Denning Days
The US AF used it as forward base to lift supplies over the Himalayan Hump, for Chiang Kai Shek’s Chinese Armies bearing on southwards towards Japanese occupied Northern Burma, during WW II. American Air force General Dennig was the force commander. He went on to give his name to this 2 Assam Rifles (AR) camp near the divisional district headquarters town of Tezu, in NEFA, now called Arunachal. They took off from the ALG at Tezu and landed in Chunking/Kunming in the Southern China.
The hills are still strewn with the wreckage of vintage transport aircraft of all types. Our patrols frequently turn up with pieces of fuselage, wing and even whole engines of crashed planes. One such was that of the aircraft that had crashed with British Brigadier Orde Wingate of Chindits fame on board. It lies now at the entrance to the Assam Rifles Officer’s Mess in Shillong, and has become quite a draw, they say.
The virgin tropical rain forests in the Lohit Division, abound with game and beasts. Mithuns are a dime to a dozen. Rampaging elephants are not uncommon and I’ll always remember the one that sat down on an army jeep, rendering it Class V instantly; however, the workshop people in Dinjan across the Brahmputra, refused to believe the story. Our MTO had a hard time explaining the incident to an increasingly incredulous EME lot who insisted on seeing the elephant for questioning him, before signing the back-loading papers!
In our time the brigade HQ was co-located in Denning Camp with the 2 AR battalion HQs. We were in Lohitpur at a distance of about ten kilometers to the south at another camp called Shivajinagar. Moving up and down the road between brigade and battalion was frequent, almost on a daily basis. I was returning to base in a Willy’s jeep in the evening after doing a Court of Inquiry. There was a lot on my mind as I had yet to formulate the findings and the opinion and was the lost in my thoughts when Kharka Bahadur, my driver, slowed down and stopped, with a very meaningful, but all purpose “Ooooh!”
This can denote just about any thing right from amazement to bewilderment, to indication of land marks to judging distances, as any one who has served with the Gurkhas, will tell you. The yardstick being a hundred yard for each of Os in the ‘Ooooh’! This is not what is drilled into young soldiers, but this is what they picked up in boot camp, and it works, believe me; even when setting sights under enemy fire.
Nevertheless, jolted out from my reverie, by this longish and particularly pregnant ‘Ooooh’ I tried to follow Kharke’s gaze in to the distance, but failed to see any thing, and; therefore, told him to move along and step on it as it was getting dark else, the dim-dam would start getting us soon, even if the elephants didn’t. But Kharka Bahadur continued to remain trans-fixed. When I shook him by the arm, he whispered, ” Shab, bagh!” I sat up bolt upright instantly, and stuttered, ” Khoi, kata?”(What, where?). And then I, indeed , saw them for my self.
Bang in the middle of the dirt track, right in front of the vehicle, two tiny cheetah cubs, all by themselves! My instant gut reaction was to leap out of the jeep and grab them for pets. But, Kharka Bahadur stayed my hand. He very rightly cautioned me about the mother who was bound to be in close vicinity. Bemused, he drew out his semi-automatic service rifle, and went on guard, and scoured the bush for the panther, expecting it come leaping out, any minute.
We waited and waited and debated and debated but didn’t dare to collect the cubs. After a longish while, they picked themselves up and ambled off into the adjoining undergrowth, undoubtedly, at their mother’s beckoning.
(The Writer Lt. Col A.K. ‘Sam’ Sharma is an alumnus of the National Defence Academy, Kharakvasla. Col Sharma was commissioned into the 3rd Gorkha Rifles of the Indian Army in Februray 1964, He retired in 1997 after serving for 33 years. A graduate of the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, he holds a MSc Degree in Defence Studies from the Madras University. This officer has been on the instructional staff of two of Indian Army’s premiere training institutes: the College of Combat; now known as the War College; (Directing Staff Junior Command Wing-1972-1975) and the Infantry School ( Senior Instructor, Platoon Commander’s Wing—1984-87) both located in Mhow (MP); where he taught tactics at the unit and sub-unit levels to students, some of who were from friendly foreign armies. He has also served at the world- renowned Indian Military Academy, Dehradun. Col Sharma can be contacted at aksh9@airtelbroadband.in)