archive: The Battle of Tiger Hill
The Battle of Tiger Hill
General Ashok K Mehta
Rediff On Net
July 7, 1999
Title: The Battle of Tiger Hill
Author: General Ashok K Mehta
Publication: Rediff On Net
Date: July 7, 1999
Tiger Hill has lived up to its name. The army is in the habit of
giving places names that either carry a resemblance or convey the
degree of difficulty. Tiger Hill was apt in both respects.
Without blunting the brilliance of the three-pronged assault on Tiger
Hill, its quick and relatively easy capitulation came as a surprise,
even anticlimax. Estimates of Pakistani resistance ranged from 'it
would be reinforced' to 'defended last man last round' and
'counter-attack'. Nothing like that happened. As troops closed in,
Pakistani soldiers fought and slipped out. Interestingly, there has
been no counter-attack by Pakistan on any of the posts it has lost so
far.
Tiger Hill is to Drass valley what Machchapuchchere is to Pokhra in
Nepal, commanding all its surveys. Both are sheer cliffs ending in a
pinnacle. No one has ever dared to defile the sanctity of
Machchapuchchere by climbing the top. But Tiger Hill was desecrated by
Pakistan.
Over the last two months, it had become a mountain both deified and
dreaded, a symbol for testing the Indian army resolve. The media had
made it the leit motif of Indian military skill and cunning. From
Tiger Hill, Pakistan artillery could pick out targets on the road, and
ad-lib correct the fire. Together with Tololing and Point 5140, Tiger
Hill is the pivot and opening for Mashokh and Drass. But it could only
be taken after the heights on its east were first captured for
lodgment at equivalent heights.
It was vital to engage Tiger Hill from as many directions as feasible
regardless of the degree of difficulty. Before the assault, Tiger Hill
was kept pulverised day and night by air, artillery and direct firing
weapons, demoralising and degrading Pakistan defenders. Three
battalions -- 18 Grenadier, 8 Sikh and 2 Naga -- together with
paracommandos pressed the attacks on the night of 3, 4 July. The enemy
was outfoxed by the cunning of the assaulting troops. As they closed
in to the top, the crack and thunder of Bofors slowed down. Both the
Bofors and the multi-barrel rocket launcher blasted the face of Tiger
Hill. Nearly 30,000 rounds were fired on and around Tiger Hill. The
IAF used laser-guided bombs in precision attacks.
The honour of scaling and silencing Tiger Hill went to the Grenadiers.
These 'Grinders' captured the post after a hand-to-hand combat.
Surprisingly, the toll for Tiger Hill was small -- five killed and ten
wounded.
At 6 in the morning, Lt Gen Krishan Pal, GoC 15 Corp, called Army
Chief, Gen V P Malik and gave him the good news. General Malik
congratulated Maj Gen Mohinder Puri, GoC 8 Mountain Div, the formation
with the motto 'Forever in Operations', and one Malik had himself
commanded earlier. Puri told Malik that fighting was still going on
along a ridge in the northwest near Point 4875. Puri had, by then, put
on Tiger Hill, previously held by 50 Pakistanis, more than 150
Grinders on top. Tiger Hill was covered with Pakistani dead bodies.
Meanwhile, mopping-up operations continued beyond Tiger Hill and Point
4875 was captured without loss by the Jat and J&K Rif battalions. So
accurate was artillery fire that Point 4875 has been renamed Gun Hill.
The conquest of Tiger Hill complex won an instant unit citation of
gallantry for 18 Grenadiers. Its capture last week along with the
seizure of the Tololing Heights last month has given the army two
launch pads of formidable heights to eliminate remaining intrusions.
The domination by observation and fire on the Leh road has been
significantly reduced leaving a few pockets in Kaksar.
These key lodgments on recaptured heights in Drass are both a wedge
and fulcrum for operations towards Mashkoh in the west and Kaksar in
the east. But the biggest prize is for artillery. Their Observations
Posts, Ops, can now see across the LoC and do to Gultari what Pakistan
was doing to Drass.
By capturing Tiger Hill and Point 4875 and extending the long arm to
the LoC, the intruders in Mashkoh may get trapped. One exit route
across the LoC is blocked by Indian posts at Marpola. The other is
glaciated. What is possibly left is northwest of Point 4875.
The battles of Tiger Hill and Tololing will go down as epic
engagements in the history of high altitude mountain warfare, replete
with daring assaults, cunning and close combat of extraordinary order.
In Batalik too, battles are being fought with equal ferocity and
finesse.
These are the first-ever integrated air-artillery-infantry battles on
the subcontinent. These have also used the most sophisticated
munitions of war and age-old techniques of fighting in the mountains.
It is estimated that the artillery is costing between Rs 1.5 and Rs 2
crore a day and the Indian Air Force a little more. But this is not
too big a price to pay for teaching Pakistan a lesson.
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