AFOVA New Letter 2 of Year 2021

Section 5 – War Diary CV 2 No. 02 / 2021 Page 75 of 332 5 The Rocket Cannonade at Jubar Hill – (1999 Kargil) Lt Col Sada Peter Genre: War Diary his factual narrative though fully not devoid of tactical /technical jargon is also not a Post Assault Damage Brief. It primarily is an attempt to present facts along with timelines associated with the high intensity bombing and destruction of targets (Jubar Hill) in a Batalik subsector, Kargil by a troop (ex 212 Rocket Regiment) on Night 5/6 Jul 1999 . Twilight had set in the battle zone at Drass sector. It was first week of Jul 1999. Mammoth feature Tololing abeam the National highway from Srinagar to Leh which had been usurped by Pakistani infiltrators had just recently been reclaimed by Indian forces -albeit at high cost of blood/lives and destruction of own defended localities with high intensity of artillery engagement. The next phases of battle were in planning. I was Battery Commander of the 122 mm Russian Multi Barrel Rocket Launch System MBRL GRAD BM 21 , a subunit of 212 Rocket Regiment . I had moved the Sub unit from Delhi to the battle zone in end May 1999 (about a 1000 kilometers) in a span of 07 days at very short notice. Noteworthy and exciting it was as the MBRL system though inducted in the Indian Artillery in 1972 was seeing action / being validated in real time after a span 27 years. Amongst the five Rocket Regiments of the Indian Artillery, it was rather the privilege of 212 Rocket regiment to send one of its integrated batteries to the war zone to fire deadly salvos in support of all the Infantry battles in Drass/Kargil /Mushkoh /Batalik sector delivering substantial explosive fire in all the fire Assault Missions to Infantry for the recapture of own features. Between 02 Jun 1999 and 19 Jul 1999 – 212 Rocket Regiment fired over 2954 rockets in the campaign. What caused the Rocket battery engagements to be viewed as the apple of T The 122 MBRL in action