"FIRE" MUSCLE POWER

Artillery played a pivotal role in kargil war. Even it was outnumbered by the Indian artillery, the brave gunners of Pakistan Army did more than their best to provide fire power to those who were fighting beyond LOC.

The toughest task was to shift the artillery in the battle field area. This was carried out by MI-17 helicopters. All the guns were opened into parts and then were carried by sling load in the main battle field areas of Dawod Tactical Headquarter, Giltri, Foreign Short and Kinaar naala.

130 MM Guns were the heaviest. One barrel of this gun weighed 2000kg, one tire weighed 450kg. It took 8 rounds of one MI-17 to shift one single 130 MM artillery gun. The flight routine of these helicopter squadrons which were enough for 2 years, were consumed in three months.

61 gun positions were established, and 44 observatory posts were made to control their fire power. This was not enough. Moreover, no arrangements were made for the maintenance and repair of damage of these guns. Although mechanics were there from workshop 502, but they were useless since they didn’t have necessary tools. Once a gun went silent, it remained silent!

Pakistan didn’t have numerical advantage on India in northern areas when it came to artillery. Despite of that, FCNA started operation beyond LOC without asking for more artillery support. Guns which We had, majority of which were field guns, didn’t have enough fire power to help and support the soldiers fighting beyond LOC. After the war started, India’s artillery absolutely bamboozled the captured posts by Pakistan, and when the posts asked for fire from their arsenal, there was no reply!

And here is a turn point... The Bofors

 

The Bofors gun gave India edge over Pakistani medium guns. With a range of over 35 kilo meters in the high-altitude terrain, the FH77 Bofors guns, which fired three rounds in 12 seconds proved to be better than the medium artillery guns available with the Pakistani Army.

The guns have a Mercedes Benz engine in them and they are able to move short distances on their own. This capability helped India during the war also as guns would move from their location after firing a salvo to other positions in order to avoid enemy counter fire.

Following is a comparison of the artillery power between India and Pakistan, before and after the war started.

http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/why-the-army-loves-the-bofors-gun-5580

Gentleman Istighfirullah by Colonel® Ishfaq Hussain

https://www.google.com/fusiontables/data?docid=1XagL2QRQNZTazufXi7QpL2pzDzhKY7VNdQwFQyFe#card:id=2