20th Lancers - 20th Lancers

20th Lancers

After the First World War, the number of Indian cavalry regiments was reduced from thirty-nine to twenty-one. However, instead of disbanding the surplus units, it was decided to amalgamate them in pairs. This resulted in renumbering and renaming of the entire cavalry line. The 14th Murray's Jat Lancers and 15th Lancers (Cureton's Multanis) were amalgamated at Sialkot on 21 September 1920 to form 20th Lancers. The new class composition of the regiment was one squadron each of Punjabi Muslims, Sikhs and Hindu Jats. The uniform of 20th Lancers was dark blue with scarlet facings. The badge consisted of crossed silver lances bearing pennons with a crown at the intersection above "XX" and a scroll below. At the time of re-raising in 1956, the original badge was retained but the crown was omitted. In 1937, 20th Lancers became the training regiment of 3rd Indian Cavalry Group at Lucknow. It was converted into a training centre in 1940.

On 20 June 1956, 20th Lancers was re-raised by Pakistan Army as a Reconnaissance Regiment of Pakistan Armoured Corps and equipped with M24 Chaffee light tanks; the honour to raise this new regiment for Pakistan' Armored Corps went to Major Syed Azmat Ali Bokhari, Major Bokhari also commanded a squardon of the regiment during the 1965 war on the Sialkot front. During the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, the regiment served under 15 Division in the Sialkot Sector. The regiment took part in the defence of Sialkot Cantonment and Dallowali Railway Sataion. Numerous enemy tanks, and munitions were destroyed. During the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, 20th Lancers formed part of a delaying force in the Shakargarh Sector and held up the invading Indian divisions for two weeks. Sowar Muhammad Hussain was awarded a posthumous Nishan-i-Haider for outstanding gallantry.