AFVOA Newsletter 03 of 2020

Section 5 - Memoirs CV 2 No. 03 / 2020 Page 137 of 167 of many a martial race. On this Island all that mattered was the high standard of training and level of teamwork. Nothing else. Needless to say that I made the best of Vavuniya. I got a squash court built by my own 56 Field Company which was in close support. Our HQ staff were a well-knit team, and we withstood the onslaught of the Divisional HQ, our tough SOB commander and the LTTE. I learnt to do many roles. That of being a good listener to the political landscape of Vavuniya – the PLOTE, IRLF, EPRLF and others – to keep in tune with what the Tamil Tigers were up to. Along with the Signals Intelligence, we were able to neutralize the LTTE frequency hopping handsets, and interpret their next moves. Although our neighboring brigades went into a shell, 41 was able to dominate its AOR. The famed Brig Palsokar of 7 Infantry Brigade, sat next to Prabhakaran’s lair for a year, and gave them a wide berth. Alampil forests saw many a debacle, including the most devastating one when a CO who was wounded but alive, and abandoned by his team – his body could not be recovered. Another battalion, under 41 Infantry Brigade, had 22 men of an ambush party, completely decimated, stripped and left naked. Of my commander who often took helicopter sorties to check if each ambush during the day, were where they were meant to be. Of a battalion that had a drill of road opening, by mounting two LMG’s on a 1 ton tailboard, and firing continuous belts into the undergrowth along the road!! We had not trained for this kind of a war, which needed a departure from what we had taught our men as battle drills. Martial races were not just stated. You needed to prove it in conflict each time. Many leaders had their minds paralysed and refused to come down and innovate. I single our 1/1 GR, 12 JAT and 9 PARA as the most outstanding fighting units of our Army then, which I saw. Manjit kept us on our toes operationally and administratively. Our Camp Commandant from SIKH, got many intimate lessons on how to lay and manage DTL’s ! Our Mess Secretary had to count the number of flies killed each day – it was an amusing routine at each lunch, when Manjit would summon the Mess Havildar and ask how many flies had been killed. He would produce a plate with the flies killed and Manjit would check if any were from the previous day ! If flies killed were less, the mess havildar would be instructed to run around the mess till lunch was over. Being from Chennai, I was ordered to procure a complete stainless steel dinner set for our HQ. My mother in law and wife were shocked – “are you fighting a war ?? or attending dinner nights? “The dinner set arrived and so did our dinner nights continue. Manjit would see about 10 newspapers every day after his daily fireworks. The papers would go to BM, DQ, DAAG, GSO3 and others on its way back. We had to scan each paper and see the red circles which Manjit would have made. And procure them asap. Books, gadgets, cameras etc had to be procured. And if any were missed out, they had it. Helmets were his fad. Compulsory all the time – it was your salvation from the commander and from certain death! We