Mail Sortie to Ladakh 15.10.1979

15 Oct 1979 A First Day Cover to commemorate the regular airmail sorties to Ladakh features the Antonov 12 over the Himalayas and a special IAF Chetak Helicopter in the stamp. The postmark is designed after the Pilot Wings.

Company Quarter Master Havildar Abdul Hamid, PVC

Company Quarter Master Havildar Abdul Hamid (1 July 1933 – 10 September 1965) was a soldier in the 4th Battalion, The Grenadiers of the Indian Army, who died in the Khem Karan sector during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, and was the posthumous recipient of the Republic of India's highest military decoration, the Param Vir Chakra.

Company Quarter Master Havildar Abdul Hamid was honoured with the highest war time gallantry medal, Param Vir Chakra, posthumously. While his citation gives him credit for three tanks destroyed; in fact he had destroyed no less than 7 enemy tanks. This is because the citation for Abdul Hamid's PVC was sent on the evening on 9 September 1965 but he destroyed 3 more tanks on the previous day, plus the seventh one which also killed him.

The award was announced on 16 September 1965, less than a week after the battle that cost his life. The award was presented to his spouse, Rasoolan Bibi by Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, then President of India during the 1966 Republic Day Parade.

Presentation of Colours to the National Defence Academy 1978

The National Defence Academy (NDA) is the Joint Services academy of the Indian Armed Forces, where cadets of the three services, the Army, the Navy and the Air Force train together before they go on to pre-commissioning training in their respective service academies. The NDA is located in Khadakwasla near Pune, Maharashtra. It is the first tri-service academy in the world.
NDA alumni have led and fought in every major conflict in which the Indian Armed Forces has been called to action since the academy was established. The alumni include 3 Param Vir Chakra recipients and 9 Ashoka Chakra recipients.
I had the honour and privilege to pass out of the portals of this great institution as a naval cadet, in December 1961 with the XXIst Course

In 1941 Lord Linlithgow, then  Governor General of India, received a gift of £100,000 from a grateful  Sudanese Government towards building a war memorial in recognition of the sacrifices of Indian troops in the liberation of Sudan in the  East African Campaign duringWorld War II. At the end of the war, Field Marshal  Claude Auchinleck, then Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army, drawing on experiences of the army during the war, led a committee to study various military academies around the world and submitted a report to the Government of India in Dec. 1946. The committee recommended the establishment of a Joint Services Military Academy, with training modelled on the United States Military Academy at West Point.

After the independence of India in Aug. 1947, the Chiefs of Staff Committee immediately implemented the recommendations of the Auchinleck report. The committee initiated an action plan in late 1947 to commission a permanent defence academy and began the search for a suitable site. It also decided to set up an interim training academy, known as the Joint Services Wing (JSW), which was commissioned on 1 Jan. 1949 at the Armed Forces Academy (now known as the Indian Military Academy ) in Dehradun. Initially, after two years of training at the JSW, Army cadets went on to the Military wing of the AFA for two years of further pre-commission training, while the Navy and Air Force cadets were sent to Dartmouth and Cranwell in the United Kingdom for further training.

Following partition , India's share of the monetary gift received from Sudan, amounted to £70,000 (the remaining £30,000 went to Pakistan). The Indian Army decided to use these funds to partly cover the cost of construction of the NDA. The foundation stone for the academy was laid by then Prime Minister of India , Jawaharlal Nehru on 6 Oct. 1949. The National Defence Academy was formally commissioned on 7 Dec. 1954, with an inauguration ceremony held on 16 Jan. 1955. The JSW program was transferred from the AFA to the NDA.

The cover has a stamp with a postmark showing the crest or Coat of Arms of the NDA and a picture depicting the Sudan Block. Thee folder has a photograph of three cadets with the flag of the NDA aster the cour presentation on 16^th December 1978.

Lance Naik (LCpl) Albert Ekka, PVC

Lance Naik (LCpl) Albert Ekka (1942–71) was a soldier in the Indian army. He died in service in the Battle of Hilli, during the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971. He was posthumously awarded the Param Vir Chakra, India's highest award for valour in the face of the enemy. In 2000, on the occasion of 50th Republic day, the Government of India issued a postal stamp in his memory. The son of Ranchi was honored by naming the major intersection in front of Firayalal store as Albert Ekka Chowk that also bears his statue. A block (district subdivision) in Gumla has also been created in his name. 

The citation for the Param Vir Chakra awarded to him reads:
Lance Naik Albert Ekka was in the left forward company of a battalion of the Brigade of Guards during their attack on the enemy defences at Gangasagar on the Eastern front. This was a well-fortified position held in strength by the enemy. The assaulting troops were subjected to intense shelling and heavy small-arms fire, but they charged onto the objective and were locked in bitter hand-to-hand combat. Lance Naik Albert Ekka noticed an enemy light machine-gun (LMG) inflicting heavy casualties on his company. With complete disregard for his personal safety, he charged the enemy bunker, bayoneted two enemy soldiers and silenced the LMG. Though seriously wounded in this encounter, he continued to fight alongside his comrades through the mile deep objective, clearing bunker after bunker with undaunted courage. Towards the northern end of the objective one enemy medium machine-gun (MMG) opened up from the second storey of a well-fortified building inflicting heavy casualties and holding up the attack. Once again this gallant soldier, without a thought for his personal safety, despite his serious injury and the heavy volume of enemy fire, crawled forward till he reached the building and lobbed a grenade into the bunker killing one enemy soldier and injuring the other. The MMG however continued to fire. With outstanding courage and determination Lance Naik Albert Ekka scaled a side wall and entering the bunker, bayoneted the enemy soldier who was still firing and thus silenced the machine-gun, saving further casualties to his company and ensuring the success of the attack. In this process however, he received serious injuries and succumbed to them after the capture of the objective.

In this action, Lance Naik Albert Ekka displayed the most conspicuous valour and determination and made the supreme sacrifice in the best traditions of the Army.

ICF Korea 1953

After the Korean War (North Korea & China Vs. South Korea and USA - 1950/53), a Neutral Nations’ Repatriation Commission was assigned the custody of the prisoners of war, taken by both the sides, their interrogation and final repatriation. India’s General K. S. Thimayya presided over the Commission. The Indian Army Post Office (A.P.O.) accompanied the country’s contingent of the Custodian Force in 1953 to serve the personnel of that contingent as well as the other units of Repatriation Commission.

Ordinary Indian Stamps were used initially at the three Indian Field Post Offices (F.P.O. No.739 , 740 & 741). At this juncture, it was decided by the Government of India to supply the Indian Field Post Ofiices serving the Custodian Force (India) in Korea with Indian Postage Stamps (Archaeological Series) bearing the overprint in Hindi (Devnagri Script), which reads “Bhartiya / Sanraksha Katak / Korea” in three lines. The denominations overprinted were 3 pies, 6 pies, 9 pies, 1 anna, 2 annas, 2½ annas , 3 annas, 4 annas, 6 annas, 8 annas, 12 annas and Re.1/-. These stamps were released on 17th October 1953 (Dussehra Day) in Korea and the Philatelic Bureaus in India simultaneously. 

20 Lancers

20 Lancers, is an armoured regiment in the Armoured Corps of the Indian Army. The regiment distinguished itself in operations with its spirited defence of Chhamb in Jammu and Kashmir during the 1965 Indo-Pakistan War winning one Maha Vir Chakra.
The regiment has provided one Chief of Army Staff, Gen Shankar Roychowdhury,  and an army commander, Lt Gen Pradeep Khanna.
The regiment was originally formed in 1921 by amalgamating 14th Murray's Jat Lancers, raised in 1857 with 15th Lancers (Cureton's Multanis) raised in 1858. The regiment served till 1937, when it was removed from the order of battle and deactivated, being converted into a training regiment, eventually forming part of the Indian Armoured Corps Corps Training Centre at Lucknow. On Partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, this was allotted to India. The centre moved in 1948 to Ahmednagar merging with other establishments, to become the Armoured Corps Centre and School.
The regiment was re-raised by the Indian Army on 10 July 1956 at Jodhpur, Rajasthan. The first Commanding Officer of the re-raised regiment was Lieutenant Colonel Umrao Singh. Initially, the regiment was equipped with AMX-13 tanks. When the regiment was re-raised, the Officer's Mess Silver of the old 20th Lancers was handed over to it. The troops on raising were from the Sikhs of the 6th DCO Lancers which were transferred to 8th Light Cavalry and half of the squadron of the Jodhpur Lancers which were transferred to the 7th Light Cavalry.
The regiment first saw action after re-raising, during the 1965 Indo-Pakistani War in Chhamb-Jaurian in Jammu & Kashmir. 20 Lancers was under command 10 Infantry Division during the 1965 operations. Initially, Pakistan's surprise attack on 1 September, Operation Grand Slam, fell on 191 Infantry Brigade which was supported by 'C' Squadron of the regiment, under Maj Bhaskar Roy. 

2 Guards (1 Grenadiers) Bicentenary 1778 - 1978

Prior to Independence, almost all of the infantry regiments of the British Indian Army were raised on a class system. The regimental system as it was known came into implementation in 1921 after World War I and it continued in its unchanged form till 1949. Whereas the support arms like the Army Service Corps (ASC), the Army Ordnance Corps (AOC), etc. have no specific class composition and were mixed units, the infantry regiments were strictly class units.

Some infantry regiments recruited only one class - like the Sikh Regiment or the Sikh LI. While other regiments  operated on the class-company basis. Where a unit at battalion level would have mixed companies, i.e. each company of a different class. Like the Kumaon Regiment which in a battalion used to have a Kumaoni company, a Ahir Company, a Jat Company, etc. Even traditional "Muslim" regiments like the Frontier Force Regiment or the Baluch Regiment had mixed companies, in which invariably two companies would be of the native class and the remaining two would either be Rajput or Jat or any other North Indian class. This class company system was initiated by the British primarily to avoid a repetition of the 1857 uprising.

While the class based system of organising infantry has its advantage of building better camaraderie, espirt-de-corps and reducing the officer workload, there was always a danger of communalism raising its ugly head. There was no guarantee that a regiment of a particular class would remain loyal when they come under external influence of their community or class and as Major K.C. Praval recounts, "Sticking to the class based system was tying down a modern army to medieval concepts of loyalty to caste and religion".

It was in this background that The Brigade of The Guards was raised in 1949.  The Guards, as they came to be known, was open to recruiting personnel from all backgrounds and classes. Its battalions were of mixed composition right down to the section level. The credit for raising The Brigade of The Guards should go to one man, Field Marshal K.M. Cariappa. In his earlier days as subaltern, Cariappa spent his time with the 2nd Coldstream Guards in England, and was impressed with the concept of the Guards with their handpicked officers and men.

After becoming the Indian Army Chief in 1949, Cariappa put forward the proposal to raise 'The Brigade of The Guards' on a mixed class basis, and was granted the permission by the government. And thus 'The Brigade of The Guards' was raised in August 1949. To form the regiment, Cariappa bought together four of the senior most battalions of the Indian Army, 2 Punjab (Now 1 Guards), 1 Grenadiers (Now 2 Guards), 1 Rajputana Rifles  (Now 3 Guards) and 1 Rajput (Now 4 Guards).

All the battalions had earned laurels in World War 2.

Now a little about the 2nd Battalion (former 1 Grenadiers) (101st grenadiers)

The second battalion guards traces its origins back to the 101st Grenadiers

The Regiment was first formed in 1778 after 6 grenadier companies (two companies each from the three battalions of the Bombay Army) were combined to form a composite battalion. The Regiment took part in the First Maratha War against the Maratha Empire and fought in a number of engagements against them, including the Battle of Talegaon where they fought with distinction. As a consequence of the unit's impressive performances it was formally created into a permanent unit as the 8th Regiment of Bombay Sepoys.

In 1783 the regiment's title was altered to become the 8th Grenadier Regiment of Bombay Sepoys, and was also known simply as the Bombay Grenadiers. The Regiment claimed that it was the oldest grenadier regiment in the British Empire; the British Army Grenadier Guards did not gain its Grenadier title until 1815 after its actions against the French grenadiers at the Battle of Waterloo.

In consequence of the Indian Army reforms of 1922, the Regiment amalgamated with 5 other regiments to form 5 battalions of the 4th Bombay Grenadiers; the 101st Grenadiers became the 1st Battalion of the new regiment. The battalion had the distinction of being allowed to have its own cap badge. After Indian became independent from the British Empire, the 4th Grenadiers were allocated to the Indian Army, becoming simply The Grenadiers. The Battalion that was once the 101st was transferred to the Brigade of the Guards in 1952, becoming its 2nd Battalion (2 Guards).

INS Delhi

INS Delhi (C74) was a Leander class light cruiser built for the Royal Navy in 1933 as HMS Achilles, and commissioned into the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy (from 1941 the Royal New Zealand Navy) in 1937 as HMNZS Achilles. She was returned to the Royal Navy at the end of the Second World War and in 1948 was sold to the Royal Indian Navy to be recommissioned as HMIS Delhi. In 1950 she was renamed INS Delhi and remained in service until decommissioned at Bombay on 30 June 1978.

The ship was commissioned into the Royal Indian Navy as HMIS Delhi on 5 July 1948 under the command of Captain H. N. S. Brown of the Royal Navy. She had 17 British officers and petty officers, the rest of the crew being Indian. Commander RD Katari  was her Executive Officer and the senior-most Indian officer, while Lieutenant SM Nanda was her First Lieutenant . She conducted her first major goodwill cruise in 1948, to East Africa, the Seychelles and Mauritius .

After India became a Republic in January 1950, she was renamed INS Delhi. In June 1950, Commander Adhar Kumar Chatterjee  (later Chief of the Naval Staff  ) became her first Indian commanding officer; the same month she conveyed Prime Minister Nehru  to Indonesia  on an official visit. In 1953 she took part in the Fleet Review to celebrate the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

In 1956, she played herself, as Achilles, in the film Battle of the River Plate. 

In 1958, INS Delhi was moved to a training role.

Liberation of Goa. On 18 December 1961, during the Liberation of the Portugese State of Goa in India, also known as "Operation Vijay" or the Portuguese-Indian War, in which the state of Goa and its dependencies of Daman and Diu were annexed, INS Delhi was tasked to patrol the waters off Diu. At dawn, the ship was spotted by the Portuguese defenders, but they did not recognize its hoisted battle flag. The Portuguese land based artillery did not open fire considering it might be a cargo vessel. Indian Navy reports state that INS Delhi supported the Indian Army's advance by firing on the citadel, and neutralizing the airport control tower.  

Visit to New Zealand. In 1969, INS Delhi visited New Zealand under Vice Admiral Barbosa. The visit was the occasion of many reunions of Achilles veterans who were plied with large quantities of rum and beer, and taken on a quick trip by the ship.

Major Somnath Sharma, PVC

25th Anniversary of the Directorate General Armed Forces Medical Services 1974

This special cover and postmark was issued by the Army Postal Service (APS) to commemorate the 25^th Anniversary of the Directorate General Armed Forces Medical Services.

The Indian Army Medical Corps is a specialist corps in the Indian Army which provides medical services to all Armed Forces personnel.

Very little is known of the medical organisations that existed in the Indian armies in ancient times. However, Kautilya’s Arthashastra shows that during battles, physicians with surgical instruments (Sastra, medicines and drugs in their hands besides women with prepared food and beverages) stood behind the fighting men. Similarly, from the Sushruta Samhita, it is seen that a physician fully equipped with medicines would live in a camp not far from the royal pavilion and would treat those wounded by arrows or swords. Physicians in the King’s service adopted certain measures to protect the ruler from secret poisoning. Physicians well versed in the technical sciences and other allied branches of study was held in high esteem by all.

The Army Medical Corps came into existence as a homogeneous corps of officers and men on the pattern of the Royal Army Medical Corps on 3 Apr 1943 by the amalgamation of the Indian Medical Service, the Indian Medical Department and the Indian Hospital & Nursing Corps. The Corps was formed as a wartime necessity for attracting suitably qualified men for service in a rapidly expanding army.

The IAMC was re-designated as Army Medical Corps with effect from 26 January 1950.

Corps of Engineers Day 1974

The Indian Army Corps of Engineers has a long history dating back to the mid-18th century. The earliest existing subunit of the Corps (18 Field Company) dates back to 1777, while the Corps officially recognises its birth as 1780 when the senior most group of the Corps, the Madras Sappers were raised.

The Corps consists of three groups of combat engineers, namely the Madras Sappers, the Bengal Sappers and the Bombay Sappers. A group is roughly analogous to a regiment of Indian infantry, each group consisting of a number of engineer regiments. The engineer regiment is the basic combat engineer unit, analogous to an infantry battalion.

Besides the combat engineers, the Corps mans and operates major engineering organisations such as the Military Engineering Service (MES), the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), the Married Accommodation Project and the Survey of India.

The Corps of Engineers is one of the oldest arms of the Indian Army. The origin of the Corps dates back to 1780 when the two regular pioneer companies were raised in the Madras Presidency Army. Subsequently, the Group of Madras, Bengal and Bombay Sappers were formed in their respective presidencies. These Groups came together when the British Indian Army was formed after 1857 and were later merged on 18 November 1932 to form the Corps of Indian Engineers. Engineer Groups initially consisted of field companies (a sub-unit organization that exists to this day).

Till 1911, the Sappers also had the duty of passing battlefield messages. Between 1911 and 1920, they handed this task to a batch of their own kinsmen who then formed the Corps of Signals. The Sappers also contributed the first batch of airmen when the Indian Air Force was raised in 1932. From 1942-1945 officers of the Indian Railways were recruited into this Corps to participate in Britain's Burma Campaign..

General PS Bhagat of the Corps remains the first Indian Officer to have won the Victoria Cross in the Second World War. Another first in the same war, Subedar Subramaniam was awarded the George Cross. Later, during operations in Kashmir soon after Independence, Major Rama Raghoba Rane was awarded the Param Vir Chakra for making a passage through enemy mine fields while crawling in front of a tank. Engineer units have been deployed abroad as part of UN Missions.

The Corps of Engineers has to its credit one Param Vir Chakra, one Ashoka Chakra, one Padma Bhushan, 38 Param Vishisht Seva Medals, two Maha Vir Chakras, 13 Kirti Chakras, three Padma Shris, 88 Ati Vishisht Seva Medals, 25 Vir Chakras, 93 Shaurya Chakras, six Yudh Seva Medals and many other awards.

9 Engineer Regiment became one of the youngest Engineer Regiment in world history to enter the battlefield and got as many as 12 decorations including 01 Mahavir Chakra, 03 Vir Chakra, 04 Sena Medal, 04 Mention in Dispatch at the "Battle of Basantar" in 1971. 107 Engineer Regiment gained an Indian Institute of Bridging Engineers award for constructing a bridge in Himachal Pradesh in 2001. 268 Engineer Regiment was raised in 1964. As of 2009 it is based 'somewhere in the western sector'. 69 Engineer Regiment was raised in 2005. As of 2006 it is based at Chandigarh.

Engineer regiments that served with the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka included the 3,4,8,16,51,53,110,115, and 270.

The Army Service Corps Reunion December 1973