A day for the “Queen of Battles”! That was how officers and jawans of Wellington’s Madras Regimental Centre describe October 27. Every year the day is observed as the Infantry Day as a mark of respect to the Infantry, rated as the backbone of the Indian Army.
On 27 October 1947 an infantry company of the First Battalion of the Sikh Regiment was airlifted from New Delhi to Srinagar to liberate Kashmir from the invading tribes who were supported by the Pakistan Army. Action was sanctioned after Maharaja Hari Singh signed the instrument of access that accded Jammu & Kashmir to India.
“This is the day we honour the supreme sacrifice of the infantry soldiers in fighting the Pakistani raiders,” said Lt General Virendra Vats, Commandant, Defence Services Staff College, Wellington who along with Lt General Devraj Anbu, the senior most veteran in the military station led the establishment in Nilgiris in paying homages to the bravehearts of the Infantry on the 76th Infantry Day.
The usually silent morning of MRC Centre woke up to the sound of Army Band and bugles along with the thumping of feet of the marching “Thambis” (as the MRC Wellington soldiers are addressed in military parlance).
Serving and retired officers and soldiers joined the celebrations and shared their reminiscences about the days they spent in Kashmir fighting the enemies whose only mission was the wiping out the last Kashmiri Pandit from the State.