AFVOA Newletter August 2020

Section 5 - Memoirs CV 2 No. 02 / 2020 Page 126 of 237 thereafter, the battalion gave a magnificent account of itself through the operations, earning a number of gallantry awards that included one MVC, 2 VrCs and 16 Mention-in-Dispatches, suffering a casualty toll of 21 killed and 96 wounded. Two more Madras battalions the 2nd and the 4th, were to perform with equal grit during the operations to earn laurels. Meanwhile the Madras Sappers scripted an epic saga of their own during the war. While the stellar roles played by them during various engagements, especially in bridging and road building, are far too extensive even to list, their name is imprinted for posterity with a road that they cut through the mountains in record time for the tanks of 7 Cavalry to move up to Zojila, and make India’s greatest victory of the war possible. It’s called ‘Major Thangavelu Road’, named after their doughty officer who led the task force. No document could have highlighted the significance of the role the Madras soldier played in J&K in that critical period more aptly than a letter received by the Madras Government after the operations, written by none other than Chief Minister Sheikh Abdullah of J&K, paying tributes to the Madras infantrymen and the sappers alike. It stated: “Nothing could better describe the oneness and unity of India than the fact that the South Indians should fight the North Indians’ war of liberation. I have been anxious to convey my feelings to the people of the South. In the war in Kashmir, our brothers from the South have taken a leading part. They have fought tenaciously and valiantly; and although unused to the severities of a cold climate, they have held their posts on top of high snow-covered cliffs and mountains with a courage which has won them the admiration of the whole Kashmir people. Likewise, the perseverance and fortitude shown by Sappers and Miners – the majority of whom belong to the South – in keeping our long and difficult line of communication in good order, are both an epic and an exploit. The role of the ‘unknown soldier’ in the war in Kashmir has truly been of the Madrassi foot-soldier. The people of Kashmir will never forget the help they have received from their brothers of the South.”