WAR DESPATCHES - 1971 OUR COURSE BOOK

 OUR COURSE BOOK - WAR DESPATCHES 1971 - LAUNCHED

On Golden Jubilee of the 1971 War which created Bangladesh, we from 28th Course of National Defence Academy Khadakwasla and June 1966 Passing Out Courses at Indian Military Academy, Dehradun, look back 50 years back exploring our memory lanes of  fighting in this war. Many of us have shared their experiences of the war fought by them which have been compiled to brig out a Book Titled WAR DESPATCHES 1971.

When the war broke out in Dec 71, we all had around 5 years’ of service and were totally thrilled to get into the live combat.  This book recounts the tales of 

 valour as experienced first hand at the cutting edge of any operations at the tactical level. Among the authors are platoon and

coy cdrs, tp and sqn ldrs, grade 3 staff officers, flt cdrs and navigating officers. Their exploits cover the entire spectrum of this war and all sectors on land, sea and air. 

To mention but a few, Kandy flew repeated sorties single-handedly in  dakota that needs a crew of 4.  Kuruvilla was a PW for one whole year, till Dec 72. Shimmi and Sukhi worked closely with the Mukti Bahini. Sethi was actively involved in the blockade of Karachi harbour. KK Nanda and VK Rai saw action in the Mamdot Bulge, Jaisinghani in Shakargarh, Chettri in Longewala, Bobby in Chhamb and Balram in Burinda. Chandra Nath used SIGINT to gain value able intelligence. Pradeep Sharma provided Engr support, perched on top of a PT 76 tank for the most part and using a mess-tin to dig the cable leading to the explosives for disarming them so that the our force can move ahead. Constraints of time preclude us from mentioning others, whose contribution to the war effort was no less.

 The book also contains fitting eulogies on three of our course-mates who made the supreme sacrifice in 1971, penned by other course-mates from the same regiment or corps.

Seldom can one get such a kaleidoscopic view of the 71 ops in its entirety.

 Going through these exploits, there are also lessons to be learnt aplenty, of which two are highlighted.  One aspect that is sure to strike the reader is the importance of joint-manship and inter service cooperation. Another is that bold and unconventional action win the day. There are many more.

  Heartiest Congratulations to our great course-mates  for this project of bringing out this book with experiences of the 1971 War both in Eastern as well as the Western Sectors. The launch ceremony of the WD71 book took place on 3rd Dec 2021 coinciding with the commencement of Operations in 1971. 

  

  We Salute our Martyrs who sacrificed their lives at young age of 23-25 years for their motherland, fighting the enemy with grit and courage. May God Bless them with eternal peace in their heavenly abodes. Long Live the Course Spirit and God Bless. Best wishes.

  The recordings of the Ceremony are placed in this very web page for your viewing pleasure as under :-

VIDEO COVERING THE ENTIRE CEREMONY.  Click the start arrow in the following window to play the video right here..

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OUR HUMBLE VOTE OF THANKS.. 

Ujjal you have stolen the thunder being not only being the real Master of Ceremony but also organising the whole show at USI right from its inception. 

Greetings to the Editorial Team of our course and tons of thanks to M/S BLUONE INK to make our dream book a reality which was just a simple idea a few months back shared by Brig Balram Mehta with the course on the Monthly Course Virtual Meet organised by Col Manohar Ramtri (Our Anchor). 

  Col CPC Nath's willingness to burn mid night oil on it and his technical skills came handy in compiling the write-ups by the authors in proper format making it easy for BluOne to take on this project. 

Our special thanks also go to the members of the editorial team comprising of Manohar Ramtri, Arvind Sharma, Satish Kukreja, Pradeep Sharma, Narinder Dhand, and Trigunesh Mukherjee. They put in many hours of editing work in coordination with the authors and held periodic review meetings to finalise the same on virtual platforms.

The essence of our book lies in:-

a) collective effort of course to pay homage to all martyrs of 1971; 

b) remembrance of those of our course-mates who made supreme sacrifice during this war;

c) tribute to the  National Defence Academy and other training institutes training Army Navy and Indian Air Force officers, which shaped our Military Service and have been influencing our lives;

d) rare book which highlights the critical holistic support to combat units by the supporting arms and services which are generally overlooked.

e) bringing into sharp focus that as soldiers our contribution to Nation Building even as veterans, continues unabated in multiple social, economic, technical, education, management and corporate sectors.

   A copy of the War Despatches 1971 has also been presented by the CEO of M/S BluOne , Mrs Mugdha Chakravartty (She is on the right in  the photo placed alogside) to the daughter of the first Prime Minister of Bangladesh Mr Tajjudin Ahmed at a function hosted by Bangladesh High Commission at Delhi on 6 Dec 21 to honour veterans of 1971.

PHOTO GALLERY ---

Please open the link to view:- PLZ CLICK HERE 

Only few photos have been placed here, there is some space available to load personal photos from the audience, these may be mailed to mgr.grps@gmail.com for uploading here.

DOWLOAD PHOTOS - We have arranged for our readers/viewers to download all the 104 photos in original quality.  Please click here to download. Kindly remember that this link will only be valid till midnight of coming Friday the 10th Dec.

  NOTE - In case you are unable to download, please mail the photo Name as mentioned in the folder seen  to mgr.grps@gmail.com for downloading and sending you the indicated photos

NEWS PAPER CUTTING FROM THE PAPER OF DEC 1971

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