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II Corps (India)

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II Corps
Kharga Corps formation sign
Active1971-present
CountryIndia
BranchIndian Army
RoleStrike Corps
SizeCorps
Part of Western Command
Garrison/HQAmbala
Nickname(s)Kharga Corps
Commanders
Current
commander		Lt Gen Rajesh Pushkar
VSM[1]
Notable
commanders		General Tapishwar Narain Raina
Lieutenant General Zorawar Chand Bakhshi
Lieutenant General Srinivas Kumar Sinha
Lieutenant General B.C. Nanda
Lieutenant General Hanut Singh
General V. K. Singh
General Manoj Mukund Naravane
Indian Army Corps (1915 - Present)
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I Corps III Corps

II Corps is a corps of the Indian Army, based in Ambala and known as Kharga Corps.

The Corps was raised on October 7, 1971 by Lt Gen T N Raina at Krishna Nagar in West Bengal and saw action two months later in December. During the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, it captured the important towns of Khulna, Jessore, Jhenida, Magura and Faridpur and also the area between the rivers Ganges and Padma. Subsequently, the Corps was shifted to the Western Theatre where it was initially located at Chandimandir Cantonment till 1984, and then moved to Ambala in January 1985.

48th Raising Day of Kharga Corps (2 Corps), October 2019

Indo-Pakistani War of 1971

[edit]

The II Corps consisted of 4th Mountain Division and 9th Infantry Division (the only infantry division in the east, it had more motor vehicles and heavier artillery than its mountain counterparts); the corps was later reinforced by 50 Parachute Brigade (minus one battalion). Under Lieutenant General Tapishwar Narain Raina ('Tappy'), the 20 infantry battalions of II Corps were to take Khulna, Jessore, Goalundo Ghat, Faridpur, and the Hardinge Bridge. Convinced that Khulna was one of the keys to East Pakistan, General Manekshaw placed especial stress on its capture. Dacca was not mentioned except in some contingency plans for crossing the Padma (Ganges) at Faridpur and Goalundo Ghat. Paying little attention to possible operations against the chief city of East Pakistan, therefore, Raina planned to advance on two axes with 4th Division in the north towards Jhenida and 9th Division aiming for Jessore on the southern approach.

Operations by Indian troops and Mukti Bahini during late November had secured a sizable enclave between Bayra and Jessore. An Indian success at Garibpur on 21/22 November was particularly significant, as it allowed the Indian 9th Division to gain considerable ground towards Jessore and resulted in the virtual destruction of the lone Pakistani armored squadron in the area. The action at Garibpur, however, also alerted the Pakistanis to the 9th Division’s proposed line of advance. As a result, the division quickly became embroiled in a tough and costly slogging match on 4 and 5 December once the full-scale conflict broke out. This fight took its toll on the Pakistanis too, however, and the exhausted 107 Brigade abandoned Jessore on the night of 6/7 December, withdrawing south to Khulna in considerable confusion.47

The Pakistani division headquarters and other remnants fled east toward the Madhumati River. A Pakistani officer recalled that “The front here had crumbled completely...Withdrawal quickly turned into a rout.” Riding into Jessore in the dawn hours of 7 December, he noted, “It looked like a ghost town, except for sleepy dogs and chickens, not a soul stirred. Doors were wide open; all kinds of personal belongings littered the roads. It looked like the end of East Pakistan.”48 The Indians occupied Jessore later that day, but Major General Dalbir Singh, the 9th Division commander, allowed himself to be distracted by Khulna and turned his entire division toward an objective that was supposed to be taken by a brigade. The town held out stoutly for the remainder of the war in the face of repeated attacks.

The 9 Division’s reserve force, 50 Para Brigade, engaged in a brief skirmish at Khajura north of Jessore on 8 December before being pulled out the next day for transfer to the western front. A planned two-company airborne attack by 8 Para near Jhenida was called off as unnecessary. The “Red Eagles,” Indian 4 Division, launched a well-conducted attack north and east from its positions around Jibannagar, skillfully bypassing or overwhelming resistance to enter Jhenida on 7 December. Like 9 Division, however, the leadership of the 4th was distracted by a flank objective. In this case, when a hasty attempt to capture Kushtia and the Hardinge Bridge miscarried, the senior commanders overreacted and diverted the entire division to the north. Although the Indian advance helped urge Pakistan’s 57 Brigade in its retreat across the Ganges, by the time 4 Division had returned to the Magura area (14 December), it was too late to participate in the drive for Dacca. The division made a fine crossing of the Madhumati (albeit against light resistance) and took the surrender of the broken remnants of Pakistani 9 Division at Faridpur on 16 December. Indian Army and BSF troops from Bengal Area under Major General P. Chowdry made limited gains on the Satkhira axis.

Shift to West

[edit]

The corps moved to its present location in January 1985. The pullback of over four lakh troops along with heavy armored and artillery formations from forward positions along the International Border (IB) with Pakistan was an enormous logistical exercise, with costs running into hundreds of crores of rupees. Demobilisation began from Punjab, followed by Rajasthan, Gujarat and the Jammu sector. While it took 28 days for the initial mobilisation, the pullback is expected to take slightly longer. The troops had been hanging on the border in combat readiness for 10 months, and the harsh weather and terrain took a heavy toll on both the men and their equipment.[2]

Celebration of 20 years of Kargil Victory at Kharga Corps (2 Corps), July 2019

As of around 2016, it consists of[3] -

  • Divisions
    • 1 Armoured Division (Airawat Division) headquartered at Patiala. 1 Division had 1 Armoured and 43 Lorry Brigade, a scheme it retained till after the 1971 War, when armoured divisions were changed to a three-brigade layout, and 43 Lorry Brigade became 43 Armoured Brigade.[4]
    • 14 Infantry Division (RAPID) (Golden Key Division)] at Dehra Dun, Uttarakhand. Division Artillery Brigade is at Dehra Dun, 35 Infantry Brigade at Dehra Dun, 58 Armoured Brigade at Roorkee, and 116 Infantry Brigade at Dehra Dun.[5]
    • 22 Infantry Division (Charging Ram Division) headquartered at Meerut
    • 40 Artillery Division (Deep Strikers Division) at Ambala[6]
  • Corps Brigades
    • 2 Corps Artillery Brigade
    • 474 Engineering Brigade (Kharga Engineers) headquartered at Zirakpur[7][8]
  • Independent Brigades
    • 612 Mechanised Independent Air Defence Brigade at Ambala
    • 16 Independent Armoured Brigade (Black Arrow Brigade) at Mamun

List of General Officers Commanding (GOCs)

[edit]
Rank Name Appointment Date Left Office Unit of Commission References
Lieutenant General Tapishwar Narain Raina 7 October 1971 17 October 1973 Kumaon Regiment [9]
A. M. Vohra 18 October 1973 27 May 1975 3rd Gorkha Rifles [9]
Zorawar Chand Bakhshi 28 May 1975 31 January 1979 5th Gorkha Rifles (Frontier Force) [10]
Manohar Lal Chibber 1 February 1979 21 July 1980 Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry
Srinivas Kumar Sinha 22 July 1980 28 May 1981 Jat Regiment
Hriday Kaul 29 May 1981 19 January 1983 2nd Lancers [11]
Nirmal Puri 20 January 1983 16 December 1984 Armoured Corps [12]
Biddanda Chengappa Nanda 17 December 1984 28 April 1986 Mahar Regiment [12]
Hanut Singh 29 April 1986 11 July 1988 17th Horse (Poona Horse) [13]
G. S. Grewal 12 July 1988 30 June 1990 1st Horse (Skinner's Horse)
Prakash Mani Tripathi 1 July 1990 15 September 1992 63 Cavalry [14]
K. L. D'Souza 16 September 1992 30 April 1994 Mechanised Infantry Regiment
S. K. Sharma 1 May 1994 30 March 1995 Armoured Corps
S. K. Jetley 31 March 1995 11 October 1996 Central India Horse
S. S. Mehta 12 October 1996 19 March 1998 63 Cavalry [15]
Gurbaksh Singh Sihota 20 March 1998 30 September 2000 Regiment of Artillery [16]
Kapil Vij 1 October 2000 29 January 2002 70 Armoured Regiment
Bhupender Singh Thakur 30 January 2002 September 2003 Central India Horse
G.D. Singh October 2004 March 2006 Armoured Corps [17]
Vijay Kumar Singh April 2006 February 2008 Rajput Regiment
J. P. Singh 1 March 2008 20 March 2009 Armoured Corps [18]
Chetinder Singh 21 March 2009 25 December 2010 7th Light Cavalry [19]
Anil Chandra Chait 26 February 2010 29 May 2011 Armoured Corps [20]
Amarjeet Singh Chabbewal 30 May 2011 4 August 2012 67 Armoured Regiment [20]
Sandeep Singh 5 August 2012 11 August 2013 Jammu and Kashmir Rifles [21]
Ravindra Pratap Sahi 12 August 2013 9 December 2014 Brigade of The Guards [21]
Amarjeet Singh 10 December 2014 18 December 2015 Bihar Regiment [22]
Manoj Mukund Naravane 19 December 2015 4 January 2017 Sikh Light Infantry [23][24]
Jaiveer Singh Negi 5 January 2017 12 January 2018 Dogra Regiment [23]
Alok Singh Kler 13 January 2018 27 January 2019 68 Armoured Regiment [25][26]
Manmohan Jeet Singh Kahlon 28 January 2019 2 February 2020 75 Armoured Regiment [25]
Surinder Singh Mahal 3 February 2020 11 February 2021 41 Armoured Regiment [27]
N. S. Raja Subramani 12 February 2021 21 March 2022 Garhwal Rifles [28]
Pratik Sharma 21 March 2022 31 May 2023 Madras Regiment [29]
Rahul R Singh 1 June 2023 30 June 2024 Regiment of Artillery [30]
Rajesh Pushkar 1 July 2024 Incumbent 74 Armoured Regiment [31]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Lt Gen Rajesh Pushkar assumed the command of Kharga Corps from Lt Gen Rahul R Singh". x (formerly twitter). 1 July 2024.
  2. ^ "2 Corps / II Corps".
  3. ^ "At Ambala Cantt, an elite force elite force ready to respond". The Times of India. 2016-10-01. Retrieved 2021-10-02.
  4. ^ "Indian Army [Archive] - WW2inColor Talk". www.ww2incolor.com. Archived from the original on 2008-01-25.
  5. ^ Mandeep Bajwa; Ravi Rikhye (February 11, 2001). "Indian Army RAPID Divisions". Archived from the original on 2010-11-28.
  6. ^ "Kharga Corps receives victory flame". 2020-12-25. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  7. ^ Khalid, Zaki (2022-05-14). "Examining High-Level Changes in the Indian Army Headquarters". Centre for Strategic and Contemporary Research. Retrieved 2024-08-09.
  8. ^ "Exquisite Exhibition". 2007-03-01. Archived from the original on 2021-10-02. Retrieved 2021-10-02.
  9. ^ a b Issar, Brigadier Satish K. (15 June 2021). Vision, Courage and Service: Life and Times of General T.N. Raina, MVC. Vision Books. ISBN 9789386268525.
  10. ^ "Lt Gen Zorawar Chand Bakshi: The soldiers' General who fought all of India's wars". The Indian Express. 27 May 2018.
  11. ^ "Former Western Command GOC-in-C passes away at 85". 2013-12-03. Retrieved 2021-06-24.
  12. ^ a b "As Gen Arun Shridhar Vaidya retires, Indian Army reshuffles to appoint new army chief". 1985-03-15. Retrieved 2021-06-23.
  13. ^ "1971 war hero Hanut Singh passes away". 2015-12-04. Retrieved 2021-06-23.
  14. ^ "Members Bioprofile". Retrieved 2021-06-20.
  15. ^ "The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Main News". www.tribuneindia.com.
  16. ^ Thapar, V. N.; Dwivedi, Neha (15 May 2020). Vijyant at Kargil: The Biography of a War Hero. Penguin Random House India Private Limited. ISBN 9789353058272.
  17. ^ "Gen GD Singh takes over as Army deputy chief". The Times of India. 2006-02-06. Retrieved 2021-06-24.
  18. ^ "CV JP Singh" (PDF). Retrieved 2021-06-20.
  19. ^ "Lt Gen Chetinder Singh is Kharga Corps commander". 2009-03-21. Retrieved 2021-06-20.
  20. ^ a b Sura, Ajay (May 30, 2011). "Chabbewal is GOC of Kharga Corps". The Times of India.
  21. ^ a b Sura, Ajay (Aug 12, 2013). "Lt General Ravindra Pratap Sahi takes over as general officer commanding of Kharga Corps". The Times of India.
  22. ^ "Army expedition flagged in". 2015-06-04. Retrieved 2021-06-24.
  23. ^ a b "Lt-Gen Jaiveer Singh takes over as Kharga Corps GOC". 2017-01-05. Retrieved 2021-06-24.
  24. ^ "Lt Jaiveer Negi takes over". 2017-01-04. Retrieved 2021-06-24.
  25. ^ a b "lt-gen-kahlon-is-kharga-corps-goc". www.tribuneindia.com. Retrieved 2019-04-03.
  26. ^ "Lt Gen Alok Singh Kler assumes command of Kharga Corps". www.uniindia.com. Retrieved 2024-03-15.
  27. ^ "Lt General SS Mahal is Kharga Corps GOC". The Times of India. 2020-02-04. Retrieved 2020-02-14.
  28. ^ Subramani, NS Raja. "Lt Gen Subramani takes over kharga corps".
  29. ^ Sharma, Pratik. "Lt gen Pratik Sharma goc 2 corps".
  30. ^ "Lt Gen Rahul R Singh, VSM, Takes Over Command of Kharga Corps". 2023-06-01. Retrieved 2023-06-02.
  31. ^ "Lt Gen Rajesh Pushkar assumed the command of Kharga Corps from Lt Gen Rahul R Singh". x (formerly twitter). 1 July 2024.
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