Meet Major General Rajinder Singh 'Sparrow' - The legend people have forgotten!

Image Source - Bharat Rakshak

Major General Rajinder Singh MVC** (3 October 1911 – 15 May 1994) was an Indian Army officer and a two time member of the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian parliament. He was nicknamed 'Sparrow'. He is credited as the man with the most spectacular success against Pakistan. The man was responsible for destroying the largest number of Pakistani Patton tanks. He was awarded the Maha Vir Chakra twice in his career. In this article, we are going to talk about this forgotten legend!

MILITARY CAREER

He served in the ranks of the British Indian Army from 3 October 1932 to 31 January 1938. He attended the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun, and was commissioned onto the Unattached List, British Indian Army on 1 February 1938. He spent the next year attached to The King's Regiment (Liverpool), a British Army regiment, stationed on the North West Frontier(now Khyber Pakhtunwa, Pakistan).

He was then admitted to the Indian Army and joined the 7th Light Cavalry on 24 February 1939. He was promoted to lieutenant on 30 April 1939, and served during World War II. He was promoted temporary captain and acting major on 16 April 1942, to war-substantive captain and temporary major on 9 January 1943 and to substantive captain on 31 January 1945.

After independence, he joined the Indian Army and commanded the 7th Light Cavalry from September 1947 to May 1949. He was promoted to colonel on 30 January 1957 and held the appointment of regimental colonel of the 7th Light Cavalry from July 1959 to July 1969.
STORY BEHIND THE NICKNAME 'SPARROW'

During the battle for Zojila, Lt. Col Rajinder Singh was assigned the near-impossible task of transporting his 7th Cavalry Regiment comprising of Stuart tanks to the battleground at 11000 ft. When everyone thought that the task was impossible, his unit accomplished the task in record time and Pakistani forces had to fly away from there..

A foreign war correspondent covering the battle said to Rajinder Singh, "You are an Eagle!". Rajinder Singh replied, “Not Eagle, I am just a Sparrow”. He was called ‘Sparrow’ since then.

Image Source - oneindiaonepeople.com

FIRST MAHA VIR CHAKRA

In the Indo-Pak War of 1947-48, the Indian Army had to assault and capture Zoji La, Dras and Kargil district in Ladakh codenamed as Operation Bison. At that time, Rajinder Singh was serving as a Lieutenant Colonel in the 7th Light Cavalry regiment. When nobody could've even imagined that the tanks could be deployed at high altitudes, Rajinder Singh led the Indian tanks on the Zoli La and cleared the road to Ladakh during the Kashmir Operation in 1948. He was awarded Mahavir Chakra for his role in that action.

Image Source - ADGPI Indian Army

SECOND MAHA VIR CHAKRA 

In 1965, infiltration by a large number of militants and attack by Pakistan in Akhnur sector led to a general war between the two countries. The 1 Armoured Division under command of Major General Rajinder Singh Sparrow was assigned the task of capture of Phillora and Pagiwal in the Sialkot sector. The enemy had two regiments of armour in the area. The attack on 11 September resulted in the biggest tank battle since the Second World War. Lt. Col. Tarapore, commanding officer, 17 Horse, displayed outstanding leadership and was awarded PVC(Read more about him here). Sixty nine Pakistani tanks were destroyed against nine of our own. Phillora was cleared by 16 September. Major General Sparrow had led his formation to win against a better equipped and numerically superior enemy. He was awarded the MVC again.

During the Pakistan aggression in 1965 Maj Gen Rajinder Singh Sparrow was General Officer Commanding I Armoured Division. As a result of his brilliant handling of the Division, Pakistani Armoured Corps, pride of Pakistan Army was defeated. Major General Rajinder Singh got a bar to his Maha Vir Chakra.

BREAKING ERWIN ROMMEL'S RECORD

Erwin Rommel was a German General during the Second World War. He served as a Field Marshall in the Wehrmacht in 1944. He had great success in the African campaign of the war which earned him respect even from his enemies. Even to this day, he is widely respected as one of the most intelligent military theorist and his infantry tactics, tank commanding tactics and books are still used as a reference in many military organisations all over the world.

During the Indo-Pak war of 1965, Rajinder Singh served as the commander of the First Armoured Division of the Indian Army. His unit transcended Erwin Rommel’s record of destroying 70 tanks in the famous battle of Knightsbridge as the troops under Rajinder Singh destroyed as many as 67 enemy tanks in a single day in the battle of Phillaura. Losing only 6 tanks of their own, as against Rommel's 30 tanks, in the process.


General Sparrow's men fought continuously for 15 days and destroyed 250 tanks of the enemy, thus setting a record again.

SECOND CAREER AS A POLITICIAN

After retiring from the Army as a Major General, he entered politics and became a minister in the short lived Gurnam Singh ministry in 1967.
Later he was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1980 and 1985 for the Jalandhar constituency as a candidate of the Indian National Congress.

Hi, I am Pranjay Varshney. I am pursuing my B.Sc. (Hons) in Electronic Science from University of Delhi. My dream is to join the Indian Army as an officer and I am very passionate about it. I like to write articles about Indian Armed Forces and various political and economic affairs. I spend my free time doing gymnastics, listening to music or watching movies.