The IV Corps, or the Gajraj Corps, is a military field formation of the

Indian Army The Indian Army is the Land warfare, land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Commander-in-Chief, Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Arm ...

, covering the states of

Assam Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...

and western

Arunachal Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh (, ) is a state in Northeastern India. It was formed from the erstwhile North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and became a state on 20 February 1987. It borders the states of Assam and Nagaland to the south. It shares ...

History

IV Corps under Lieutenant General NMS Irwin was deployed from the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

in January 1942 for the defense of

from the advancing Japanese during

World War II 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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. Following the end of the war, the corps was demobilised in November 1945. The corps was re-raised by Lieutenant General

Brij Mohan Kaul Brij Mohan Kaul (1912-1972) was a Lieutenant General in the Indian Army. He served as the Chief of General Staff during 1961–1962 and was regarded as a key architect of Indian military response to the Chinese challenge. In October 1962, h ...

at Tezpur, Assam on 4 October 1962, close to the Sino-Indian War. Over the years, it has played a role in both conventional and counter-insurgency operations in the eastern theatre, especially during the 1971 war in Bangladesh. During the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, the Gajraj Corps made the famous advance to

Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; bn, ঢাকা, Ḍhākā, ), List of renamed places in Bangladesh, formerly known as Dacca, is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Bangladesh, largest city of Bangladesh, as well as the world's largest ...

during the liberation of Bangladesh and also participated in the Meghna Heli Bridge Operations. Lieutenant General Sagat Singh, PVSM had innovatively employed Mi-4 helicopters to cross Meghna River, which was considered impassable and his Corps relentlessly attacked and defeated the Pakistani forces. The innovative use of helicopters has remained unparalleled. The Corps had proved its mettle and very proficiently carried out its task in the most complex sector in terms of distances from the logistic bases. The corps has been active in counter-insurgency roles as part of Operation Bajrang (from November 1990), Operation Rhino I (from September 1991) and Operation Rhino II (from April 1992).

Composition

It currently consists of: * 71 Mountain Division, headquartered at Missamari. * 5th Mountain Division (Ball of Fire Division), headquartered at Rupa near

Bomdila Bomdila is the headquarters of West Kameng district in the state of Arunachal Pradesh in India. Bomdila is one of the 60 constituencies of the state of Arunachal Pradesh. Geography and Climate Bomdila is located at . It has an average elevati ...

. The division was converted to a mountain division in 1963. It is posted to the west of 2 Mountain Division in

. * 21st Mountain Division (Red Horn Division), headquartered at Rangia. It includes 77 Mountain Brigade.http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-34700130_ITM

List of General Officers Commanding

For the list of GOCs between 1942 and 1945 - List of GOCs 1942-45

Notes

References

*John H. Gill, An Atlas of the 1971 India - Pakistan War: The Creation of Bangladesh, Near East South Asia Centre for Strategic Studies ( National Defense University), via scribd.com

External links

*Globalsecurity.org
Eastern Command
accessed July 2010 {{DEFAULTSORT:04 Corps Tezpur 004 Corps of India in World War II Corps of British India Military units and formations established in 1961 1961 establishments in India

History

Composition

List of General Officers Commanding

Notes

Notes

See also

References

External links