The Charge of the Guides Cavalry, a famed armoured regiment of the Pakistan Army, has already become part of our 1965, war martial lore due to the valour displayed by its valiant chargers. The following paragraphs are a humble libation to the valiant men who watch over us, revelling and rejoicing in their acts of self-sacrifice for a cause deemed greater than their lives. It is both to deify these exemplars of courage as well as to pay a general homage to the memory of our September heroes that this chronicle of their debonair charge in the muddy fields of Badiana is attempted. Guides Cavalry sprang from the Corps of Guides that was raised at Peshawar on December 14, 1846 by Lieutenant Harry Burnett Lumsden on the orders of Sir Henry Lawrence, the British Resident at Lahore, the capital of the then Sikh Empire. Initially composed of a cavalry troop and two companies of infantry mounted on camels, the Guides were organised to be a highly mobile force.
The Corps of Guides comprised a composite force of cavalry, infantry, and artillery being the veritable wardens of the wild frontier on the North West Frontier. They were the first troops who donned a khaki coloured uniform as an operational necessity while being deployed on the jagged treeless frontier terrain where Pathan marksmen could take pot shots at red tunics from their hideouts. In 1879, a detachment of 76 Guides was deployed in support of the British residents in Kabul, where they were attacked by Afghans. Though Afghans gave quarters to Indian Guide troops, yet despite being vastly outnumbered, the intrepid Guides refused quarters, choosing to fight to the death. On September 26, 1940 Guides Cavalry was converted into a Light Armoured Regiment and saw action during WWII in Iran and North Africa. It was converted into an armoured regiment in November 1945, when it received its first tanks.
On the eve of September 6, this legendary armoured regiment formed part of the newly raised 6th Armoured Division in the Sialkot Sector. The regiment was commanded by its charismatic Commanding Officer, Lt Colonel Amir Gulistan Janjua and was equipped with two squadrons of M47 and M48 Patton tanks as well as a squadron of M36B2 tanks. 6th Armoured Division — which comprised three tank regiments — initially was itself in the process of being reorganised. The Division was initially given the task of counter-attacking from Sialkot, Pasrur, Jassar, and Raja Khas to restore the forward line of defence of the Sialkot based 15 Division. By September 8, when the Indian attacks came, 6thArmoured Division was deployed west of Badiana in its forward concentration area. The Indian offensive thrust by 1 Corps comprising 1st Armoured Division supported by two infantry divisions was planned on three axes with a prong along Chaubara-Pindi Bhago as a ruse to suck in the Pakistani armoured divisions, whereas the main thrust lay to the West.
The Indian attack on the Western axis by 16th Cavalry however was effectively blunted by the elements of 25th Cavalry under their valiant Commanding Officer (CO) Lt Colonel Nisar. 25th Cavalry stood alone due to peculiar deployment and last minute readjustments of defensive positions by 6th Armoured Division. Pakistani troops were in the process of redeployment when the Indians struck. 6th Armoured Division, which was ordered to redeploy as per Major General Sahibzada Yaqub’s concept of operation holding nodal points along major penetrants with light strength while developing a counter attack with the bulk of the remaining armour against the vulnerable flanks of the enemy. As luck would have it, the plan could not materialise as events soon overtook it. 11th Cavalry was sent to relieve both the 24th Infantry Brigade and 25th Cavalry and to block enemy movement between Phillorah and Zafarwal. While this redeployment was ongoing, the Guides Cavalry lay in prowl, rearing to go from Badiana to Bhagowal as per their assigned task.
In the deafening cacophony of fire, the Indian steel behemoths, smug in the knowledge of their superior numbers were shocked when a nimble armoured maneuver by a troop of Guides Cavalry at Bhagowal knocked out three Centurions of the Indian 16th Cavalry
To make things difficult for Pakistan’s 11th Cavalry, the full weight of India’s much vaunted 1st Armoured Divison fell on 11th Cavalry’s A-Squadron, which fought back valiantly, accounting for Lt Colonel Tarapur’s Tank, CO 17 Poona Horse, the legendary Indian tank regiment. The situation at Phillorah grew critical when in a deadly fusillade, the CO of the 1st SP Artillery Regiment embraced martyrdom while the 11th Cavalry CO was seriously wounded. With nine out of their eleven M36B2 tanks destroyed, the 11th Cavalry was forced to move back to the defensive position of Chawinda. The situation was critical as the Indian tanks were ominously poised to make a breakthrough in view of the Pakistani losses. On September 10, Guides Cavalry had a squadron each at Saha Chak, Rasulpur, and Badiana Khurd with a troop at track junction, south of Bhagowal. To relieve Indian pressure, the Guides Cavalry was ordered on September 11 to counter-attack against the Indian armoured division’s Western flank. True to their form and characteristics, the Guides launched themselves pell mell into the inferno in only 45 minutes.
In the deafening cacophony of fire, the Indian steel behemoths, smug in the knowledge of their superior numbers got a shock of their lives when a nimble armoured manoeuvre by a troop of Guides Cavalry at Bhagowal knocked out three Centurions of the Indian 16th Cavalry. The enemy was dumbstruck and out of sheer pusillanimity failed to probe ahead, halting its advance on that axis. CO Guides Cavalry Amir Gulistan Janjua lined up his two squadrons in a classic cavalry attack mode to pounce upon their respective targets with a Tally Ho. The two squadrons moved through the wet mud and paddy fields across the railway line to attack their targets. The staccato of enemy fire rang like a war symphony for the Guides’ tank warriors, while the Alpha Squadron drove the enemy back, capturing Chahr. After receiving a drubbing at the hands of the Alpha Squadron at Chahr, the enemy’s luckless 16th Cavalry was mauled by a troop of Guides Cavalry at Wadianwala, ultimately withdrawing from its entrenched position at Khakanwali.
While Pakistan’s Alpha and Chalie squadrons made mincemeat of the enemy around Chobara-Khakanwali, the Bravo squadron, under their plucky squadron commander Major Zia-ud-Din Abbasi attacked the Indian 17 Poona Horse at Gil. Advancing in the typical debonair armour assault, Major Zia-ud-Din Abbassi and Lieutenant Hussain Shah embraced martyrdom just 1000 yards short of their objective. The lightening fast charge by Guides Cavalry had completely unhinged the Indians, forcing their 62 Cavalry Regiment to beat a disorderly retreat. In this climactic battle on September 11, the Guides Cavalry lost 6 Pattons vis-à-vis the 21 Indian tanks, an extraordinary feat by all standards! The daring charge by the legendary Guides stopped the Indians in their tracks, imposing a costly delay on their operations. From there onwards, the battles proceeded from one defensive position to another. The sting had been taken out of the much vaunted Indian 1st Armoured Division’s offensive.
In the subsequent battles of attrition, Guides Cavalry acted like the rock of Gibralter, foiling several armoured thrusts by the frustrated Indians. Their finest hour was on September 11, when their audacious and tactically brilliant attack took the enemy completely by surprise and stopped the Indian armoured thrust in its tracks. What makes this feat truly remarkable is the ferocity and celerity with which it was executed, completely unhinging the enemy. Guides Cavalry shares the pantheon of glory with 25 Cavalry during those initial 10 days of operational imbalance that was reversed by the grit of the valiant men who rode their steel steeds to the gates of Valhalla. Pakistan owes much to the professionalism and courage of men like these with so much owed by so many, to so few.
The writer is a PhD scholar at NUST; he can be reached at [email protected]
Published in Daily Times, September 6th 2018.