Defence Day, Clausewitzian approach and Lessons learned

[Bill Longley]

Chronicles of Abu Abdul Samad: Defence Day, Clausewitzian approach and Lessons learned

Clausewitz, the great Philosopher of Modern warfare and contemporary of Napoleon defined War as " Extension of (political) Policy by other (Violent) means .Clausewitz definition of war help us to define the Victory in war, Which according to his definition means “ Achievement of political goals for which nation goes to war.”


In 1965, the entire nation went to war with its neighbor country happens to be its perpetual enemy. It was a war in which nation and media stood by with their fighting forces. In turn Pakistan Armed Forces on tactical and operational level displayed their professionalism,Valor and fighting spirit to make whole nation proud of itself.
Col Shafqat Baloch, 17 Punjab Regiment held enemy brigade plus Attack with only 80 men for 24 hours. Major Raja Aziz Bhatti, 17 Punjab’, displayed greatest level of professionalism and valor in defending his motherland. Raja Nader Pervaiz proved his mettle in Ran of Kach, Gen Abrar GOC 6th armed Division defeated Indian advancing armor in Chawinda through his effective command and Battlefield awareness. General Sarfraz GOC 10 Div and other field commanders, officers and Jawans proved that Son's of Pakistan know how to write the history and glorify the name of the nation with their blood and sweat. List of such brave martyrs and Ghazi’s goes on…



What caused the war?

Kashmir has been the biggest single reasons for which Pakistan and India fought wars. Except the 71 war, all wars were fought due to Kashmir Issue .After the death of Indian PM Pundit Jawaher Lal Nehru Kashmiri leader Sheikh Abdullah was arrested by new Government and whole Indian Held Kashmir was uneasy about the arrest of their beloved leader.
Then there was Ran of Kach episode, In Run of Kach skirmishes many times strong Indian Army had to eat the dust. Ran of Kach boosted confidence and morale of Pakistan Army and leadership and for Indians it was yet another humiliation after 1962 Indo China war.
Internally, President Ayub had won presidential Referendum defeating Miss Fatima Jinnah in Early 65 amid accusations of rigging and thus was under pressure.
There was an environment to be exploited and gain both internally and externally. The Foreign Office under Zulifqar Ali Bhotto advised president that time was ripe to liberate Indian Held Kashmir. Which will also help strengthen Ayub khans’ regime and people will unite and forget referendum.


The plans for Operation Gibraltar and grand Slam were formulated. The main assumption was that Kashmir is a disputed territory and it will be a Limited war. Gibraltar forces will help Kashmiri Muslims to rise against Indian occupational forces and Grand slam will be final blow to already de-morale and frustrated Indian forces.

Operation Gibraltar proved to be failure as only in one or two instances Kashmiri public came forward ,in general Kashmiri public failed to rise and in many cases helped occupational forces to capture Gibraltar Volunteers.

After seeing the result of Gibraltar Government decided to launch Grand Slam. Grand Slam was a success. Pakistan Armies 12th Div under Maj Gen Akhtar Malik made remarkable gains and were near the limits of Akhnor City when operational responsibility was shifted to 7th Division, Commanded by Maj Gen Yahya Khan. This shifting gave valuable time to Indians to consolidate their Defenses and bring in their re enforcements and hence the chance of cutting Indian line of Communication and supply to Kashmir faded.

In the mean while India who had constitutionally declared Indian Held Kashmir Part of Indian Union opened fronts on International Border.

Enemies Primary Effort was towards Sialkot. This was to relive pressure from Kashmir.

Their secondary effort was on Lahore to further breakup Pakistani concentration and disperse the available Pakistani forces using classical Clausewitzian logic.

Pakistan Army in 1965 was better equipped then Indian Army. But quantitatively they (Indian) were much superior (Pakistan Army consisted of 260 000 officers and men and Indian had 750 000), as Stalin once said “Quantity has Quality of itself”
Enemies “Quantitative Quality” played in their favor. Both sides Suffered Casualties and hardware on both sides was destroyed. This war benefitted Indians more than any one else. Indian Army which had faced humiliation from the hands of Chinese in 1962 over fighting across Line of Actual Control (LOAC) and then in Runn of Kach in Early 1965 by Pakistan Army regained its morale and this war helped them rebuild their confidence.

On other hand Pakistani mistakes and short comings resulted in sort of stalemate. Change of Command during Grand Slam caused Enemy to strenthen it self .
Failure of 1st Armed Division which resulted in pain full losses of precious men and material.
Technically Wrong assumption, that Indians will not dare to make limited War into Full fledged war across International Border caused unpreparedness on international border.

After 65 War Pakistani Leadership engulfed itself on political power play. Lust for Power amongst Pakistani politicians caused …divided nation .Enemy exploited our weaknesses and sowed the seeds of hate in Eastern wing of Pakistan. Enemy full filled its responsibilities as a foe but our Political leadership failed in their duties and in the end East Pakistan became Bangladesh.


East Pakistan was more than 2000 KM away from West Pakistan and it was completely enveloped by Indian Territory of its 3 sides. Pakistan had only 1 Infantry Division stationed there. In 1971 when Indian plan entered in final phase and it became evident that India Government is behind events of East Pakistan. Pakistan started sending re enforcements but Indians Staged Ganga Hijack drama and then blockaded East Pakistan due to which Pakistan had to send re Enforcements via Srilanka.

During the war Pakistan had 2.5 Divisions of Army of which 2 were without their integral Armor and Artillery, 1 Squadron of Air Force and 10 gun boats against more than 10 full fledge Indian divisions, naval fleet and entire Indian Eastern Air force Command .

Army Fought well , officers and men like Major Akram Shaheed , Major Shabbir Shaheed , Lans Niek Mahfooz , Sawar Muhammad Shaheed , Major Nadir Pervaiz and all the officers and Jawans fought super humenly but as said before Quality was overrun by quantity and this was acknowledge even by enemy commanders.

Once Alexander Pope Said “To Admit I was Wrong Yesterday, in other words means I am wiser then Yesterday"

Pakistani Nation Learned From the mistakes of these two wars. In 1965 whole Nation went to war against India. Pakistani Media and Politicans Played excellent role in gathering public on single agenda, to defend Mother Land and defeat the enemies’ .People honored, respected and stood with their defenders.

1971 war taught the nation to be on guard and improve intelligence and counter intelligence. It also gave lesson that if political leadership fails, no army however powerful can win the battle. Armies fight on given polices, they are forceful arms of their states. An ambiguous political policy will give ambiguous and negative results on battle field. Victory in war depends on of those who give policy to those who are trained to implement by forceful means.
Secondly when Political leadership and public stand behind their forces, the forces become undefeatable but if this is not a case army loses its main power.
Thirdly if politicans and elite prefer their own selfish Intrests over National state intrests the out come costs the nation and the state.

The lessons of these two wars were studied very well. After 1971 war Pakistan came near to war four times (86-87 ,90 ,98,2002-03) .Pakistan fought a limited war in Kashmir known as Kargil war. In Kargil war all objectives of Policy were met. Kashmir Issue was internationalized and enemy attack across LoC was preempted.

In 2002-03 Pakistan and Indian again came face to face (operation Porakaram) but Pakistani preparedness shocked Indians and they had to withdraw after suffering 1800 deaths, not in fighting but in mobilization and insect bites.

Lessons of Operation Porakaram resulted in formulation of Indian COLD START DOCTRINE which was countered when Pakistan displayed its Capabilities during Azm e Nou 3 Exercise.(1)


At Present Pakistan Army is one of the most modern army in the region. Its one of the Few Armies in the world who have achieved Information Centric or network enabled Status.
Pakistan is Proud of its Defenders who stood by nation when ever nation needed them. At present Pakistan Army is involved in internal security operations (War Against Terrorism) in KPK and Balochistan on other hand they are contribution in developmental projects, in addition to this they are always the first to help their country men in emergencies like great floods of 2009 and 2010 and other Natural Disasters.
Today Pakistan Army is symbol of Pakistani unity and Nation is proud of its armed forces.

Chronicles of Abu Abdul Samad: Defence Day, Clausewitzian approach and Lessons learned

 

[third eye]

With time one reads more & more articles wherein acceptance of the debacles in 65 & 71 are accepted by Pak authors.

I disagree that Pak aims for kargil were met. In any case if these were the aims of a nation to bring itself to a close- to - war situation one can only assume that nothing has been learnt