in making such obvious predictions? I crave the thrill of the hunt, not in being right or accurate When I feel like I want always to be right, I will start using sentences that begin with "our babus are..." or "Our politicians should..."<p>That said, I do use some standards. Dalbir Singh has a very low IC number compared to other Maj Gens (his is in 26k, Brigs with 19k numbers just got promoted). And he has been Maj Gen for atleast six months. So he was clearly deep selected. Indications are that if he keeps his nose clean, he will go a long way. Then I can brag

Vikram,<p>Thanks for the reply, Jeez, first time I knew there were actually 62 Lt Gens and 210 Major Generals , Think of it. In 1947 we had 1 General who presided 3-4 Lt Gens and maybe a dozen to twenty Major Generals (or maybe you can put a better figure on this) for an army of 300K. Now we still have only 1 General to preside over 60 Lt Gens and 200 Maj Gens and an army of 1100K. pretty heavy task.<p>At the risk of digressing from the main focus of this thread, Do superceded officers still continue in service or do they resign? This comes to my mind when you mentioned on the IC numbers.

Weel, they seem to bash on regardless until age of superannuation. The most glaring example of this is RS Kadyan.<p>In case anyone is wondering, this is not terribly heavy work. Just keep track of Republic Day and Indep Day awards, and you are all set. Things are getting even simpler, what with MOD now giving out formation names for awardees. And the occasional neighborhood crisis helps no end.

Vikram
Question of the day:<p>Is it Dalvir or Dalbir?<p>IPKF and the AVSM list on the IA web site shows DAlvir.<p>His IC # is too high in the 26----, can this be a typo. IA is not known to fast track at such a super speed. What about the guys in 23---- and 24----. How about some of the other battalion commanders during IPKF, any of them are Maj. Gen's or Brig's.

Dave:<p>His name appears as Dalbir in some places, and Dalvir in others. I checked his IC number - there are two other IC26ks who were also promoted at about the same time, and one IC20something also promoted to MajGen. So there is something afoot - remember how SS Chahal became DGMO directly from ADGMO? I think this may be the Pankaj Joshi recommendations being put into effect (for lowering IA's age profile).<p>Like I said, award lists are a treasure trove of information if you dig beneath the surface

orbat.com reports in its most recent senior commander update that Kilo Force is headed by Maj. Gen. Nirbhay Sharma.<p>And if you will look at the Republic Day honours list, you will see at No.10 of AVSM awardees the following:<p>IC-17244 MAJ GEN NIRBHAY SHARMA,VSM, PARA, HQ CIF (K)<p>and at No. 16 our protagonist:<p>IC-26279 MAJ GEN DALVIR SINGH, VrC, VSM, PARA, HQ CIF (K)<p>2 persons of the same (division) getting AVSM same year is something unusual, I would say. There must have been some major successes the last year or so by the Kilo. Hence the No.2 has been given the award (along with his CO).<p>This clearly shows in my opinion, he has been the No.2 of Kilo force for some time (when the awards were decided), has been recently promoted to Maj. Gen. and is awaiting the command of his own formation.

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by dsandhu:

His IC # is too high in the 26----, can this be a typo. IA is not known to fast track at such a super speed. What about the guys in 23---- and 24----. How about some of the other battalion commanders during IPKF, any of them are Maj. Gen's or Brig's.<hr></blockquote><p>In the said list there are at least a couple of other instances of similar or even "faster" track.<p>Case in point: AVSM awarded to<p>IC-32569 BRIG MAHESH ERANNA,SM,VSM, GARH RIF, HQ 120 INF BDE<p>if we compare him with others in AVSM and VSM.

orbat.com is outdated, in that case. Nirbhay Sharma was app GOC-K just after Kargil, so his tenure was due to end sometime in 01. Let me tell you how I got the approximate 6 months for Dalbir's new posting - Google searches revealed the following<p>(1) For "Maj Gen Nirbhay Sharma 2001":<p>http://www.hindustantimes.com/nonfram/180401/detNAT02.asp<p>Last report on his posting as GOC-K is in Apr 01.<p>(2) for "Maj Gen Dalbir Singh"<p>http://www.jammu-kashmir-facts.com/mustafa.htm<p>First report on Dalbir's posting as GOC-K is in July (01)<p>Incidentally go through second link. Pretty neat action. Dalbir's formation has been pretty successful in waxing vermin in the last six months. But getting an AVSM in six months is pretty hot stuff - could be that he got it from his previous command. <p>Cautionary note on IC numbers - you have to remember your history. IA underwent a rapid expansion ~64-~69, so previous benchmarks for relating batches to ICs need to be revised as post 63 batches kick in for promotions to Maj Gen and beyond. Right now I believe ~2000 officers are commissioned every year. <p>This note on methods is to gently encourage BRites to come up with similar cases. There's no magic to unearthing these human interest stories. If I can do it, you can do it too

"Right now I believe ~2000 officers are commissioned every year"<p>Vikram, 2000 seems quite high. unless IMA and OTA have batches of more than 400 <p>regards<p>Jagan

Jagan<p>I quote that number based on this biography of Lt Gen KM Seth (now Gov of Tripura):<p>http://tripura.nic.in/govm.htm<p>
Scroll to the part where he lists his duties as Mil Secy

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Vikram Vyas:
Jagan<p>I quote that number based on this biography of Lt Gen KM Seth (now Gov of Tripura):<p>http://tripura.nic.in/govm.htm<p>
Scroll to the part where he lists his duties as Mil Secy<hr></blockquote><p>2000 Off and 60000 men, so is it safe to assume the same number retire every year?

Yes, it's a fair assumption - though the retirements would be at several levels, and the intake has to take into account promotions as well.

Maj Gen Dalbir Singh is personally leading the Kupwara Masjid standoff as we speak.<p>Kilo Force is by far the most important CI force IMHO. It has the most number of units IIRC.<p>It was started by the the DDGMO Maj Gen Nirbhay Sharma. That should tell you how important it is considered.<p>The North Kashmir area is considered a hotbed of militancy. We have lost atleast one sector commander (a brigadier) and 2 COs (colonels) there.<p>The Ashok Chakra for Lt. Col SS Rana was also awarded for action in that area.

Biswas or any body else,<p>The Brig. we lost in North Kashmir was he
Late Brig. Shergil ?<p>Thanks

Mehta - I think so http://www.jammu-kashmir.com/archives/archives2000/kashmir20000822b.html

We've lost 2 Brig overall in 12 yrs of CI (scroll down) http://www.dailyexcelsior.com/00aug22/news.htm

Looks like the mosque seige has ended successfully, with two vermin exterminated. That's the second successful seige in the area, in a fortnight. Go Kilo!

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Babui:
We've lost 2 Brig overall in 12 yrs of CI (scroll down) http://www.dailyexcelsior.com/00aug22/news.htm<hr></blockquote><p>Amar Jawan lists Maj Gen E J Fernandez (Lt Gen Designate) as an operational casuality in COIN Ops. There is a dispute as to the explosion that claimed him was an accident or if it was an IED that was planted.

I have just added the great hero Major Gen. Dalbir Singh to my site here.
http://www.geocities.com/siafdu/ahero3.html Scroll down. Now I need his pic.

Jagan
Heip me out , I am somewhat lost? :confused:
Regarding Maj. Gen. E. J. Fernandez (dispute regarding an accident or IED?). In the court of inquiry if it was conducted properly, IED case can be detected by explosive traces. Also what about the eyewitness report of his escorts. A COIN Maj. Gen most of the time travels with an escort.<p>
Nakul<p>Congrats on a great site.
Nice of you to put up info about highlt decorated officers. There are a few corrections regarding the highly decorated officers. I know you have taken the info from MOD's history divison books. These books are outdated even when they are printed. Say a book is printed in 1990 , it only has info uptill the late 1970's or so.
Here is alist of officers who have retired at higher ranks than shown.
Lt. Gen A.S. Vaidya retired as Gen.
Maj.Gen J.S. Gharaya as Lt.Gen
Maj. Gen K. Gowri Shankar as Lt.Gen
Brig M.A. Zaki as Lt. Gen (He also has the PVSM and AVSM)
Brig K.s. Brar as Lt. Gen (He was the div commander during operation bluestar)
Brig Hanut Singh as Lt. Gen
Brig H.C. pathak as Maj. Gen
Brig K.s. Pannu as Maj. Gen
Brig. H.S. Kler as maj. Gen.
Brig K.K. Singh as Lt. Gen
Brig S.C. Vadera as Lt. Gen<p>Cheers!

DSandhu:<p>If an mine or IED seized was booby trapped vs a mine or IED going off accidentally - there would be very little difference. There will be explosives all around. <p>Subra<p>Anyway I will check with his relatives who are BR lurkers.<p>On hindsight this is not a topic for this thread so we will continue it else where

Sandhu,<p>Fernandez died when an Arms cache he was examining at the Badamibagh barracks exploded. Two Colonels and atleast another five officers/personnel died along with him. the listing of his name by the Amar Jawan book was a surprise. Manoj Joshi in his Kashmir insurgency book also credits the kashmir terrorists with planting a timer activated device, in the arms cache. <p>
Nakul,<p>You forgot Air Marshal A R Gandhi VrC. (I had to try real hard to find something to add to your list, but finally got one )

Thanks Dsandhu and Jagan, will update ASAP. This site is the least I can do for these people who have spent their lives in the service of the nation. Unlike our politicians who spend all their time trying to get as rich as possible.

Lt Gen Satish Nambiar, PVSM, AVSM, Vr.C also added here http://www.geocities.com/siafdu/ahero1.html

Jagan and LNS<p> Thanks for the clarifications. Accidental explosion never came to my mind, I was thinking in terms of traffic/road accident.

If you go down on this page you will see a picture of a senior army officer. Can Any Computer Savy person blow this picture up so we can see the ranks or the medal ribbons. This may be Maj. Gen. Dalbir Singh<p>http://www.tribuneindia.com/2002/20020214/j&k.htm

with his decorations being VrC and VSM. somehow the second medal does not look like a VSM.It does not fit any other service/gallantry medal either. So I dont think hes Dalvir.<p>My 2 NP