War in Our Times | Major Shamsher Mehta's heroic saga in the shadows of 'Pippa' in the 1971 war

Expanding the Pippa Story Pippa, the recently released movie on Amazon Prime Video, revolves around three major themes – the 1971 India-Pakistan War with specific emphasis on the Eastern Theatre and the creation of Bangladesh; the exploits of the PT-76 amphibious tank; and the Mehta family comprising the matriarch of the family and her four sons, all of who fought in the 1971 conflict and came home. The eldest Mehta sibling, however, goes by the name Shamsher and not Ram as depicted in the movie. The Pakistanis did not take him prisoner and then freed in an operation led by the principal protagonist of the film, Captain Balram Mehta. Granted the film does not claim to be a true and chronologically sequential rendition of events as they transpired on the ground and that the film-makers were well within their creative and licensed freedom to create a story around the book Pippa, as a historian, the author feels it is only right to narrate the story of Major Shamsher Mehta, a tank squadron commander from 63 Cavalry who led his PT-76 tanks to within striking distance of Dacca as early as 14 December and into Dacca on the early morning of 16 December. 63 Cavalry in action Before the 1971 War, Major Shamsher Mehta (later Lt Gen and the Western Army Commander), was commanding an Independent Squadron of vintage Ferret Scout Cars in Mizoram. Part of 63 Cavalry, an armoured regiment that was raised in 1957 and saw much action during 1971 in the Eastern theatre. As the war clouds rolled in, the squadron was recalled from Mizoram and re-equipped with the PT-76 amphibious tank of Russian origin and assigned to 57 Division under 4 Corps which was commanded by Lt Gen Sagat Singh, arguably the principal operational architect of the fall of Dacca. Adopting an Indian version of a blitzkrieg, Sagat’s divisions mounted a series of spectacular heliborne and armoured assaults across the Meghna that resulted in the capture of the major military garrison of Sylhet and established several launch pads around Dacca before the final assault on 14 and 15 of December. After crossing the mighty Meghna river, which Mehta likens to a ‘river as wide as a sea and whose far bank we never saw,’ the smaller Lakhya Rivulet, what is now called the Sitalakhya, was the final river obstacle that the Indian Army had to cross before entering Dacca. Securing Dacca The final major battle around Dacca was fought by 4 GUARDS led by Colonel Himmeth Singh and supported by 10 PT-76 tanks from 63 Cavalry led by Major Shamsher Mehta, the eldest of the Mehta brothers. Riding into Dacca with Mehta on his PT-76 was Sydney Schanberg The New York Times war correspondent who wrote of his impressions of the Indian Armed Forces in an email to the author, “All my experiences with the Indian Armed Forces were very positive and impressive. Their professionalism and fairness were always in sight.” Once the final battle on the outskirts of Dacca was won and Mehta’s column entered the Dacca University campus, they were met with an eerie silence and remnants of the death and destruction left behind by retreating Pakistani troops. Since Mehta’s squadron comprised Sikh troops, they immediately spotted a Gurudwara in the precincts of the campus and found the body of the head priest in an adjoining trench and set about cleaning the premises and restore its sanctity. The importance of the gurudwara and the need for calm was not lost on the Sikh troops as it was built to commemorate the easternmost travels of Guru Nanak in 1506. It was from this gurudwara, Mehta recollects, that the first radio speech on 16 December was made by Tajuddin Ahmad proclaiming the founding of Bangladesh. Game over Rolling on into Dacca, Mehta’s squadron of tanks was assigned with the protection of three key installations, the Intercontinental Hotel, Dacca’s main radio and communication station and the Dacca airport that was being prepared to receive the Indian team comprising Lt Gen Jagjit Singh Aurora, Air Marshal Hari Chand Dewan, Vice Admiral Nilakanta Krishnan and Lt Gen Jack Farj Rafael Jacob among others for the surrender ceremony. The Intercontinental Hotel, apart from being the refuge for all international journalists and diplomats, was also a much sought-after hiding place for Pakistani government officials including the Governor of East Pakistan, Dr AM Malik, who resigned after the Indian Air Forces’s precision air strike on his residence where he was chairing a top-level meeting. Mehta and his squadron had the onerous responsibility of protecting the inmates of the hotel from angry Bengali mobs seeking instant retribution. Having lost three tanks from his squadron during the two weeks in operations, Mehta made up for the loss by capturing three fully serviceable Pakistani PT-76 tanks along his axis of advance. These were in full display around the Intercontinental Hotel and could be differentiated from the Indian tanks by a white circle drawn around its turret. Of the several human stories that emerged from the author’s recent conversation with Mehta, the most heartwarming one is of Mehta being among the first to get a call from the restored communication network to his wife in Satara via Calcutta and Pune, informing her that he was safe. In the final analysis, the speedy fall of Dacca was possible because of a superb orchestration of military operations by all three services and the immense contribution of the Mukti Bahini in facilitating the rapid advance of the Indian Army on multiple axes. The free hand given to commanders on the ground such as Lt Gen Sagat Singh to exploit openings and exercise their initiative created an operational momentum and exerted the necessary psychological pressure that forced Lt Gen Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi to surrender with 93,000 battle-ready troops on 16 December 1971. The author is a retired fighter pilot who has flown both the MiG-21 and the Mirage 2000. He is also an air power analyst and military historian. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.