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The Battle of Tiger Hill

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.

Major General Ashok K Mehta