In a flash he fired. Probably having lost his nerve he aimed too low. The projectile hit the left mudguard of the tank, but for some inexplicable reason+
Remembering Colonel Anil Kaul, VrC (Retd) on his 3rd Death Anniversary.
“It was October 12, 1987, exactly 5:55 pm as I was… coming out of the cupola of my T-72 tank on a steamy evening in an unknown place called Kokkuvil in the Jaffna district of Northern Sri Lanka.+
In a flash he fired. Probably having lost his nerve he aimed too low. The projectile hit the left mudguard of the tank, but for some inexplicable reason+
Lt Colonel (now Lt Gen) Dalbir Singh, then Commanding Officer of 10 Para Commando, who was standing on the engine deck said to me, “Yaar what a close shave.”
He suddenly saw me and the look on his face told me that something was very very wrong with me. In that+
I asked my gunner to pull out a first field dressing (FFD) which is standard equipment in a first aid box carried in each+
“My towel was used to tie up the remnants of where my right eye once was. This having been done I slid back into the+
“We soon got out of the precarious location we were in, made contact with the 13 Sikh Light Infantry battalion that we were to rescue in the+
The next few hours were spent in retrieving the Para Commandos from the Jaffna University where they had been surrounded by the LTTE.+
My gunner explained that we had joined up and relieved 13 Sikh LI battalion and along with them moved to the university area+
Having extricated whoever we could we moved back to an abandoned house on the railway line only to realise that out of my three tanks, one had been left behind as it got bogged in the clayey+
Dalbir and I remained on the tanks as he was my eyes and ears, but orders to the tank crews were still originating from me.
Of the many incidents in his experience, he retails two.
“One was the raising and training of the Citizens Volunteer Force (CVF) in+
And then there’s the point that the military had LTTE supremo Vellupillai Prabakaran in its sights more than once. “Four times the man went through our lines,”.+
Stories about the logistical quagmire are seemingly endless. After the Jaffna operation, Kaul was+
He discovered that, “The Air Force had refused to fly its helicopters as some had been damaged during the landings in the university and the spare parts were only available in Chandigarh, which was quite a+
I decided that a decision was the need of the hour and informed the Brigade Commander that my tanks+
They were those who once wore the regimental colors of their respective regiments with pride: Specifically 4/5 GR (FF), 13 Sikh LI and 10 Para Commando. Three tanks with a severely injured officer, a severely shaken up JCO+
The loss of sight in the right eye and partial amputation of his left wrist due to the outset of gangrene from+
One operation of just 24 hours yielded 10 gallantry awards, four of them posthumous.+
Kaul’s permanent duty station was Babina, a cantonment near Jhansi in central India, where he lived with+
Probably the first sign that all was not well was when Fluffy started “whimpering and whining uncontrollably”.+
As soon as she heard the news, Rekha set out on the long, nerve-wracking journey, accompanied by Regimental Dafadar Bhim Singh. Gitanjali and Aradhana stayed behind with+
In Bombay, she was escorted to a train that got to Poona later that night. The trip was fraught with uncertainty as information systems did not have any updates on my state and location.+
He vowed never ever to refuse a seat to a man in uniform however jam-packed his coach may be. I realised that war and its after effects leave a+
Anil Kaul met Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and his wife Sonia on April 2, 1988, at the tea that followed the presentation of gallantry awards at Rashtrapati Bhavan. President R.+
Kaul looked to his chief General Sunderji for help, but none came. He answered as best as he could, “Sir, I have no+
Not convinced, the PM persisted, “I am sure you must have felt something.”
No longer able to contain himself, Kaul said, “Sir, I have no feelings, but I have an opinion and that is our going to Sri Lanka as I saw it was a+
Rajiv suddenly said, “We have all got to move for the customary group photograph. After that I would like to talk to you in detail.”
The photographs taken, Kaul moved towards the PM to resume the discussion but security personnel and advisers whisked Rajiv Gandhi away.+
At first, the accolades kept coming. But after the celebrations in Babina, Kaul was ushered into the office of the CO, who happened to be his brother-in-law, at midnight.+
Kaul suggests, “This had possibly been a direct fallout of his own guilt in deserting me at a crucial juncture, his own shortcomings, and finally his way of telling me that he would+
(Source: Better Dead than Disabled by Col Anil Kaul(Retd)
https://t.co/xZGs9FJHIr)
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