Month: July 2020

Author Major General Vijay Pande (Retd)(Views are personal. Information is from open sources)

In his book with the same name, the author Joe Abercrombie referred to cannons as the last argument of kings. Cannons don’t lie. The round will fall where it is meant to. No half truths.
During the Moscow Conference of 1944, Stalin was known to have interrupted Churchill’s speech explaining why he defended Poland because of its Christian outlook, by asking, “how many divisions does the Pope have”.

The point I wish to make is that as an element of the comprehensive national power of a nation, the military constitutes the sharp tip of the arrow, the blunt face of the hammer. The military must say it as it is. No mincing of words, for it is the lives of soldiers that are involved and indeed the survival of the nation is at stake. Political leanings or an attempt to appear more loyal to the king than the king himself must not colour a soldier’s professional outlook whether during service or later on. If political leanings or desire for the crumbs of power are more important, then the trappings of the military identity should be kept aside. Soldiers earn the respect of their countrymen for their courage, both physical and moral.

Speaking one’s mind out does not make one any less patriotic than the other. This simple truth should not be lost in the nationalistic hype. Otherwise we will be no different than the Third Reich of Goebbels and Himmler. Knowledge is no longer the preserve of the select few and this fallacy collapsed long ago with the dawn of the information age. Everyone is equally aware and probably more. To consider the ordinary citizen as naive is the greatest folly.

Author: Major General Vijay Pande, VSM (Retd)

(Views are personal. Information is from open sources)

“They were coming at Grenadier Romer at a steady trot, as determined a group as Romer thought he would ever encounter. Romer could see in a flash, by the way the men carried their weapons, by the look in their eyes and by the way their eyes darted around, all white behind the black masks, that they were highly trained killers who were determined to have their way that night. Who was he to argue with them? Romer turned and ran . . . shouting ..… ‘Paratroopers!’”

(An account of the Glider Landing of ‘D’ Company, 2^nd Oxfordshire Light Infantry, British 6^th Airborne Division on the European Continent, 6 June 1944, courtesy, Stephen E. Ambrose, “Pegasus Bridge”)

This audacious glider borne operation was launched by the British paratroopers of the 6^th Airborne Division to capture a vital bridge over the Orne river in France in the early hours of 6 June 1944 as a prelude to the famous Allied forces’ landings on the beaches of Normandy on ‘D’ Day. The paratroopers were launched from Southern England and flew over the English Channel in gliders to land behind the German lines in northern France even as the main Allied forces prepared for the amphibious landings on the beaches. ‘D’ Company actually succeeded in achieving its objective with only four platoons out of the planned six as the remaining two had missed the landing area. But numbers did not matter at that time. What mattered was the complete surprise this small body of troops achieved against a much larger adversary who had been stunned by this sudden bolt from the blue. This operation marked the beginning of the end for Nazi Germany as Allied troops set foot on the European mainland as part of ‘Operation Overlord’. One year later, Germany was defeated, and the War came to an end.

A few years earlier, a force of approximately 500 German paratroopers assaulted the Belgian fortress at Eben Emael and nearby bridges on the Albert Canal which were held by more than twice this number of Belgian troops. The fortress was considered impregnable with shell proof bunkers and artillery emplacements. It was well defended as it stood on the gateway of the German advance through Belgium and the Low Countries. The German airborne assault forces were organised into task forces of approximately a hundred soldiers each, led by Lieutenants and seconded by Sergeants. These task forces landed silently near the objectives using gliders and swiftly brought the Belgian soldiers to their knees, capturing or killing most of them before they could even realise what had hit them. Again, numbers did not matter. It was a smaller force that had overwhelmed an adversary larger in numbers by achieving complete surprise.

During the Battle of Gazala in 1942, the Afrika Korps under the German Commander Erwin Rommel defeated a much larger Eighth Army of the Allies as he swept across the Sahara Desert in North Africa. The Allies under General Auchinleck were predictable in their approach and were no match to the wile and battlefield intuition of the redoubtable ‘Desert Fox’ who chose timing and surprise over numerical superiority to defeat his adversaries. In fact Rommel is known to have said to a captured British Army officer “What difference does it make if you have two tanks to my one, when you spread them out and let me smash them in detail?”

There are numerous such examples in the history of warfare wherein a small body of highly trained troops achieved gains out of proportion when they struck at a place and time where they were least expected. The adage “three men in the enemy’s rear are better than fifty in front” has been proven time and time again and shatters the comfort of superior numbers.

Planning parameters have been developed for calculating required ratios of attacking forces to those defending. Ratios of three to one and even nine to one are considered necessary to capture defended positions depending on the difficulties of terrain and climatic conditions. The relevance of force ratios is however, only upto a point and no more. Beyond that the imponderables take over. The American General Arthur Collins in his book “Common Sense Training” says he has rarely seen a company capture a hill with more than sixty percent of its strength. 

The idea is not to discount the importance of numbers. Numbers are important to the military planner who must work out the correct allotment of forces and their employment. They are equally important to the logistician who must ensure that the forces are neither understocked nor overburdened. Numbers are also critical for the engineers who build bridges as well as roads and plan demolitions, as also to the signallers who setup the critical communications networks. Numbers no doubt are vital in the science of war planning.

The art of war, however, relies on much more than numbers. Leadership, morale, timing, intuition, surprise and deception and sometimes just sheer guts are some of the many unquantifiable factors that can tilt the scales irrespective of the strength of numbers. ‘Mother Luck’ or the ‘Hand of God’ also cannot be discounted in deciding the fate of many a battle. The battle of Chhamb in the 1971 Indo Pak war was one such bitterly fought contest wherein luck played a role. On 9 Dec 1971, just when the Pakistanis were planning to attack Pallanwala across the Manawar Tawi, the GOC of Pakistan’s attacking 23 Infantry Division, Maj Gen Iftikhar Khan Janjua, was killed in a helicopter crash on the frontline. This unexpected disruption in the command setup in the middle of the operations put unscheduled brakes on the Pakistani offensive which was already facing the heat of Indian resistance and tottering. The next man on the spot to take charge temporarily was Brig Kamal Matin who was unable to cope up with the sudden turn of events. Maj Gen Umar who was appointed the new GOC thereafter simply could not muster the resolve to fight on and called off the offensive.  

Deception is another key factor in deciding the course of battles. It is indeed the primary weapon of warfare of all major armies and has been used in practically every successful military operation since the Trojan War to the present times. The Russians use the term “Maskirovka” (mask) to describe their doctrine of deception. The seventh century Chinese scholar Zhang Yu said, “although the root in the use of military force is based on benevolence and righteousness, for them to be victorious they must rely on deception”. Ruses, feints, misinformation, concealment and demonstrations are some of the preferred means of deception.

Military leaders must shun predictability in planning and constantly look for newer ways to keep the enemy off balance. Reinforcing the enemy’s perceptions, making the enemy believe what he would like to believe and not what he should be believing must be the start point of all military plans. A battle plan without a corresponding cover plan to mislead the enemy is no plan. The more unpredictable the plan, the better the chances of success. The lessons of Troy must not be forgotten.

“Great commanders have always had that indispensable element of legerdemain, an original and sinister touch, which leaves the enemy puzzled as well as beaten”

                                                                                                                                                        Winston Churchill

Author: Major General Vijay Pande, VSM (Retd)
(Views are personal)

“There’s was not to reason why,
There’s was but to do and die …”

(The Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava, Alfred, Lord Tennyson)

Sepoy Gurtej Singh, a 23 year old from Mansa in Punjab went down fighting at the Galwan river as only a Sikh soldier could, using his Kirpan to despatch his opponents to the other world. For the family, their world came crashing down with his death. A grateful nation bade a tearful goodbye with full honours to the martyr. The state government promised financial assistance to the family. The media brought the story to our homes and then moved on to the next bit of breaking news. The village may possibly erect a memorial or a gate or name a road after him. The family will live to recount the saga of honour of their brave son/brother as the only salve to an otherwise unbearable grief.
One thing, however, is certain. In the days to come, the family of the martyr will be helped to pick up the pieces by none other than the Unit to which he belonged. The Commanding Officer will ensure that his family receives all the benefits that are due and help them tide over the trauma so that they can get on with their lives. The fallen soldier will not be forgotten by the Unit, ever. His name will be on the Roll of Honour along with his photograph in the Quarter Guard of the Unit for generations to come and for all his comrades to see.
On the icy heights of Ladakh, in the mountains and forests of Kashmir and also in the scalding heat of the desert, the soldier stands guard, protecting his country against its enemies. He is fully aware that a fate similar to Gurtej Singh might befall him someday and is proud to face it. This is what after all he had sworn to do when he wore his uniform for the first time. What are his thoughts as he sees the crisis looming in front of him today and the happenings back home? Does he think about his family, yes often. Does he think about his country, oh yes, often. Does he think about the job at hand, well, all the time! After all there is so much to be done! The weapon must be cleaned, the magazines must not jam in the middle of a fight, rounds of machine guns must be belted, tank and artillery ammunition as well as the guns cleaned, the ropes must be checked, the personal equipment and boots must fit well and be repaired if need be. On top of it there are the radio set batteries to be charged, the first aid kits to be refilled and of course emergency rations to be kept ready. Then there are the briefings, rehearsals and patrolling…. pray who has the time to even think about dying!!!
In the mofussil towns and villages of India there are thousands upon thousands of men who once served in the army. Most of them retired as Sepoys, Non Commissioned Officers and Junior Commissioned Officers. All of them proudly prefix their name with only one word that is universally respected, “Fauji”. The roadside eatery on the highway run by a retired soldier will invariably be called the “Fauji Dhaba”; the driver of the truck, if he happens to be one of them, will write in bold ‘Fauji” on the windscreen. They are the silent majority of veterans, dignified, least vocal, proud and respected in their community. They are the connection between the serving soldiers and the common man. Countless young boys throng military recruitment rallies every month with a hope of becoming one of them some day.
Among the veteran officers there are some who left the army early, others left midway while many superannuated after completing the full length of service. All of them contribute in their own way towards the society and are generally venerated by the citizens. All of them have perspectives, have better access to information and are knowledgeable as well as articulate. Some of them appear in the media and give their valuable views. To the common citizen, the veterans appearing in the media or postulating in gatherings as subject matter experts represent the military itself as he does not get to hear from the serving officers’ fraternity for obvious reasons. The word of the veterans therefore has immense significance for the citizens who are not so much aware of matters military and taken for what it is.
However, seeing some of them taking sides in openly politically partisan or communally charged debates is disconcerting to the public at large, to say the least and does not show the military establishment in good light. Frequent sniping to score points and vicious personal attacks on each other in full media glare must be giving a sense of dismay to those in service at the frontline. Some of them frequently trip over each other trying to prove how much more they know than the others, unwittingly revealing militarily sensitive information which should be best kept with the military and no one else.
Some very senior veterans who were highly respected while in service by their colleagues and juniors alike at times seem to lose their sense of balance in a desperate attempt to win an argument. Otherwise why on earth would someone take to abusive or derogatory language on public fora? Aren’t they the same people who once mentored ‘Gentlemen Cadets’ so that they could become “Officers and Gentlemen’?
Many have chosen politics as their second calling like so many other veterans who select varied professions after retirement from the service. The least one expects from these worthies is that they remember that the only religion of the soldier whom they once proudly led, is his Uniform and the only colour that soldier recognises is the colour of Blood. The soldier respected him for that, was proud to call him his Boss and was ready to walk to his death on his orders. Let not political or any other expediency play riot with this sacred sentiment of the soldier.
After all, “discretion should remain the better part of valour”.
The men at the helm of affairs as well as those at the front have a job to do. Let them do it. Such unseemly distractions are the last thing they need. They need all the support the country can give them.
When the storm is looming on the horizon, the wise brace for it together and stand united. Let good sense prevail.
“Old soldiers never die,
Never die, never die,
Old soldiers never die,
They simply fade away”
(British army soldiers’ folklore song)

Author: Major General Vijay Pande, VSM (Retd)
(Views are personal. Information is from open sources)

“When Barbarossa begins, the earth will hold its breath”
Adolf Hitler
(as quoted by Alan Clark in ‘Barbarossa’)

And indeed, the world held its breath, as three million men were launched into what would be the largest known invasion in land warfare – Hitler’s invasion of Soviet Russia in June 1941, codenamed Operation Barbarossa. The invasion began with thousands of guns hurling tons of TNT into the hapless Soviet positions and swarms of Stukas, Messerschmitts as well as Junker fighter aircraft raining hell from the sky. Three Army Groups, North, Centre and South tore across the German boundary with Soviet East European territories. Army Group North, Commanded by General Ritter Von Leeb was headed 800 miles away towards Leningrad, Army Group Centre under General Feder Von Bock set for Moscow 700 miles off and Army Group South led by General Gerd Von Rundstedt had Stalingrad as the objective, 1300 miles away. The German blitz caught the Red Army completely unprepared and they were slaughtered as the advancing forces swept across the steppes of eastern Europe. After all Hitler had given clear directions to his commanders. “The war against Russia will be such that it cannot be conducted in a knightly fashion. This struggle is one of ideologies and racial differences and will have to be conducted with unprecedented, unmerciful, and unrelenting harshness. All officers will have to rid themselves of obsolete ideologies. I know that the necessity for such means of waging war is beyond the comprehension of you generals but . . . I insist absolutely that my orders be executed without contradiction”.
The account of World War II is too well known to be repeated. There were ignominies galore during the War. Britain faced the humiliation of retreating across the English Channel at Dunkirk and the French pride had been crushed by the stomping of Nazi boots on the Champs Elysees in Paris. On the Eastern Front town after town fell to the Germans and thousands of Red Army soldiers were slaughtered mercilessly or taken prisoner, leading the Soviet commander Zhukov to bluntly order all commanders down the line to stay put and fight where they were or be prepared to be shot in the Red Square at Moscow. On the other side of the globe, the United States could not believe its eyes at the utter devastation wrought on its Pacific fleet by the Japanese Admiral Yamamoto’s aircraft at Pearl Harbour in Oahu, Hawaii.
Once the tide turned, the fall of Berlin and Hitler’s suicide, the ignonimous death of Mussolini and the dropping of atom bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki brought an end to this dance of death. What was the price of the war? Almost 80 million dead, cities reduced to rubble, fields scorched, economies devastated and the effects of nuclear radiation festering among generations to come in the two cities struck by the atom bombs. It was a scale of savagery and brutality the world had never seen before!
What could be the reason for the world to go into this suicidal tragedy? The seeds were sown with the idea of ‘Lebensraum’ (living space), the expansionist dreams of the megalomaniac Hitler and his cohorts who believed that German territories were not sufficient for their population and more needed to be occupied. This was encouraged indirectly in no small measure by the appeasement of this tyrant by the European powers during the decade preceding the War. Germany had embarked on a frantic militarization programme in the early 30s which virtually went unchallenged. By 1935 the process of “Nazification” of Germany was complete and a totalitarian regime was firmly in place. Thereafter, Hitler occupied Rhineland in 1936 and Austria in 1938. The British accepted this blatant expansionism after extracting a promise of “no more territorial demands in Europe” from Hitler. This promise was thrown to the winds as quickly as it was made when Hitler occupied Czechoslovakia and Poland in quick succession in 1939. The rest is history.
Eighty years later there is a stark reminder. Another hegemon is on the rise in the Eastern Hemisphere.
Over the last thirty years since the end of the Cold War, the Asia Pacific region has seen the inexorable rise of China as the primary challenger to the United States. It has relentlessly increased its influence globally while at the same time it attempts to curb the reach of its adversaries. Territorially, China seeks to continually extend its borders while claiming territories belonging to other countries as its own. It started with the occupation of Tibet in 1951 and has followed it up with a long list of territorial claims on its periphery. Territory is indeed in the middle of China’s disputes with its neighbours. China claims the Senkaku islands of Japan in the East China Sea as its own. It is firmly opposed to Taiwan’s existence as an independent entity and propagates the “one China” policy, favouring reunification of Taiwan with the mainland. China is against any form of autonomy to Hongkong and believes it must be completely amalgamated with the rest of the country. China lays claim practically to the entire South China Sea including the Spratly and Paracel Islands as well as the Gulf of Tonkin. Along its border with India, China lays claim to entire Arunachal Pradesh and Ladakh. Bhutan is not spared either with China still claiming territories along the border as its own. In all these disputes, China believes that the settlement must be on its terms and the claims of the other countries have little or no relevance. To achieve its ends, China is ready to wait it out, browbeat or buy out its adversaries or apply any other means at its disposal.
Significantly, China has not involved itself in any major military confrontation with its neighbours since its war with Vietnam in 1979 although it continues to pressurise its neighbours to do its bidding. China’s preferred weapon of coercion with its other neighbours is its economic might. In the present standoff with India in Ladakh however, there is a difference. China is openly flaunting the threat of use of its military power in the crisis, having amassed substantial forces in the region to back its moves along the Line of Actual Control between the two countries.
Great Powers do not hesitate to go to war as and when their vital national interests are threatened. The United States has been at war in one part of the globe or another throughout much of its existence since independence. The costs, both economic and human have no doubt been immense, but that is the price the Superpower must pay to retain its pre eminence in the world order.
Nations aspiring for Great Power status must also be ready to bite the bullet should the need arise. The Indian Prime Minister’s statement that the age of expansionism is over could not have come at a more appropriate moment and has signalled India’s intent unambiguously. Clearly this nibbling, creeping invasion and salami slicing by China on our borders and any other form of coercion cannot be allowed to go on unchallenged any longer. India must stand up to the Dragon. In the century of the Asia Pacific, it is India’s defining moment.

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
George Santayana

Author: Major General Vijay Pande, VSM (Retd)
(Views are personal. Information is from open sources)

“It is not the size of the dog in the fight,
It is the size of the fight in the dog”
Mark Twain

By all accounts Goliath, the champion of the Philistines (circa 9th century BC) was an imposing giant. Some described him as almost ten feet tall, others put a more conservative figure of around seven feet on him. He was challenged by a diminutive David of the Israelites to face him in combat. Goliath was strong of build, proud and arrogant, his armour impregnable and believed his victor was yet to be born. David had no visible signs of strength to speak of, no armour to protect him and a just a slingshot with five stones as his weapons. However, David used his slingshot to good effect; the first stone flung with it struck Goliath in the forehead and brought him down. Within no time David descended upon Goliath and severed his head from his body. In a moment, the myth of Goliath’s invincibility was reduced to dust.
During World War II, when the power of Nazi Germany was at its peak, having captured most of Europe and knocking at the gates of Leningrad, Moscow and Stalingrad, a lesser known group called ‘Partisans’ played a critical role in weakening the German army with continuous harassing operations in their rear areas. The partisans were active in the territories occupied by Nazi Germany during their march into Soviet Russia which included Yugoslavia, Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine among others, as also in occupied France. Who were these Partisans? They were groups of ordinary men and women who dared to pick up arms and operate behind the German lines, raiding, ambushing, cutting off lines of communication and generally giving a torrid time to the enemy. They had little or no formal training but were replete with courage and resolve. One of them was a gutsy French woman called Nicole, who proved to be the nemesis of many Nazi soldiers.
In 1948, a newly born Israel went to war immediately with its Arab neighbours who were outraged at the development. The Arab countries massed large number of warriors and outnumbered the fledgling Israeli Army. The Arab League forces were also supported by irregular groups and foreign mercenaries. In reply, Israel mobilised every citizen for action as it was literally an existential war and prevailed over its opponents.
Numbers and technological superiority are important in warfare no doubt but are not the only deciding factors. Otherwise the results for the USA in Vietnam as well as Afghanistan would have been different. Sun Tzu, arguably the greatest military thinker of all time, listed out five essentials for victory. These were, one, “he will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight”; two, “he will win who knows how to handle both superior and inferior forces”; three, “he will win whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all its ranks”; four, “he will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared”, and five, “he will win who has military capacity and is not interfered with by the sovereign”.
Historically, there have been countless wars in which the armies of the opposing sides were not evenly matched in numbers. Genghis Khan, one of the greatest conquerors in history, never had a combined force of more than a hundred thousand soldiers and he pretty much brought the entire Eurasian continental region from the shores of the Sea of Japan to Central Europe under his heel. In October 1947, the Indian Army staved off hordes of raiders from Pakistan on the outskirts of Srinagar with just one Battalion initially, the famous 1 Sikh, commanded by Lt Col DR Rai. Of course, reinforcements flew in fast thereafter and the tide was turned.
The great military thinker Liddel Hart said, “in war the primary target is the mind of the enemy commander and not the bodies of his troops”. Wars are fought not only in the physical domain, which is the most visible, but also in the psychological as well as the moral domains which are not so easily discernible. The Chinese refer to second part as the ‘three wars strategy’ which includes public opinion, psychological and legal warfare.
The morality of war demands that the citizens as also the soldier must believe in the justness of the cause and the unavoidable necessity for which the nation must take recourse to war. This will be one of the prime motivations for the soldier. War is not a spectacle just to be viewed in the living rooms or dissected in the studios. Lives of men and the fate of a nation must not be reduced to a shouting spectacle on evening prime time. Everyone must believe that, having exhausted all options, there is no alternative to defend the righteous cause and then plunge into it with heart and soul.
The psychology of war will necessitate the exploitation of information and the means of disseminating it as the new “strategic high ground” in warfare. The shaping of perceptions using information as a weapon will be the new normal in non-kinetic warfare. Narratives and counter narratives will inundate the air waves and the mind space. The greater the availability of information and technology, the greater the challenges as well as the opportunities. Everyone must be alive to this unseen facet of war.
United we must stand.

“For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf,
And the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.”
Rudyard Kipling