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INA veteran recalls Colonel Dhillon
FORMER INDIAN National Army (INA) Captain S S Yadav?s praise for Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose?s associate Col Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon seems to constitute more of a friend?s fitting tribute than a junior officer?s compliments as he waxes eloquent about the colonel?s sheer courage while engaging British forces at Magwe in Central Burma.
FORMER INDIAN National Army (INA) Captain S S Yadav’s praise for Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s associate Col Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon seems to constitute more of a friend’s fitting tribute than a junior officer’s compliments as he waxes eloquent about the colonel’s sheer courage while engaging British forces at Magwe in Central Burma.
“His unit took up positions in the vicinity of Popa Hill. Though they had no artillery or air support and a paucity of rations, Dhillon proved his salt and fought well led by Gen.
Shah Nawaz Khan,” Capt Yadav, now in his eighties, recounted to UNI after the February 6 demise of Col Dhillon at Gwalior.
Yadav was earlier serving as havildar in the 1st Indian ‘Ack-Ack’ (Anti-Aircraft) Regiment of the British Army. After Singapore capitulated on February 15, 1942, British forces surrendered to the Japanese. Maj Fujiwara, an intelligence officer, handed over thousands of Indian PoW in Malaya to Capt Mohan Singh, the General-Officer-Commanding of the INA.
“After February 15, 1942, I often met Dhillon who was earlier in the 1st Battalion of the 14th Punjab Regiment. Capt Mohan Singh was a company commander in 1/14 Punjab and taken to Maj Fujiwara by Thailand-resident Granthi Pritam Singh, who had Congress leanings,” narrates Capt Yadav.
Speaking of his own contribution to the INA, Capt Yadav said that in 1944, as a bachelor of 25, he was ordered to protect a lifeline wooden railway bridge spanning the Annaquin rivulet in lower Burma, now Myanmar, near the Thai border.
“For seven months, our 4th Light Ack-Ack Company did not let the enemy damage the structure and we also brought down Allied aircraft. The bridge was built by the Japanese using British PoW.
In September 1944, I was transferred to the INA’a Supreme Command Headquarters at Rangoon,” Capt Yadav adds while recalling that the INA had to depend on bullock carts for supplying ammunition and rations. In July 1943, after Netaji took direct command of the INA, Dhillon was appointed commander of the Nehru Brigade, the others being the ‘Netaji Subhas’, ‘Gandhi’ and ‘Azad’ brigades.
After heavy reverses, the INA surrendered on May 17, 1945. The historic trial of Gen Khan, Col Prem Kumar Sehgal and Col Dhillon at the Red Fort began on November 5, 1945 by a General Court Martial for the charge of waging war against the King. All three were found guilty.
Commander-in-Chief Claude Auchinleck, taking into consideration the prevailing circumstances, decided to remit the sentences and they were released.
