Celebrating the 30th Anniversary of India's Greatest Military Victory

Longewala : A graveyard of Pakistani Tanks
Photographs from the frontline show Tanks and vehicles littering  the barren desert

Dec 06, Rajasthan Sector: The botched Pakistani attack on the Longewala and its subsequent decimation by the Army and the Air Force has been one of the highpoints for India in this war.

Some tension did exist in the previous night regarding the possiblity of the remnants of the Tank force attempting an attack on Jaisalmer airfield. The airfield got ready for any sort of an attack , according to the base commander, Wg Cdr Bawa.

An attack by a large unidentified transport aircraft in the early hours of today did not have any effect as most of the bombs fell outside the perimeter.

The first sortie carried out by Jaisalmer was by Fg Off Gosain. His task was to check all routes leading to Jaisalmer for any enemy intrusion, specially the routes leading from Shagarh Bulge, as these approaches had remained unguarded. He flew low into the area and checked and rechecked every suspicious object which looked like the enemy and found no trace of him.

The next recce was carried out in the area Sadewal- Sandh- Ghabbar- Longewala, with a view to check if the enemy was attempting a hook from Sandh to Tanot trying to surprise our troops in this area. No trace of the enemy was found and it was rightly assumed that he was still licking his wounds near Longewala on the Longewala- Ghabbar axis.

A mission was planned , and they  attacked and destroyed vehicle concentrations near Ghabbar. The pilots, during their debriefing, reported that Ghabbar appeared to be the administrative echelon of the enemy.

Disabled tanks lay all along from Kharo Tar to Longewala. The tanks appeared to have been charred and abandoned. The battle of Longewala in fact was in fact truly over now.  The enemy has lost nearly a regiment of T-59 Tanks and numberous APCs.

The troops on the ground have carried out a recce of the battle area where the

IAF had attacked the tanks yesterday. The resulting pictures are there for the reader to see.

Charred, blackened hulks resting in the desert sand, some of them stuck deep in the soft sand as they desperately tried to escape from the clutches of the IAF. No Pakistani dead or Prisoners were recovered. It is assumed all were evacuated by the enemy.

In appreciation of th Air Force's role in this battle, the GOC Maj Gen Khambatta sent the following message to Wing Cdr Bawa.

"Personal from GOC for Base Cdr(.) We had excellent cooperation and support today(.) Shooting by your boys had been most accurate resulting in destroying number of enemy tanks and blunting the attack(.) Please convey my appreciation and that of my troops to the pilots(.) Congratulations on excellent performance(.)"

The airforce also released a radio intercept from the Pakistanis to their higher command:

"Dushman ke hawai fauj ne nak me dam kar diya hai.  ek hawai jahaj jata hai aur doosra ata hai aur bees minute ooper nachta hai. chalis fisadi fauj aur saman halak aur tabah ho chukahhai. aage jana to kya, peeche murrna bhi mushkil ho gaya hai. Jaldi hawai fauj madad ke liye bhejo varna vapas murna na mumkin hai"

Roughly translated into english the same signal would read:

" The enemy air force has made our life miserable. one aircraft goes and another comes to dance in the skies for upto twenty minutes. Upto 40 % men and material has been lost. forget about advancing, even retreating has become difficult. send support from air or else retreating will become impossible!"

The pictures on this page bear testament to the common Indian soldier as well as the Indian Air force pilots who braved the odds to blunt the Pakistani Offensive. Person to Person, a company of 120 army troops and half a dozen IAF pilots have beaten more than 4000 Pakistani troops and a regiment of tanks! Never in the History of warfare were the odds so unfavourable to us. and never have we won so effectively!

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