The 62nd 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 cou ...

. It was raised in 1759 as the 3rd Battalion of Coast Sepoys, and formed part of the

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 ...

. It was designated as the 62nd Punjabis in 1903 and became 1st 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 amalgamated w ...

in 1922. In 1947, it was allocated to the

Pakistan Army The Pakistan Army (, ) is the 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 British India, which occurred as a result ...

, where it continues to exist as 1st battalion, Punjab Regiment. It is the senior-most surviving infantry battalion of the British Indian Army.

History

Early history

The regiment had its antecedents in the old

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 Sou ...

, 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 List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

. It was raised at

Madras Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

in September 1759, as the 3rd Battalion of Coast Sepoys from existing companies of sepoys that had been raised a year earlier. The men were mostly enlisted from South India and consisted of Muslims and Hindus. The regiment was actively engaged in the wars against the French,

Mysore Mysore (), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern part of the state of Karnataka, India. Mysore city is geographically located between 12° 18′ 26″ north latitude and 76° 38′ 59″ east longitude. It is located at an altitude o ...

and the

Marathas The Marathi people ( Marathi: मराठी लोक) or Marathis are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who are indigenous to Maharashtra in western India. They natively speak Marathi, an Indo-Aryan language. Maharashtra was formed as a ...

. Their first major engagement was the decisive

Battle of Wandiwash The Battle of Wandiwash was a battle in India between the French and the British in 1760. The battle was part of the Third Carnatic War fought between the French and British colonial empires, which itself was a part of the global Seven Years' ...

in 1760, which ended French colonial ambitions in India. This was followed by forty years of constant warfare against the Sultans of Mysore, and then the Marathas chieftains. In the

Second Maratha War } The Second Anglo-Maratha War (1803–1805) was the second conflict between the British East India Company and the Maratha Empire in India. Background The British had supported the "fugitive" Peshwa Raghunathrao in the First Anglo-Maratha War ...

of 1803–05, the regiment fought in the

Battle of Assaye The Battle of Assaye was a major battle of the Second Anglo-Maratha War fought between the Maratha Empire and the British East India Company. It occurred on 23 September 1803 near Assaye in western India. An outnumbered Indian and British f ...

under General Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington. Its performance at Assaye was much appreciated and it was permitted to display the word "Assaye" with the device of an elephant on their colours and appointments. It was again engaged against the Marathas during the Third Maratha War of 1817–19, which decisively broke the Maratha power in India. 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 it again performed well and as a reward, 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, although it saw active service 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 C. Wells, Joh ...

62nd Punjabis

In 1902, the regiment, now designated as the 2nd 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 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 62nd Punjabis. During the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, the 62nd Punjabis were sent to

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...

as part of the

10th Indian Division The 10th Indian Division was an infantry division of the British Indian Army during World War I. It was formed in Egypt in December 1914 with three infantry brigades of Indian Expeditionary Force F. After taking part in the Actions on th ...

to protect the

Suez Canal The Suez Canal ( arz, قَنَاةُ ٱلسُّوَيْسِ, ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia. The long canal is a popula ...

. The regiment played a major role in repulsing the Turkish offensive of 1915. After operating in the British colony of Aden later that year, they arrived in

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 ...

on 31 December 1915. Here, they were engaged in fierce fighting on the

Tigris The Tigris () is the easternmost of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of the Armenian Highlands through the Syrian and Arabian Deserts, and empties into the ...

Front, as the British made desperate efforts to raise the Siege of Kut al Amara, and later, during the British advance northwards. The regiment took part in the Battles of Hanna, Dujaila Redoubt and the Hai Salient. After serving on the Persian frontier for the rest of the war, the regiment returned to India in 1920. It suffered a total of 840 casualties during the war. Captain

Claude Auchinleck Field Marshal Sir Claude John Eyre Auchinleck, (21 June 1884 – 23 March 1981), was a British Army commander during the Second World War. He was a career soldier who spent much of his military career in India, where he rose to become Commander ...

, later Field Marshal and the last Commander-in-Chief of the British Indian Army, served with the 62nd Punjabis in Egypt and Mesopotamia.

Subsequent history

After the First World War, the 62nd Punjabis were grouped with the 66th, 76th, 82nd and 84th Punjabis, and the 1st Brahmans to form the 1st Punjab Regiment in 1922. The battalion was redesignated as 1st 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 opposi ...

, 1/1st Punjab initially served in

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

and then moved to

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

in November 1941 to join the 5th Indian Division, only to take part in the British withdrawal following

Rommel Johannes Erwin Eugen Rommel () (15 November 1891 – 14 October 1944) was a German field marshal during World War II. Popularly known as the Desert Fox (, ), he served in the ''Wehrmacht'' (armed forces) of Nazi Germany, as well as servi ...

's offensive in January 1942. The battalion was converted into motorized infantry and deployed at Ruweisat Ridge, where in July, it took part in halting Rommel's final offensive in North Africa at El Alamein by the Eighth Army led by General Claude Auchinleck. It then participated in the British counter-attack in October, which turned the tide of war in North Africa. In October 1943, 1/1st Punjab arrived in

, where it fought in the Second Arakan Campaign and took part in the Reconquest of Burma. It fought in the Battles of Kohima, Tiddim Road and numerous actions in the Irrawaddy Basin until the final Allied victory in August 1945. It then served in the Dutch East Indies as part of the Allied occupation forces. In 1947, 1/1st Punjab was allocated to Pakistan Army. During the 1948 Kashmir War with

, it served at Chakothi. In 1956, the 1st Punjab Regiment was merged with the 14th, 15th and 16th Punjab Regiments to form one large Punjab Regiment, and 1/1st Punjab was redesignated as 1 Punjab. During the 1965 Indo-Pakistan War, the battalion fought in the Battle of Chawinda, while in the 1971 war, it served in the

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern s ...

Sector.Rizvi, Brig SHA. (1984). ''Veteran Campaigners – A History of the Punjab Regiment 1759–1981''. Lahore: Wajidalis.

Lineage

*1759: 3rd Battalion of Coast Sepoys *1769: 2nd Carnatic Battalion *1784: 2nd Madras Battalion *1796: 1st Battalion 2nd Regiment of Madras Native Infantry *1824: 2nd Regiment of Madras Native Infantry *1885: 2nd Regiment of Madras Infantry *1901: 2nd Madras Infantry *1903: 62nd Punjabis *1922: 1st Battalion 1st Punjab Regiment *1956: 1st Battalion The Punjab Regiment

History

Early history

62nd Punjabis

Subsequent history

Lineage

See also

References

Further reading