Description
- AUTHOR : IAN CARDOZO
- Publisher : Penguin eBury Press
- Language : English
- Paperback : 304 pages
- ISBN-13 : 9780143454557
About the Book
An under-strength Gorkha battalion undertakes the Indian Army's first heliborne operation deep behind enemy lines, defeating a Pakistani force twenty times its strength. Fighters of the Indian Air force target the Government House in Dhaka in a daring air raid, forcing the Pakistani government in Dhaka to capitulate and surrender. Four battle casualties become close friends at the Artificial Limb Centre in Pune in the war's aftermath.
In this collection of true stories, decorated war veteran Major General Ian Cardozo recounts what really happened during the 1971 Indo-Pak war, piecing together every story in vivid detail through interviews with survivors and their families. The book also seeks to commemorate the lives of those who were killed and wounded in this war, which took place fifty years ago.
From the tragic tale of the INS Khukri and its courageous captain, who went down with his ship, to how a battalion of the Gorkhas launched what we accept as the last khukri attack in modern military history, these stories reveal what went on in the minds of those who led their men into battle-on land, at sea and in the air.
About the Author
Major General Ian Cardozo was commissioned at the Indian Military Academy into the 1st Battalion of the 5th Gorkha Rifles (Frontier Force), where he received his basic grounding as a young officer. Thereafter, he took part in the Sino-Indian war of 1962, the Indo-Pak war of 1965 and the Indo-Pak war of 1971.
Wounded in the battle of Sylhet in Bangladesh, he overcame the disability of losing a leg and became the first disabled officer of the Indian Army to be approved for command of an infantry battalion and brigade. He retired from this appointment as Chief of Staff of a corps in the north-east. On retirement, he worked in the area of disability with an NGO and as vice president of the War Wounded Foundation, before being appointed by the Government of India as chairman of the Rehabilitation Council of India, where he worked for nine years.
He has taken up writing as a hobby, and his books Param Vir, The Sinking of INS Khukri, The Bravest of the Brave: The Indian VCs of World War I, The Indian Army in World War I: 1914-18 and Lieutenant General Bilimoria: His Life and Times have been widely acclaimed. He is also working with an illustrator on graphic novels-about the courage, competence and sacrifice of the Indian soldier-of which eleven have been published so far.
