28 December 2014

66th Armoured Regiment

66th Armoured Regiment is an armoured regiment which is part of the Armoured Corps of the Indian Army. The regiment was raised on 1 September 1966 by Lt Col Narinder Singh at Ahmednagar as the "66th Cavalry". The name was changed on 14 January 1967 to 66th Armoured Regiment . The regiment was raised with Sherman tanks and re-equipped in November 1969 with Vijayanta tanks. The regiment recruits Ahirs, Marathas and South Indians but without single-class squadrons having classes mixed right down to tank troop level instead.
One of the commandants of the regiment, Lt Col Vishwa Nath Sharma, went on to become the Chief of the Army Staff from 1988 to 1990.
The 66th Armoured Regiment fought in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 as the integral armoured regiment of 15th Infantry Division. For its performance in operations, it was awarded the theatre honour "Punjab 1971". After the war, the 66th participated in full strength in the Republic Day Parade of 26 January 1972 which was the victory parade to commemorate India's victory in the 1971 war.

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