The 66th Punjabis was an infantry regiment of the

British Indian Army The British Indian Army, commonly referred to as the Indian Army, was the main military of the British Raj before its dissolution in 1947. It was responsible for the defence of the British Indian Empire, including the princely states, which co ...

. It was raised in 1761 as the 7th Battalion of Coast Sepoys. It was designated as the 66th Punjabis in 1903 and became 2nd Battalion

1st Punjab Regiment The 1st Punjab Regiment was an infantry regiment of the British Indian Army from 1922 to 1947. Upon the Partition of India, it was transferred to the newly-raised Pakistan Army. It ceased to exist in this form in 1956, when it was amalgamate ...

in 1922. In 1947, it was allocated to the

Pakistan Army The Pakistan Army (, ) is the Army, land service branch of the Pakistan Armed Forces. The roots of its modern existence trace back to the British Indian Army that ceased to exist following the partition of India, Partition of British India, wh ...

, where it continues to exist as 2nd Battalion The Punjab Regiment.

Early history

The regiment had its antecedents in the old

Madras Army The Madras Army was the army of the Presidency of Madras, one of the three presidencies of British India within the British Empire. The presidency armies, like the presidencies themselves, belonged to the East India Company until the Government ...

of the British

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...

, which was largely responsible for the British conquest of south and central

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. It was raised by Captain Cowper at

Trichonopoly Tiruchirappalli () ( formerly Trichinopoly in English), also called Tiruchi or Trichy, is a major tier II city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and the administrative headquarters of Tiruchirappalli district. The city is credited with bein ...

in July 1761, as the 7th Battalion of Coast Sepoys. The men were mostly enlisted from South India and consisted of Muslims and Hindus. For the next forty years, the regiment was engaged in constant warfare against the Sultans of Mysore. In 1810, it took part in the expeditions to

Bourbon Island Bourbon may refer to: Food and drink * Bourbon whiskey, an American whiskey made using a corn-based mash * Bourbon barrel aged beer, a type of beer aged in bourbon barrels * Bourbon biscuit, a chocolate sandwich biscuit * A beer produced by ...

and

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...

in the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...

. In 1840, the regiment took part in the

First Anglo-Chinese War The First Opium War (), also known as the Opium War or the Anglo-Sino War was a series of military engagements fought between Britain and the Qing dynasty of China between 1839 and 1842. The immediate issue was the Chinese enforcement of the ...

, where as a reward for its excellent performance, it was authorized to bear a golden dragon wearing the imperial crown upon its

regimental colours In military organizations, the practice of carrying colours (or colors), standards, flags, or guidons, both to act as a rallying point for troops and to mark the location of the commander, is thought to have originated in Ancient Egypt some ...

. In the latter part of the 19th century, the regiment did not see much action except for a stint in

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

during 1888-91.

66th Punjabis

In 1902, the regiment, now designated as the 6th Madras Infantry, was reconstituted with Punjabi Muslims,

Sikh Sikhs ( or ; pa, ਸਿੱਖ, ' ) are people who adhere to Sikhism, Sikhism (Sikhi), a Monotheism, monotheistic religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Gu ...

s and

Rajput Rajput (from Sanskrit ''raja-putra'' 'son of a king') is a large multi-component cluster of castes, kin bodies, and local groups, sharing social status and ideology of genealogical descent originating from the Indian subcontinent. The term Ra ...

s. Next year, as a result of the

reforms Reform ( lat, reformo) means the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The use of the word in this way emerges in the late 18th century and is believed to originate from Christopher Wyvill's Association movement ...

brought about in the Indian Army by Lord Kitchener, all Madras units had 60 added to their numbers, and the regiment's designation was changed to 66th Punjabis. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

the 66th Punjabis were dispatched to

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the F ...

as part of the

12th Indian Division The 12th Indian Division was formed in March 1915 from units of the British Indian Army. It formed part of the Tigris Corps, for service during the Mesopotamia Campaign of World War I. The Division arrived in Mesopotamia in April 1915 and remai ...

in 1915. After taking part in the Battle of Shaiba, where the Turkish counter-attack was repulsed, the regiment participated in the operations in

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

n Arabistan. In October, the 66th Punjabis joined Major General

Charles Townshend Charles Townshend (28 August 1725 – 4 September 1767) was a British politician who held various titles in the Parliament of Great Britain. His establishment of the controversial Townshend Acts is considered one of the key causes of the Ame ...

's 6th Indian Division in its advance towards

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...

. It fought in the Battle of Ctesiphon and then retired towards

Kut al Amara Kūt ( ar, ٱلْكُوت, al-Kūt), officially Al-Kut, also spelled Kutulamare or Kut al-Imara, is a city in eastern Iraq, on the left bank of the Tigris River, about south east of Baghdad. the estimated population is about 389,400 people. It ...

, where it was besieged by the Turks with the rest of the 6th Division. The regiment resolutely resisted all Turkish attempts to overwhelm the defences of Kut al Amara for 150 days, but after the failure of the British to relieve them, the starving garrison of Kut was forced to surrender on 29 April 1916. The 66th Punjabis became prisoners of war and suffered terrible privations during their long captivity. Out of the 538 officers and men present in the regiment on 14 March, only about a quarter returned home after the war. The 66th Punjabis were re-formed at

Jhelum Jhelum ( Punjabi and ur, ) is a city on the east bank of the Jhelum River, which is located in the district of Jhelum in the north of Punjab province, Pakistan. It is the 44th largest city of Pakistan by population. Jhelum is known for p ...

on 31 December 1916. They served on the North West Frontier of India and took part in the

Third Afghan War The Third Anglo-Afghan War; fa, جنگ سوم افغان-انگلیس), also known as the Third Afghan War, the British-Afghan War of 1919, or in Afghanistan as the War of Independence, began on 6 May 1919 when the Emirate of Afghanistan inv ...

of 1919. On 5 October 1918, the regiment raised a second battalion at Sitapur, which was disbanded in 1921.

Subsequent history

After the First World War, the 66th Punjabis were grouped with the 62nd, 76th, 82nd and 84th Punjabis, and the

1st Brahmans The 1st Brahmans was an infantry regiment of the British Indian Army. It was raised at Oudh by Captain T Naylor in 1776 for service in the army of Nawab Wazir of Oudh, and was known as the Nawab Wazir's Regiment. It was transferred to the East Indi ...

to form the 1st Punjab Regiment in 1922. The battalion was redesignated as 2nd Battalion 1st Punjab Regiment. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, 2/1st Punjab served in

, fighting with great gallantry in the First and Second Arakan Campaigns and in numerous actions during the Reconquest of Burma. The battalion received more gallantry awards than any other Indian Army unit. These included a posthumous

Victoria Cross The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious award of the British honours system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British Armed Forces and may be awarded posthumously. It was previously ...

to Subedar Ram Sarup Singh for gallantry in action on Kennedy Peak in 1944. After the war, 2/1st Punjab served in the

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...

as part of the Allied occupation forces. In 1947, the battalion was allocated to Pakistan Army. During the 1948 war with India in

Kashmir Kashmir () is the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term "Kashmir" denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal Range. Today, the term encompas ...

, the battalion again distinguished itself and Captain Muhammad Sarwar became the first recipient of

Nishan-i-Haider Nishan-e-Haider (NH; ), is the highest military gallantry award of Pakistan. The Nishan-e-Haider is awarded posthumously and only to members of the Pakistan Armed Forces. It recognises the highest acts of extraordinary bravery in the face of ...

, Pakistan's highest gallantry award. In 1956, the 1st Punjab Regiment was merged with the 14th, 15th and 16th Punjab Regiments to form one large

Punjab Regiment Punjab Regiment may refer to the following existing units: *Punjab Regiment (India) *Punjab Regiment (Pakistan) From 1922 to 1947, the British Indian Army included 6 numbered Punjab Regiments: *1st Punjab Regiment * 2nd Punjab Regiment *8th Punj ...

, and 2/1st Punjab was redesignated as 2 Punjab. The battalion's remarkable record of service was maintained in the Indo-Pakistan War of 1965, where it fought with great gallantry in the

Battle of Chawinda {{Infobox military conflict , width = 380px , image = File:Sculpture showing Indo-Pak war.jpg , image_size = 300px , caption = Sculpture showing the Indo-Pakistani War {{clear {{OSM Location map , co ...

. In the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971, it served in

Kasur Kasur (Urdu and pa, ; also Romanization of Urdu, romanized as Qasūr; from pluralized Arabic word ''Qasr'' meaning "palaces" or "forts") is a city to south of Lahore, in the Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. The city serves as th ...

Sector.Rizvi, Brig SHA. (1984). ''Veteran Campaigners – A History of the Punjab Regiment 1759-1981''. Lahore: Wajidalis. 2-1st (2) Punjab, Nov 1930, Kohat

Genealogy

*1761 7th Battalion of Coast Sepoys *1769 7th Carnatic Battalion *1770 6th Carnatic Battalion *1784 6th Madras Battalion *1796 1st Battalion 6th Regiment of Madras Native Infantry *1824 6th Regiment of Madras Native Infantry *1885 6th Regiment of Madras Infantry *1901 6th Madras Infantry *1903 66th Punjabis *1922 2nd Battalion 1st Punjab Regiment *1956 2nd Battalion The Punjab Regiment

Early history

66th Punjabis

Subsequent history

Genealogy

See also

References

Further reading