Page 20 - Seniors Today December 2020

War & History
The Sound
of Victory
My Bush transistor and the kaleidoscope of the 1971 war.
By Brigadier Ajit Apte (Retd)
“There is a parcel for you Ajit,” called
out our Quarter Master Maj MV Menon,
just after the Operational Briefing by our
Commanding Officer (CO), Lt Col RP
Sahasrabudhe on Friday 3rd December 1971.
This briefing was on a Sand Model in our
Logistics base under a huge banyan tree,
which we had named as the Clive Tree. It
was believed that the tree was planted by
Sir Robert Clive after the Battle of Plassey
in 1757. Capt Jai Sapatnekar was well versed
about plants and trees, so we accepted what
he said.
The briefing by the CO was crisp and
concise. He explained to us the entire design
and concept of battle in East Pakistan, and
also the tasks involved.
We had been deployed since September 27;
20
Pakistani Officers marched in by their 107 Infantry
Brigade Commander Brig Hayat for the formal Surrender
Ceremony on December 17, 1971 in Khulna
initially my battery (bty) of six guns, and
then the entire regiment (regt) of 18 guns (all
25 Pounder) since October on the border,
at Bagdah. I had been engaging targets
(tgt) across the border which would figure
subsequently during the war, once it started.
On October 15 the entire regt built up on my
bty at Merani, from where we moved ahead
to Salak into a regt gun area. The monsoons
had been heavy and harsh, making it tough
to move the guns in the slush; they had to be
manhandled by the gunners. We were firing
for 350 Infantry Brigade, with whom we
were In Direct Support to.
We were part of 9 Infantry (Inf) Division
(Div), of the newly raised 2 Corps. Our Div
had 32 Inf Bde (13 Dogras, 8 Madras & 7
Punjab Mechanised battalion) and 42 Inf Bde