The resultant Indian counter-attack saw the focus shift to various other sectors-Lahore, Barki, Kasur (Khem Karan), Fazilka, Sialkot, and Barmer-on the international border. Pakistan then launched Operation ‘Grand Slam’ in September 1965 in Chhamb and Jaurian. However, India repulsed the attack and cut off the entry and exit points into the Kashmir Valley by capturing the Haji Pir Bulge. Confident that they had superior armour (M-47 and M-48 Patton tanks), better fighter planes (F-86 Sabres and F-104 Starfighters), and better submarines (Daphnes) than India, the Pakistanis expected that in the event of an expanded war, the Indians would collapse just as they had against China in NEFA three years previously. Mujahids were covertly deployed in multiple groups, each named after historical plunderers of the subcontinent. The tale unfolds with the author’s detailed descriptions of Pakistan’s treacherous Operation ‘Gibraltar’-in Kashmir in August. It was this very factor which was mis-read by Pakistan when they launched their initial operations on Kutch and achieved reasonable success against an ill prepared and out-numbered Indian defence. However, he does bring out that at the junior and field commander levels, the leadership was exemplary and heroic – which reflected the basic fabric of the Indian Army. Verma begins the account by brilliantly painting the background of a demoralising defeat suffered by the Indian Army in the 1962 war with China, perpetuated largely by atrociously inept senior political and military leadership. The seventeen-day war is also better known for the largest tank battles fought anywhere in the world since World War II. India retaliated by launching a full-scale military attack on West Pakistan. The conflict began following Pakistan's Operation Gibraltar, which was designed to infiltrate forces into Jammu and Kashmir to precipitate an insurgency against Indian rule. The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 was a culmination of skirmishes that took place between April and September of that year between Pakistan and India. the 1965 war, is like that old wine which needs to be savoured and appreciated, one sip at a time. Shiv Kunal Verma’s detailed account of the lesser spoken about of the two major wars (if you exclude the J&K centric skirmishes of 19) of India with Pakistan i.e. Now take a sip and feel its texture and weight as it glides over your tongue. As you swirl the wine glass, look at the wine's colour, sniff its bouquet or scent try to identify the different aromas. It wasn't the most decisive battle of the war, but after nearly 900 days and 800,000 deaths, it's certainly one of the most epic, and tragic.They say the best way to appreciate good wine is to use your senses. And by early 1944, History notes the Soviets had amassed enough force to drive the Germans from the outskirts of town, lifting the siege. The following year, the Red Army managed to pierce the German lines just south of Lake Ladoga, allowing precious supplies to enter the city overland for the first time in over a year. World at War Magazine describes the Road of Life - Russian supply trucks making a perilous journey across the frozen surface of Lake Ladoga to reach the city - as the city's only lifeline. In 1942 alone, Britannica notes that an astonishing, heart-wrenching 650,000 people in the city had lost their lives, mostly due to starvation. The anguish of mass hunger set in quickly. By November, the Axis had effectively encircled the city, severing supply lines and thus cutting off the city's food supply.
It would be enough to hold the city, but not to prevent its suffering.
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