6-23 September 1965 War, heroes, heroism and more

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
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Re: 6-23 September 1965 War, heroes, heroism and more

by the way its my bday 6th sept , n of course the year is not 1965 :p

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Re: 6-23 September 1965 War, heroes, heroism and more

The U.S. CENTCOM wishes Happy Defense Day to the nation of Pakistan. Today, we remember all those brave soldiers who laid their lives while defending their country.

Ali Khan
DET, United States Central Command

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Re: 6-23 September 1965 War, heroes, heroism and more

I thought 9 years old threads are not allowed to open again and again. You should have opened a new thread for 6th September 1965 when second war with India begun. I was kid at that time, but I still remember the evening of 6th September 1965. I came to know that war has started when I saw black out in Karachi after getting out from Bambino cinema after watching “Lord Jim” on 70 mm screen. Watching movie on that big screen (perhaps at that time Bambino had that big screen not only in Karachi but all over Pakistan) was a great feast. I asked my elder brother and uncle who were accompanied me why all lights were off? Why there was so much darkness in Karachi never seen before?

We thought Pakistan had won that war and Lal Bahadur Shastri died of heart attack in happiness when he got back all his territory won by Pakistan army during a settlement with Ayub Khan. But after so many years I came to learn that war was lost by Pakistan as all arms and ammunition were exhausted and no one was there to help Pakistan. Perhaps Sam supporting India against Pakistan, made Pakistan to force ceasefire. All efforts of great heroes who died in line of duty to save Pakistan were lost. The news of successes on all fronts are still echoing in my ears. Were Anwar Behzad and Shakil Ahmad were reading lies on Radio Pakistan to make fool and misguiding the people of Pakistan then?

One great thing happened at that time was people of West and East Pakistan united to fight this war in 1965. This kind of enthusiasm and cohesiveness were never seen before and afterwards of this war. In fact East Pakistan who fought side by side with West Pakistan against India wanted to separate from Pakistan in less than 6 years. After 1965 war Pakistan had continuously faced one disaster after another. And the trend is continuing…

6th September used be holiday in Pakistan every year to commemorate those people who lost their lives and celebrate Defense Day. Usually all news papers used to print stories and photographs of this war on this day. Not any more. This news is missing from “Daily Dawn” perhaps on all leading news papers, though nothing happened on that great day in Pakistan. The young and coming generations will be in dark, they will never know what happened in 1965 war with India? It is a shame.

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Re: 6-23 September 1965 War, heroes, heroism and more

I have opened a thread in History and Culture Forum. Found out this in Archives, found it interesting so bumped it.

Thanks for sharing your memories.

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Re: 6-23 September 1965 War, heroes, heroism and more

Hats off to all those brave men and women, who’ve sacrificed their lives while defending our motherland. Tumhein watan ki Hawaein Salam kehti hein. Your sacrifices shall never be forgotten. Happy Defence Day!

:jhanda:

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Re: 6-23 September 1965 War, heroes, heroism and more

Happy 40th birthday :chai:

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Re: 6-23 September 1965 War, heroes, heroism and more

^ I clearly mentioned its not 1965 :mad:

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Re: 6-23 September 1965 War, heroes, heroism and more

Happy Birthday DA where is the cake?

btw aj meri sis ki birthday bhe the :slight_smile:

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Re: 6-23 September 1965 War, heroes, heroism and more

^ thnkx , cake finished :p

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Re: 6-23 September 1965 War, heroes, heroism and more

Here is my recollection of the 1965 war. I was in Lahore at the time and only 14 miles form the border. Indian army never even came near to my house let alone Lahore gymkhana which they were boasting that they had captures. Shattered dreams of the Indian army.

It was a normal day like any other. The sun was shinning, the early morning bus rush was on and as usual I was meeting a few friends at the bus stop in the hope to hop on to one of the buses to get to school. The bus duly arrived, overloaded with passengers and we squeezed our way through managing to get on the bus. On the way to school which was around 5 miles from my house everything was normal, nothing unusual. Overall, there was a certain amount of tension in the air as clashes with the Indian army on the Kashmir border had been going on for quite sometime and the danger of war breaking out was quite high. My house was near Shalimar garden which is approximately 14 miles from the Wagah border.

At school we settled down in our classes and it was around 10 AM when we heard some planes and then a huge explosion rocked our school and some windows in our class shattered. In panic we started to rush out of our classes. Our teachers were desperately trying to push us back into the classes. Pandemonium and mayhem broke loose for the next 15 minutes or so before calm was eventually restored. We didn’t know what had happened. The teachers were all huddled together and after a while we were told that the school was being closed and that we should go home. One of my friend’s drivers came to collect him and four of us jumped into his car and headed home. We were driving towards Shalimar gardens and saw people in their thousands streaming the other way. The driver told us that India had attacked Lahore in the morning and these were refugees from the border area. We were concerned and bewildered. As we were crossing the Railway Bridge on our way to our homes the planes reappeared once more and we heard further explosions. The car shook. Our driver stopped the car on the bridge, opened the door and ran away. All four of us were still sitting in the car looking at the fighter planes as they swooped up and down and forward and backwards oblivious to any danger, we were in fact enjoying what was going on up in the skies. Calm returned after a while and our driver reappeared and we resumed our journey. This was the start of the war on 6 September 1965.

I cant remember exactly but I think it was late afternoon when the than president Ayub Khan addressed the nation and announced that India had attacked Pakistan and we were at war. TV was a rare commodity in those days and most people heard his speech on radio.

Nightly curfew was announced and everyone was told to keep their lights off or if people wished to put their lights on they would need to blacken out all windows and make sure that no light could be seen from outside. The blackout was in force throughout the 17 days of the war. Also civil defence people used to patrol the streets at night making sure no one was breaking the curfew and that no Indian spies were lurking around.

Trenches were dug out in virtually all streets of Lahore for people to take shelter during air raids. The Zinda dilaaney people of Lahore never took to those trenches but used to go on roof tops to cheer their heroes fighting to protect them. There was the famous dog fight over Lahore which lasted for quite sometime and virtually the whole of Lahore was on roof tops shouting Allah O Akbar and urging on their airmen. After this dogfight the air force appealed to people to stay indoors as it made their job difficult because they didn't wanted any unnecessary civilian causalities.

I remember one night around 4 am announcement was made in our area through mosque speakers that Indian air Force had dropped some para troopers in our areas and that we should be on the look out for them. Despite the curfew, People got out of their houses with hockey sticks and cricket bats in their hands looking for any Indian spies. Soon the army arrived there and took over the operation, from what I remember a few spies were apprehended.

A few days into the war a big long range gun was installed near our house and it used to pound the Indian positions non stop. It used to go off with a big bang and you could hear the boom of the shell being launched till it used to hit its target. After a while we became used to it's noise.

The whole nation used to gather around their radios at news time to hear what was going on.

In a way it was a quite a civilised war in that both Pakistan and India never targeted any civilian areas and civilian causalities were very low.

My lasting memory of that war from a personal point of view which has always stuck in my mind was one evening I was standing on my roof and I saw a fighter heading towards the Indian border at very high speed and flying very low. As the fighter came overhead I waved at it thinking it was a PAF fighter and prayed to Allah for its safe return from India. Just at that moment I noticed the Indian flag on that plane and a feeling of anger came over me. Than I saw two fighters overhead chasing the Indian fighter. I waved at them and again prayed for their safe return. Somehow that particular instance has stuck in my mind ever since.

It was a war when the nation became one, they stood like a rock against the enemy and backed their armed forces to the hilt. There was pride, there was determination, there was patriotism and everyone was a Pakistani to the core. There was no fear, just determination to defeat the enemy and defend our lands.

United we stood against the aggression and defended our country. I have never seen such unity before or after that war. When an appeal was made for blood donation the hospitals were overwhelmed with people donating blood. People donated anything they could towards the wareffort and gave very generously towards housing the refugees from the border areas providing them with food and shelter.

May Allah bring that unity back to our nation.

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Re: 6-23 September 1965 War, heroes, heroism and more

aap ki bday to 1992 mein hain kyun ki aap sirf 21 baras ki hui hain. maine to hamesha aap ke posts par kar yehi socha. kya main galat hoon

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Re: 6-23 September 1965 War, heroes, heroism and more

happy bday to your sis. Make sure you get lots of karachi sweets for her like gajar ka halwa and kaju ki barfi. :)

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Re: 6-23 September 1965 War, heroes, heroism and more

Thanks for sharing this story with us. I was not alive then but i am sorry about the fear and tension created i guess from the indian side. It's good to hear varying viewpoints. I am glad that unlike other worldwide disagreements like Israel-Palestine we have not had that many civilian casualties. As a gs member from India I wish all Pakistanis a happy defence day (not sure if it sounds weird coming from an Indian member because i realise the situation is different to Aug 14). I think we can all celebrate sacrifices of soldiers whose job is to protect us and the sacrifices of the loved ones who let them go. I think people generally on both sides were more open minded and more civilised then maybe they are now in times of globalisation where now its all about alliances and less clean. People back then even respected other soldiers from another land because the values of patriotism and sacrifice were common. Sometimes i wonder how these soldiers who fought in the past are treated today. Do we give them special healthcare benefits, discounts, respect and things as given in the West? How many things are just said in words rather than actions? If they were to look back would they think their sacrifices were worth it for what the countries have become? In the West in my country we have this anzac parades in numbr of towns where soldiers from UK, Aus and Nz march and people cheer to celebrate sacrifices from WW1 and WW2. They now have friendly relations with those countries but the march lets those soldiers (and their relatives) who are not alive let know we appreciate their celebration. I know on day of azaadi there are marches but hw many cities and villages have these marches for those soldiers alive or shaheed in different parts of the country. I do not know about Pakistan but i don't think we do in India.

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Re: 6-23 September 1965 War, heroes, heroism and more

That’s why I said 40th birthday otherwise it’d have been 48th birthday :smiley:

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Re: 6-23 September 1965 War, heroes, heroism and more

From the personal memoirs of my father. He wrote this several years ago:

*I was assistant inspector of weapons at Inspectorate of Armaments when the emergency was declared. I was ordered to join 16th Self-Propelled Field Regiment Artillery LAD (light aid detatchment) of 3rd Armored Brigade of 6th Armd Division. I reported at Rear HQ of the division, communicated and was picked up by regiment's MTO and taken in a jeep to the location of regiment. My actual job was to have whole equipment of the regiment in battle-worthy state. This included guns, vehicles, weapons and wirlesss sets. I had about 30 men under my command, all tech, almost. I was to be located
much behind the gun positions but had instead deployed myself and requisite men at the gun positions all the time. Additionally I accepted the duties of MTO, Quarter Master and incharge B echelon thus sparing 3 officers to do the Observer duties. Of course I also got myself trained as Observer.

**1) **1965 May, Mujahideen in Indian Occupied Kashmir troubling Indian Army. Indians have its army deployed all along
the border, Pakistan responds. Late evening I report to a self-propelled artillery unit of strike formation, as tech
support officer. We are in Changa Manga jungle full of fly-size mosquitoes and wild boars sweltering heat, total
darkness dug up on the fringes of jungle. No movement or activity allowed. Additional duties including training as
reserve Observer are accepted. Observers are located on the battle front including enemy territory at vintage point to
guide and give correction to own artillery fire on enemy positions or troop movement.

2) Its July/August. Humidity has added miseries to the already extreme discomforts. Indians still have not located the strike formation. The tribesman and commandos have joined mujahideen. Indian army in IOK is in shambles and terrified and locks itself in fortified camps at night. Nowshehra, Rajauri, Poonch etc are threatened & almost vacated. It was like 1948/49 situation when even Srinagar airport was captured by mujahideen and Indians had to rush to UN for ceasefire and committed plebiscite in Kashmir. However this time, they do it differently

3) Early morning of 6 September, their air force attacks a passenger train moving from Sialkot to Lahore, crosses
the international border and launches full scale attack on Lahore without declaration of war. The generals have vowed
to have a peg at Lahore Gymkhana same evening. They are stopped at BRB canal, the main line of defence, never ever able to cross it.

4) The strike force moves same afternoon towards Kasur, Khem Karran, Taran Taran to hit at the belly of Indian Force. The advance is halted at and around Rohi nalla. Someone had messed up. The recce carried out and routes approved in the Advance Plain by Brig Lumb are all incorrect. Those routes and terrain could not bear heavy armour and artillery cross country due to very high water table. The advance is delayed by almost 48 hours. Meanwhile Indian air recce locates advance of Strike Force. It's a pity that brigadier was not court martialed and hanged.

5) Third night and we are in Indian territory, Khem Karan - Taran Taran. Indians have inundated the whole area in
the north of road. Movement towards Jullundhar and Ambala not possible. Tanks are stuck and are sitting ducks. Infantry
has reached the RV but own amour is missing. An amour unit (13 Lancers) suffers the maximum casualties when having
been hit by Indian anti amour units and having exhausted their ammunition, dismounts and fight like an infantry.

6) I am traveling in a jeep in the evening leading ammunition and food supply convoy towards Taran Taran. The
wireless operator in the back seat is in comm with imam (commanding officer of the unit) who wants to speak to me. I
lean back and turn my head to grab the mike. A shower of bullets graze the back of my neck. Some guerrilla in elephant
grass/ high sugar cane/ cotton plants. We deploy to search but cant find him. Its dark, we miss the gun positions track
and probably start traveling up-north. Suddenly we stop on hearing "Stop Oy kaun ay. Ki password ay". In the mild moon
light I could make out some tanks "Oay aapi aan sardar ji, towaday gawandhi" and start reversing. We had hit the
enemy concentration. It was too late for sardar ji to realize, who started firing but by then we escaped. We reached
our destination at dusk. The second in command was resting in bushes rather than in foxhole. His explanation : The
guerrilla will always look you up in the foxholes ! I smiled to tell him I was better off there being no time night
before to dig a foxhole, I had rested with a skeleton in a grave!

7) The threat at Lahore was increasing. Our brigade was ordered to move to Lahore-Barki Sector. It was
mid-afternoon and I was leading a convoy of guns, ammo, POL and supply vehicles. Outskirts of Kasoor on Kasoor-Lahore
road, in the open, saw two enemy aircrafts hovering. By then PAF had achieved parity with IAF and it was considered
safe enough to move during day time. The aircrafts dropped their four bombs and hurried away. We could see these
floating in the sky and coming toward us but were helpless so we kept moving. These exploded in the flanks causing no
damage at all. The aircrafts dared not dive to straffe us!

8) Barki Sector, mid night, on gun positions. We hear shouts from jeep fast traveling rearwards to Lahore. "Enemy
has crossed BRB with armor and is fast advancing. Run for your life". The adjutant ( who is a minister now )
orders all guns to be deployed broad in one line and to be used as antitank. A Major
dismounts a jeep with sub machine gun in his hands, shouting "where is the enemy? Who has spread this rumour.
Jawano come along lets hunt the enemy" and rushes toward BRB with his men.

9) Meanwhile India has launched its largest offensive with one armored and two infantry divisions in Sialkot sector. At that time Pakistan had only one armored regiment in support of one infantry brigade in that sector. They stopped the onslaught. The tanks were lined up one mile apart in one frontal line and told to advance, find the enemy and engage. (The armor moves in triangular formulation. One tank in front, two in rear flanks. This is one troop. Then three troops and one troop in reserve. All these is one squadron. Then the three squadron making a regiment. Then three regiments make a brigade. Then three brigades making a division. So the formation is a very broad base isosceles triangle. The strength of advancing armor is accessed by number of engagement by opposing force in time and distance frames. So contact by enemy of 45 tanks in short time and distance frame befooled it to be an armored division frontal attack). This slowed down the momentum of Indian advance to regroup and Pakistan gained time to move forces from other sectors. Only one brigade had held the advance of one crops for 3 days !!(excellent command of Brig Niazi who, sadly, proved to be a failure in EP as Corps Comd).

10) So we are moved from Lahore to Sialkot. We take up position along Sialkot-Pasroor road, in general area village
Bathhe. The other armored brigade of strike force was also moved from Kasoor sector to reinforce at and around
Chawinda. At one point all the field, medium and heavy guns were deployed almost next to each other and
unconventionally very much forward. (Field arty is one regiment per brigade, medium is distributed one battery each and
heavy is one regiment per corps. The guns are deployed (1965 era warfare) at about 3-4 miles (field), 6-8 miles
(medium), 10 miles (heavy) from the forward defensive lines (FDLs). Enemy assesses strength of forces from distance of
shells falling in its territory. So knowing the max range of guns held by an opposing forces, say 20 miles of heavy
gun, if the shell lands 10-20 miles deep in its territory, it is heavy gun and therefore corps deployment. As all the
guns were deployed about 2-3 miles from FDLs, Indians were confusingly harassed. All field guns were being assessed as
medium, medium as heavy and heavy as super heavy! They were foxed. But such like tactics are effective for couple of
days only. They added an extra armor and artillery brigade to their strength.

11) I was incharge of B-echelon as well, supposed to be located 3 miles behind gun positions, getting food
prepared, collecting ammo, POL and other supplies and delivering personally as many times a day as possible. I would
get baulking from boss for spending most of day at gun positions and also loc the echelon not more than one mile
behind. The gun positions always run the risk of counter bombardment (CB) by enemy. The "Tipsy-dog" radar would trace
the trajectory of shell, feed data to heavy mortars who would fire back. One day a heavy CB came. Artillery commander
at brigade HQ asked for situation report. The adjutant wisely said "We are Ok, Imam, the enemy CB is falling 500 yards
plus of us at our rear", Expecting that enemy will be listening to wireless comm. Within few minutes the CB was
shifted and we could watch the shells falling 500 yards ahead of us! When dust cleared I saw one shell embedded in the
inner rear wall of my trench unexploded!

12) Chawinda! O Yes. It was 17 or 18 September. Indians had reorganized. They launched the most severe attack with
four heavy armored brigades and infantry division plus. To face them were four armored regiments and five infantry
battalions, all depleted. Aim was to isolate Lahore from west through axis Chawinda- Pasroor-Narowal-GT Road. All the
artillery guns were deployed in anti-tank roll and SP Guns as tanks, to fire point blank at approaching enemy. This
probably was the biggest armor battle-war since WW2. In next 3 days it was all over. We didn't budge an inch but caused
very heavy damage to enemy to force them to retreat. O yes I took shoots as observer like a gunner officer!

13) Once again ceasefire was negotiated. At midnight 23 September, all firing was to be stopped. That night, at
gun position, we were picking up possible enemy targets or concentrations, off the map and "sending" 18 to 36 shells of
105 mm caliber high explosive salvos as last gifts. In return, just before cease fire, we attracted CB. One of the SP
guns fully loaded with shells and cordite caught fire. A young captain, mounted the SP tank and started throwing out
shells and cordite and warning the crew to take away the nearby shells and explosives. He single handedly extinguished
the fire. I had seen that captain once returning from observers duty with a bullet hole in his sleeve folds. This young
officer had joined the unit during the war and I had the honour to share the bunker. A very brave, imaginative,
intelligent and shrewd officer. He is a VVIP now (General Pervez Musharraf)

14) Morning of the ceasefire and I went over to the area where the tank battle was fought. In an area of about 4x8
miles, there were innumerable destroyed enemy tanks, littered with dead bodies, limbs and even boots. I had the camera
on me and took many photos. Most of the dead I found were Sikhs. On my return I informed acting Imam of what I saw. I
marked the area of my adventurous recce on the map. The eyeballs of adjutant popped out. He said "This particular area
where you have been roaming, was mined by us only 3-4 days back to protect our singleline front of gun deployment".
This was the forth instant that I found death being so near yet so far away. It firmed my belief there after that
destiny is not in your control. The day and time is fixed for one's demise. I have never ever been afraid of death
since then.

15) This war was a draw. However an outnumbered force stood like a rock against very heavy odds. But for one
mistake by one brig, the history would have been different today. We have the same situation now as in 1965 but India
dare not cross international border not even the LOC. They had had their lesson!!!*

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Re: 6-23 September 1965 War, heroes, heroism and more

Early in the morning at Fajr time, Indian planes dropped few bombs on outskirts of Karachi. On 7th of September, Pakistan Navy did a superb job by blowing Dwarka air field where planes came to bomb Karachi. Ghazi submarine destroyed perhaps a frigate and few ships in Indian ocean. After that till ceasefire, no Indian plane dared to attack Karachi. Though there were regular black outs but Karachi was calm and peaceful during remaining war time.

I want to share some of the most famous national songs played 24 hours during that time. Those songs are still echoing in my ears. How can I forget the short term glory once Pakistan and Pakistanis (East and West) enjoyed.

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Re: 6-23 September 1965 War, heroes, heroism and more

Black-out was every where. Though there was some tussle at Umerkot Tharparkar border areas (My Maamoo was recruited as volunteer), but I heard black-out even from relatives living in Sehwan, Dadu and LaRkana. My Dadi used to tell, ‘uss din tumhare taya ki mangni thi aur blackout tha’.

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Re: 6-23 September 1965 War, heroes, heroism and more

Early in the morning at Fajr time, Indian planes dropped few bombs on outskirts of Karachi. On 7th of September, Pakistan Navy did a superb job by blowing Dwarka air field where planes came to bomb Karachi. Ghazi submarine destroyed perhaps a frigate and few ships in Indian ocean. After that till ceasefire, no Indian plane dared to attack Karachi. Though there were regular black outs but Karachi was calm and peaceful during remaining war time.

I want to share some of the most famous national songs played 24 hours during that time. Those songs are still echoing in my ears. How can I forget the short term glory once Pakistan and Pakistanis (East and West) enjoyed.

Year is wrongly shown as 1968, it was 1965 September when Mahdi Hasan sung that song. Perhaps that person who put this song on ‘you tube’ was not even born in 1965.

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Re: 6-23 September 1965 War, heroes, heroism and more

Can you imagine, the private army of 65000 Hurs (Pir Pagara) fought bravely in the desert of Rajistan. Pakistan historian had always ignored the services rendered by these Sindhis during crucial war with India in 1965. As far I remember they brought convoy of arms and ammunition snatched from Indian army in desert of Rajistan.

Hurs - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hurs in the 1965 War

**During the 1965 war between India and Pakistan, about 65,000 Hurs served in various fronts especially that of Sindh. The Southern desert sector was a mere sideshow to the major battles fought in the Punjab and in Kashmir. However the Indians had placed two divisions in the desert with the aim of tying down Pakistani troops.

Facing a shortage of troops and unable to divert any substantial forces from the Punjab and Kashmir sectors (where the main Indian thrust has come), the commander of the Pakistan Rangers, Brigadier Khuda Dad Khan, turned to local help. Hurs volunteered in droves. Given only basic training and light weapons, the Hurs nevertheless gave a fine account of themselves in the conflict. Fighting alongside Rangers and regular army units (known collectively as the Desert Force), the Hurs used their knowledge of the desert to good effect and helped to blunt the Indian offensive. But perhaps their most famous (and militarily important) action was the capture of the Indian fort of Kishangarh, a feature located several kilometers inside India.**

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Re: 6-23 September 1965 War, heroes, heroism and more

I knew it so I don't think it is that unknown in Pakistan. Call what you may of Pir Pagara flying kites & birds :D but this is one of the finer accounts of his followers in the 1965 war. I think up until the eighties, the next big cantonment from Karachi / Hyderabad onwards was in Multan, but the army has fixed that by having cantonments in interior Sindh and also started to recruit locally in the area.