“Bharat Bravehearts-The Thambi Brigade”, Sadashree Substack, May 18, 2025:
“This is the first in a series of posts titled Bharat Bravehearts, which takes a look at our Bharatiya Armed forces and some great victories they pulled off over the decades starting with 1947. In the first of the series we take a look at the the Thambi Brigade who played a crucial role during the Battle of Basantar in 1971. It was the 9th Engineer Regiment, so nicknamed as it was mostly staffed by Tamilians then.
Basantar fought over 12 days, was one of the major tank battles post WWII. It was one of the hardest fought battles, with both sides sustaining casualties, and one of the toughest resistance by the Pakistani Army.2 Param Vir Chakras, 4 Maha Vir Chakras, and 4 Vir Chakras were awarded of which 5 were posthmous. The battle had many heroes like Lt. Arun Khetarpal, Major Hoshiar Singh, Major Vijay Rattan Chaudhary, Lt. Col.V.P.Ghai, Capt R.N.Gupta.
Amidst all those heroes, there was one group, whose contribution was somewhat overlooked, the Thambi Brigade or the 9th Engineer Regiment.The regiment had 3 field companies each of which were assigned to the 3 infantry brigades of the 54 Infantry division. It had the challenging task of laying the operational track, for the Indian army, through some absolutely tough terrain and an area that was heavily mined……”
Read the full article at Sadashree.substack.com
