SOURCE: Times Now Digital
Major Shaitan Singh’s name has come to signify heroism beyond words. The history of 1962 war with China cannot ever be told without a mention of this brave Indian Army officer and his exemplary men who held the Rezang La (La means pass) until death though they were unbelievably outnumbered.
Recently, India has come to reminisce about that historic battle as the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) on Monday fired shots in a failed attempt to intimidate and dislodge Indian soldiers holding dominating heights near Rezang La.
Rezang La is a towering mountain pass at 18,000 feet in eastern Ladakh and this place is now etched in Indian memory as it was here that the heavily outnumbered Indian troops put up a fierce fight against invading Chinese soldiers during the winter of 1962.
124 Indian soldiers of the Charlie Company of the 13th battalion of the Kumaon Regiment put up a brave fight against a numerically superior and better-equipped enemy in November 1962.
More than 5,000 Chinese troops attacked the region with an infantry backed by heavy artillery fire.
Major Shaitan Singh and his brave men from the C Company fended off the attack and fought to the last bullet, inflicting heavy casualties on the Chinese army. Those were not the days of satellite surveillance. Mankind lacked the advanced technology that we have at our disposal today. So it was a good three months after the battle that any advances towards the frozen region could be made.
What the search parties found will leave you teary-eyed and a lump in your throat. A book published by the Ranikhet-based Kumaon Regimental Centre tells the story.
The frozen bodies of Indian soldiers were found in their trenches at the Chushul Sector – the dead men still holding their weapons. The first attack launched by the enemy at the crack of dawn on November 18 was blunted with the Major ordering his men to open fire at the Chinese the moment they came within their rifle range.
“Many of the enemies fell, others continued to advance. But with every weapon of C Company firing, the gullies in front of the 8 Platoon were soon full of dead and wounded Chinese,” says the book The Images of Valour and Triumph, published in 2005.
The Chinese had not expected this stiff a resistance as they had attacked with full force and had expected the Indian Armymen to be too shocked to respond after being heavily outnumbered. The Chinese then brought in heavy artillery, mortar and small arms fire and attacked in overwhelming strength in successive waves.
After this stiff Indian resistance, the Chinese resorted to heavy artillery bombardment of the positions held by Major Singh and his men.
The Chinese realised that they were not going to be able to defeat these brave Indian soldiers at one go. They launched multiple attacks and soon the C Company soon found itself surrounded by the enemy. Major Singh reorganised the positions held by his soldiers and re-sited the automatic weapons. The idea must have been to utilise whatever little ammunition the C Company had left to the maximum advantage and inflict as much damage as possible on the Chinese advancing army.
Major Shaitan Singh kept moving without cover between various posts that his men manned. He was leading from the front and wanted to keep the morale of his men high. At one such time, he took a few bullets and a few of his men wanted to assist him. When the 38-year-old officer saw that this reduced the fightback from India’s side, he commanded that he be left there on the ground and the men continue the attack.
His bullet-ridden body was found laid down behind a boulder a few months later.
Major Shaitan Singh and his 113 men finally fell to repeated assault by the advancing 5,000 Chinese men’s gunfire. But not before taking down anything between 500-1300 Chinese men.
A chapter on the Battle of Rezang La in the book says, “The dead men were found (3 months later) in their trenches, frozen stiff, still holding their weapons. Broken light machine gun bipods, and some men holding only the butts of their rifles while the remaining weapon had blown off, bore witness to the enemy fire.”
Major Singh’s exceptional courage and leadership demonstrated by him in the battle was recognised. He was posthumously awarded the Param Vir Chakra – the country’s highest wartime gallantry award.
General VP Malik, former chief of army staff who was inducted in the Ladakh sector in October 1962 as Captain with 3 Sikh Li, told Hindustan Times: “We were directly in the Chushul battlefront, but were preparing defences in the rear on Dungti-Chuma Tang axis. The tactical significance of Rezang La lies in the dominating heights, Gurung Hill and Magar Hill, which have now been occupied by us. During the war, we did hear about Major Shaitan Singh’s heroic action, but it was much later that I visited the place where he had fallen.”
PVC awardee Shaitan Singh’s background:
Major Shaitan Singh lived up to his legacy of being a Defence officer’s son. He was born on 1 December 1924 in a Bhati Rajput family of Banasar village, Jodhpur district of Rajasthan. His father was Lieutenant Colonel Hem Singh. Lt Col Singh served in France with the Indian Army during World War I and was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by the British government.
Singh studied in the Chopasni Senior Secondary School, Jodhpur up to his matriculation. At school, he was known for his skills as a football player. After completing his schooling in 1943, Singh went to Jaswant College and completed his graduation in 1947. On 1 August 1949, he joined the Jodhpur State Forces as an officer. When Jodhpur state aligned with India sometime after Independence, Major Shaitan Singh became a part of the Indian Army.
His Param Vir Chakra citation reads:
Quoting Gazette of India Notification No.68—Press/62, (Cardozo 2003, p. 83)
Major Shaitan Singh was commanding a company of an Ahir infantry battalion deployed at Rezang La in the Chusul sector at a height of about 16,000 feet. The locality was isolated from the main defended sector and consisted of five platoon-defended position. On 18 November 1962, the Chinese forces subjected the company position to heavy artillery, mortar and small arms fire and attacked it in overwhelming strength in several successive waves. Against heavy odds, our troops beat back successive waves of enemy attack. During the action, Major Shaitan Singh dominated the scene of operations and moved at great personal risk from one platoon post to another sustaining the morale of his hard-pressed platoon posts. While doing so he was seriously wounded but continued to encourage and lead his men, who, following his brave example fought gallantly and inflicted heavy casualties on the enemy. For every man lost to us, the enemy lost four or five. When Major Shaitan Singh fell disabled by wounds in his arms and abdomen, his men tried to evacuate him but they came under heavy machine-gun fire. Major Shaitan Singh then ordered his men to leave him to his fate in order to save their lives. Major Shaitan Singh’s supreme courage, leadership and exemplary devotion to duty inspired his company to fight almost to the last man.
