On 4 December 1971 about 120 Indian infantry, under Major Kuldip Singh Chandpuri, held the post at Longewala in Rajasthan against a Pakistani armored attack. When dawn came, Indian aircraft destroyed the stalled tanks.
Holding the post
The defenders were A Company of the 23rd Battalion, Punjab Regiment, with a half-platoon of Border Security Force men. Chandpuri was offered a withdrawal but chose to stay and kept directing artillery fire throughout.1
Dawn and the air strike
Indian aircraft could not fly at night without night-vision equipment, so they waited for daylight. The Hunters and Maruts then attacked the stalled Pakistani armor. Air Marshal M.S. Bawa, who in 1971 commanded the air base at Jaisalmer, wrote that 37 of the roughly 45 attacking tanks were accounted for. Air Marshal Bharat Kumar, writing for the Centre for Air Power Studies, describes the wreckage of 37 tanks around Longewala that evening. The two accounts may not be independent of each other, both come from Indian Air Force officers, and the Pakistani losses remain disputed.2
Our article on the Battle of Longewala covers the battle in full.
Also on this day
- 1942: Carlson's patrol. The 2nd Marine Raider Battalion under Evans Carlson hunted Japanese troops under Toshinari Shōji who had escaped encirclement near Koli Point on Guadalcanal.
