European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 10, 1948, Darmstadt, Hesse Fighting yank continued Indian troops with Battle equipment from their British army Days were rushed to Kashmir by Nehru government to fight uprisings. Moslem Here have revolted against the hindu Maharaja of Kashmir s decision to unite his country with India. Haight took command of wild Pathan tribesmen one Day i was sitting at a bar in Rawalpindi Pakistan waiting fora train to take me where i could catch a plane Home. I was feeling unhappy about going Home without the stake i d come for. An English news Paperman Over a bottle of Beer suggested that i join the free Kashmir army Asa Soldier of Fortune. I d been a Soldier in the . An Canadian armies for seven years. But this time there was the Fortune part tomake it attractive. Two moslem came round to my hotel room that jackets were bulging at the Arm pits with their concealed weapons. The led me to a heavily curtained Auto drove for half an hour and when we stopped we were in front of a ten foot Concrete Wall with broken Glass set in its top. A guard peered at us through Slot before opening the massive wooden Gate. We stepped into a big courtyard before a Square two Story building. I got to know that building Well later on it was the Headquarters of the free moslem forces. My two escorts ushered me up narrow Marble staircase one trotting before me the other marching significantly behind. Inside dim electric bulbs splashed yellow Light on forty or fifty moslem men and women sleeping in shapeless huddles on the floor. We threaded our Way among them and went on through a corridor and up a Stair Case. We stopped before a door my companions knocked and we were invited in. A slim clean-shaven1 Young Man wearing pyjamas sat Cross legged on Woven rope bed. I was introduced to Sardar Mohammed Ibrahim Khan pres ident of the Azad Kashmir provisional he gestured my two companions away and motioned me to a seat beside him. Ibrahim Speaks excellent English. Bluntly he asked Why do you want to join Azad i said frankly that i had curiosity More than anything else. He asked me about my experience. Isaid i had seen action with the canadians at Dieppe and with the u. in the Normandy invasion. Ibrahim seemed satisfied. He launched into a Long explanation of the moslem revolt against India in Kashmir. He justified his cause with the same arguments he has used before the unite nations at Lake Success. I did t get particularly excited though he did. I was More interested when he asked me what i wanted for serving Azad. Someone behind me suggested $1000a month. You can have anything you want Ibrahim said. I though it Over quickly and told him ill wait. If this revolt is Success Ful i want a Good Job with your Ibrahim repeated anything you want is yours and we left it at that. He called in his minister of a Shah to write but my commission. A snap is a Little deaf and he held a trumpet to his ear As i shouted the spelling of my name. The commission he wrote out made me a Captain in the Azad army. Two Days after that i was sent to the front at punch a Kashmir town of10,000, about sixty Miles from the Pakistan Border. I had the idea of Organ izing a commando Force. I had some pretty exaggerated visions of leading my men Tarzan like through a tropical Jungle. But Kashmir is Northwest weather is cold More often than hot. The Jungles Are forests of fir Pine and Cedar. They Are wild enough. Monkeys tigers and Black and Brown bears Are numerous. As we passed Jungles on the Road from Rawalpindi in Pakistan i was thinking in terms of taking squad behind the enemy lines to destroy communications blow up Bridges an create general havoc. Frankly those ideas weren t based on my own War experience which was pretty limited. With the canadians at Dieppe i had been put out of action almost immediately. In the Landing i was shot in Teleg and when i fell a Jerry bashed me with his Rifle butt. When i came to i was in a Hospital in England. On a Day in Normandy i waded ashore and immediately caught a chunk of shrapnel in my other leg. They put me Back on the boat and before Long i was in an eng Lish Hospital again. I wound up the Waras a sergeant in the air Force at Lowry Field near Denver. In my seven Yearsin the american and Canadian armies during world War ii i had seen Only few hours of action. Maybe that s Why i still had a Little of the hero impulse in me and had to get into a Little War that hardly anyone has heard of to see the kind of combat my buddies had experienced. When i got to the front at punch i was full of fight. I found that the free Kashmir outfit had some 3000 troops besieging a town of about 10,000,defended by perhaps 3000 regular Indian army troops. Our native men an officers had both been trained by the British. We had uniforms that the Pakistan government had sent to their fellow moslem and a Good Deal of Pakistan equipment. Some of our officers were from the Pakistan army. The merely took off their old shoulder patches and put on the Azad Patch motto in squiggly urdu language Wrilen on a Green arid White background. Mostof our soldiers and officers had seen a Good Deal of action with the British army in Africa or Italy. Some had fought in Burma and others at Singa pore. \ somewhere our officers had gotten into bad military habits. Instead of taking the offensive they were sitting Back and waiting for the War to come to them. Every Day the general would hold staff meetings at which the officers would discuss tactics write communiques and draw up Jong and involved Field orders. Then they would play cards and smoke the Hookah the water pipe passing the bowl around from Man to Man As they reminisced about other one morning of this i was impatient. I went to the general and urge Dan offensive. A few hours of argument and he gave me permission to make commando raid that night. I used his one Okay As Blanket approval for whole scheme of attacks and repeated the raids every night during the siege of punch. In these raids we killed More than a Hundred is the Way we worked we slept All Day in a Hole in the ground a machine gun pit surrounded by a Rock breastworks and covered Bya roof of tree branches. Indian army fighter planes would Fly Over us an strafe but i never heard of anyone at the front being Hurt by them. Before dark we d Cut Loose a few bursts of our Bren gun in the general direction of the enemy. This would upset the Indian troops and they d answer Back with machine gun or mortar fire even though they did t know where we were. By. Watching for their fire we d locate the mortar or machine gun that would be our target for the night. Then we d clamber out of the pit in the dark and i d Lead my men across the three Hundred Yard no mans land to our objective. I never allowed my men to carry rifles or pistols on these missions. The were trigger Happy and our work had to be done silently if we were to come Back alive. Instead each of us carried a Hatchet or a Kukli a Short razor Sharp Indian sword with a Broad Blade. We worked efficiently. When we had crept within a few Yards of the gun or " mortar we were after i d signal and we d All leap in at once. My men were very Good in the dark they did their work quickly and silently. In five Days we captured three mortars and two Bren guns valuable equipment for our Side. The sixth Day we had trouble. We were testing Home made grenades. They were made by pouring Lead into a Clayhold filling it with Gunpowder and inserting a firecracker fuse. The first Gre Nade went off All right. It fragmented perfectly killing four men at a Bren gun Post and making so much noise that the whole Indian army began firing atus. But one of my men was Hurt and the blast had shattered the Bren gun Breech so All we got was a spare barrel. We had trouble getting. By ctr and when we did reach our lines the general was angry. We d spoiled has Nice quiet War. With so much noise he could t think and make plans and with so much firing it had become unsafe for him to walk around and supervise his men. We argued one thing leading to an other and everything leading up to my telling him he was t fit to Lead a boy scout i went Back to Rawalpindi the next morning and complained to Ibrahim the moslem chief who had signed me up. After listening to my Story he said Haight i have some real action for you. I want you to take fifteen Hundred men to Kotlik and drive the hindu army out of the agreed. What he did t Tell me was that most of my troop were to be the same wild Pathan tribesmen whom the British had never been Able to control. Touch a moslem s woman arid be prepared to die the Koran is specific and strict on the subject of sex. A woman has to be a Man s property before he can touch her. Once he takes her he must protect her. And let him touch no other Man s woman. The troops of the hindu Maharaja of Kashmir were said to have violated moslem women and so the bloody re Volt broke out and still continues. The Pathan tribesman is As fiercely devoted to his Rifle As the moslem to his woman. A Pathan s Rifle is his cherished companion his protector and his Means of livelihood. The pathans have always been raiders. They live in the Rocky and rugged foothill Sof the Himalayas where no Man can raise enough to live. Throughout their history they have terrorized the people in the valleys by their swooping de. Scents to arrived at the Kotlik front to find that of the two thousand troops under. My command already besieging the town fifteen Hundred were 500 were the British trained Kash Mir troops i had led in the siege of pathans were dirty unkempt and heavily bearded. Their Bare feet stuck into sandals were Black around the Ankles and their uniforms were kind of Nightgown with a Blanket wrapped around it. But As a Soldier liked the look of them. Almost All were six feet tall or More Strong As fondled their Mauser rifles and tul wars Long , vicious looking i had already heard much about the pathans and i knew that the British had been unable to come to terms wit them. Not Only were the British unable to persuade the pathans to serve in their army they were even unable to conquer them. For years the history of British Dominion in India involved continuously bombing villages on the North West Frontier or sending punitive expeditions against them. Those were Pathan villages. The pathans travel in tribal groups numbering from fifty men to several Hundred. Each group has a Khan or chief and a Mullah or priest. I watched continued on Page 16 ,
