His Critical Innovation
Credit for the availability of the up-gunned World War II vintage Shermans in 1965 to successfully combat American supplied M48 Pattons goes to the idea and invention of Maj Gen R L Jetley (Retired) and to the General Staff of the Army, who provided him with a Sherman Tank to experiment for what was then a radical idea. The result is described in extract of two newspaper articles below. For this innovation he was paid merely 2000 as a cash award to kill the dream of Field Marshal Ayub Khan to capture Delhi.
- Extract from The Economic Times New Delhi Wednesday 6 September, 1995 page 7 an article by Global Watch/K Subrahmanyam titled "The First War with Pak"
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- "Third, the Pakistanis has secretly raised a second armoured division while India had only one then...The Pakistani armoured division which was to break through at Khem Karan was totally destroyed by an Indian armoured brigade consisting of one Centurion regiment, one regiment of Sherman Mark IV tanks and another with up-gunned Shermans. The Sherman tanks were of World War II vintage. This happened because of the superior tactical skills of officer and men of the Indian Army. That battle was crucial in the sense if India had lost it the fate of the subcontinent would have changed...The country has to be overly grateful to the officers and men of that armored brigade."
- Extract from The Indian Express New Delhi Friday December 19, 2003 Page 9 "Last Salute to the lion of 1965" (Lt. Gen Joginder Singh Dhillon; 1914-2003, Obituary) describes the result of Maj Gen Jetley's endeavours in the unglamourous field of defense research and development,
| “ | It is not possible to describe this 17-day war here but the decisive tank battle of Assal Utar, near Khem Karan, on September 10 does bear telling. Indian units hid their Sherman tanks 500 meters apart in a U-shaped formation in tall and unharvested sugarcane fields, and snared the enemy's vastly superior Patton tanks into this ambush, annihilating them to the last tank and deciding the outcome of the war. The destruction of Pakistan‘s armored pride and the casualties it suffered... | ” |
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