New Delhi: India woke up to a nightmare at five in the morning of 20 October 1962. The attack began with two blazing flames in the cold sky and ended at Thagla Ridge in the running waters of Namka Chu with hundreds of Indian soldiers dead or wounded.
The night before, Chinese troops had cut off all telephone and other communication lines, so even asking for help was impossible.
But the massacre is now known as the Battle of Namka Chu, and is sometimes referred to as the “Battle of India”.memorable dayIn the Indo-China war of 1962, construction was going on for some time.
In the summer of that year, India set into motion its plan to capture the Thagla Ridge by setting up an outpost at Dhola in the Namka Chu Gorge as part of its ill-fated forward policy – the name given to the instruction for further establishment. Post to reclaim territory from China.
when Treaty Map of 1914 Scholar Srinath Raghavan in his book depicts the McMahon Line – the dominant boundary between China and India – as being located to the south of the Thagla Ridge. War and Peace in Modern India That during the build-up to the 1962 Sino-Indian War, India argued that the border was on the ridge. As a result, India believed that it would be prudent to capture the Thagla Ridge.
The Chinese did not agree. from September to mid-October 1962, a number of clashes In the Thagla region between the Indians and the Chinese, the eruption occurred on the banks of the Namkha Chu River at Dhola, Tseng-jong and Tsangle.
These face-offs turned into a major battle when Chinese infantry crossed the McMahon Line and established four battalions south of Thagla Ridge.
On 20 October, he launched a ruthless bombardment of Indian posts, signaling the start of the Sino-Indian War. Notably, on the same day, the Chinese army also entered India in the western sector of the border, including galwan valley,
Chinese Buildup on Thagla Ridge
Between 19 and 20 October 1962, Chinese battalions occupied three distinct positions in the Thagla Ridge area.
First, he took a defensive position on the banks of the Namka Chu River, which flows near the Thagla Ridge. Then, he captured the slopes and crest of the ridge, notes the official history of the 1962 war published by India’s Ministry of Defense (MoD) in 1962–93.
By 20 October, the Chinese presence in the Thagla area had grown from four battalions to a full division.
Importantly, says official history, the Chinese were mobilized with all the weapons needed to launch a major offensive against Indian troops – heavy machine guns, mortars and infiltration tools.
bloody morning
At exactly 5 o’clock the Chinese fired heavy mortars on the Indian posts spread in the Namka Chu area. An hour later, they were doubled down with heavy fire by Indian forces stationed at Dhola Post and Tsangdhar Ridge on the banks of Namka Chu.
By 7 o’clock in the morning, the Dhola post was completely taken over by the Chinese. While most of the soldiers who fought at Dhola laid down their lives in the battle, Major Gurdial Singh of the 2nd Rajput mobilized his remaining troops and put the final charge on the Chinese.
However, the enemy was at an advantage and very few Indian soldiers survived. Major Singh was taken as a prisoner of war. While in captivity, he would receive the Maha Vir Chakra, India’s second highest military decoration. In all, 282 soldiers of the Rajput regiment were killed while defending Dhola, adds official history.
Advancing, between 8 and 8:30 in the morning, the Chinese startled the Indians at Tsangdhar, attacked them through the flank and took positions shortly afterwards.
He also gave his troops cover fire, attacked the Indians at Namka Chu, moved to the further slopes of the Thagla Ridge, the official war history explains.
‘The evacuation… was inevitable’
As the massacre unfolded on 20 October, pockets of Indian resistance ended in Tsangdhar, the MoD’s war history claims.
“Rajputs and Gorkhas stationed at these places” [Dhola & Tsangdhar] hit hard,” it says, but adds that they “soon overpowered.”
Significantly, when the Chinese attack on Namka Chu began, India’s communication lines with the brigade headquarters were destroyed.
2 Rajput’s captain Ravi had to physically go and inform the brigade headquarters that his company at Dhola had been wiped out. Across the points of battle, many mortar and gun positions of Indian units could not be contacted, as the Chinese used jammers to block radio frequencies used by the Indian Army, adds official history. .
By the afternoon of 20 October, the Chinese had either destroyed or repulsed Indian posts across Namka Chu. Finally, troops at Tsangdhar were also ordered to withdraw south to Lumpo on 20 October, adding to the history of the war.
Half a day into the battle, the Indians lost so many people, especially at Dhola and Tsangdhar, that they had to return to the Namka Chu region.
Essentially, three battalions of Indian soldiers were given the responsibility of guarding an area of more than 20 km. It was unstable considering the long walk distance in the area. In addition, troops were hampered by a lack of adequate firepower, personnel shortages, poor logistics and supply lines, all of which greatly increased the challenge at hand.
In the end, Thagla was not intended to defend, but to attack and overthrow the Chinese from the region, an impractical goal given the utter disparity on display.
“The withdrawal of Indian troops from the Dhola sector was inevitable. They were operating under manifold constraints, ”says the history of the war.
(Edited by Aswari Singh)
Read also: A face-off in Galwan, 60 years ago: How the border rift triggered the 1962 India-China war