A Lieutenant General on India's Battle for Zojila | Lt Gen A Singh

The Enemy Thought They Were Hallucinating | Lt Gen A K Singh, PVSM, AVSM, SM, VSM | Battle of Zojila | Leadership & Ideas Archives | Brains Trust | The Peninsula Studios When Indian tanks rumbled into the Zojila Pass at 11,500 feet in November 1948, intercepted Pakistani wireless traffic captured their own headquarters' disbelief: 'You are hallucinating, there is no way the Indian Army can bring tanks to Zojila.' Lt Gen A. K. Singh, from the same regiment that fought the battle, tells the story of Operation Sparrow: the Stuart light tanks of 7th Light Cavalry, stripped of their turrets and disguised as armoured cars to preserve secrecy, winched and pushed by hand over a mule track that had never before carried anything heavier than a pack animal, at an altitude where their engines lost a third of their power. The tanks broke through under Lt Col Rajinder Singh -- nicknamed 'Sparrow' since childhood for his voice -- and took the pass with no casualties to tanks or crew, opening the road to Dras, Kargil and Leh and securing Ladakh for India. Even Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru sent his compliments. Lt Gen A. K. Singh PVSM, AVSM, SM, VSM served as GOC-in-C, Southern Command, and later as Lieutenant Governor of the Andaman & Nicobar Islands from 2013 to 2016. He belongs to the 7th Light Cavalry, the regiment that fought the Battle of Zojila. Brains Trust records people who were present when history was made. It exists to save their testimony before it is lost. Watch next: Lt Gen A K Singh -- "Reflections of an Army Commander" -- the same officer's account of his own career and his philosophy of military leadership.    • Is the Indian Army Ready for What's Next? ...   Related playlist: Leadership & Ideas Archives | Brains Trust    • Leadership Lessons: Boardroom to Battlefield   Visit our website: https://www.thepeninsulastudios.com/b... Subscribe to Brains Trust for more firsthand accounts of history. Curated and Directed by Subroto Chattopadhyay, author of Bangladesh: Humiliation, Carnage, Liberation, Chaos. Zahid Khan — Head of Production & Post-Production. Narinder Tawakley — Head of Logistics. Produced by The Peninsula Studios. Copyright © The Peninsula Publications and Studio Private Limited, New Delhi. All Rights Reserved. Produced by The Peninsula Studios. #BrainsTrust #IndianArmy #ZojilaPass #BattleZojila #ThePeninsulaStudios