Military history - general stuff

[SSAAD]

Since we have a very senior member of ours on this forum by the name of Rommel, let me share a quick snippet about the FM Rommel from my father while he was in SSG for those who may be interested in military history and Rommel specifically (albeit from a Pakistani standpoint).....I thought it was humerous

" Our Havaldar Major, one by the name of Bostan Khan, was a very well built, tall and tough guy. The men of the company used to say that if a rock smashed against him, the rock would break without hurting Bostan. He was a senior NCO and had taken part in WWII and used to tell us stories about it. He told us that he had seen the legendary German Field Marshall, Erwin Rommel, from a close quarter while serving in North Africa with British forces. He told us that he was captured three times in all, along with his battalion and some others, when encircled by the Panzer divisions of Rommel in Libya. Each time, Rommel let all the Indian soldiers go free after taking away their weapons. Bostan used to call him "Rommel Saheb."

[Harisz]

SSaad,
Thanks alot for sharing.

this line set me laughing
Bostan used to call him "Rommel Saheb."

the innocent south asian way of bestwoing honour upon anyone with 'Saheb'

[ROMMEL]

Do you also know that Lt. Gen (Retd.) Sahebzada Yaqoob Khan, who was the ex-CGS and foreign minister of Pakistan was also captured by Rommel during the north african campaign. I will try to get an account of what happened whenever I see him again.

Cheers,

[SSAAD]

Rommel,

I do not think that Let Gen Sahibzada Yaqub Khan was CGS of the PA....he resigned at the post of GOC eastern command..at the that time the CGS was Lt Gen. Gul Hasan. Maybe prior to Gul Hasan he was the CGS but that does not ring a bell....in any case your account of him would be immensly insightful.

[ROMMEL]

Lt. Gen. Sahibzada Yaqoob Khan was the CGS before being posted to Eastern Pakistan. However, he resigned from the army on the account that he considered the IS action in Eastern Pakistan to be unjust and unfair.

Cheers,

[SSAAD]

Lt. Gen. Sahibzada Yaqoob Khan was the CGS before being posted to Eastern Pakistan. However, he resigned from the army on the account that he considered the IS action in Eastern Pakistan to be unjust and unfair.

Cheers,

You are right. I figured that out too last night but did not get a chance to post the correction. He was the CGS prior to Lt Gen Gul Hassan. I personally hold Yaqoob Khan in high esteem. Maybe some of you may not know this that during the 1948 Indo-Pak war, SYKhan faught on the side of the Pakistan (being a PA officer) and his brother on the side of the Indian Army.

[Usman S.]

From Ikram Sehgal's article A regional partnership with great potential published in today's issue of The News.

Sri Lanka's relations with Pakistan warmed in the early '60s. The first tangible sign of cooperation was the sending by Sri Lanka of three batches to the Pakistan Military Academy (PMA). The first batch of five cadets came to the academy in May 1963 to join 32nd PMA Long Course. Two of them served as Major Generals in the Army. One of my course mates (from the second batch that joined 34th the PMA in May 1964) the brilliant Major General "Lucky" Vijayratna died when his jeep ran over a landmine during operations. T.D. Rajapaksa from my platoon retired as a brigadier while Ananda Weerasekera and Siri Pieris served as Major Generals.

The Sri Lankans are really grateful to Pakistan for having its trained so many of their officers in the PMA. After the first 14 in the '60s, more than 450 graduated from PMA in the '80s and '90s in three more batches. Out of the 476 officers who passed out from the PMA into the Sri Lankan Army, 56 had died in action in operations against the LTTE until 1997. In March 1971, Pakistan sent an Army Aviation contingent consisting of pilots, helicopters and ground crew when the Janatha Vimukthi Peranuma (JVP) attempted a bloody North Korean-supported Marxist revolution. At the height of the East Pakistan crisis in 1971, the-then Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, Mrs Sirimavo Bandernaike, the mother of present President Mrs Chandrika Kamaratunga, resisted Indian pressure to close down the Bandernaike International Airport for flights to and from East Pakistan. For Pakistan, desperately short of fuel in the embattled province, this logistics support kept the central authority in Islamabad functional until actual war broke out in December 1971 and all flights ceased.