The Dogra Regiment

Two VCs at Orah

On 21 January 1916, near the Orah ruins on the Tigris in Mesopotamia, the 37th and 41st Dogras assaulted Turkish entrenchments. Two men serving with them won the Victoria Cross on the same day.

Lance Naik Lala of the 41st found a British officer of another regiment lying close to the enemy and dragged him into a shelter he had built, where he had already bandaged four wounded men. He then heard that his own adjutant lay in the open, no more than a hundred yards from the Turks. Lala offered to carry him back at once and was not allowed to. He stayed with him instead, stripping off his own clothing to keep the wounded officer warm, and after dark carried the first officer to the main trenches and returned with a stretcher for the adjutant. Lala's award was gazetted on 13 May 1916. He later served in the 17th Dogra Regiment, reached the rank of Jemadar and died on 23 March 1927.

Captain John Alexander Sinton of the Indian Medical Service, listed with the 37th Dogras, attended the wounded under heavy fire and was shot through both arms and the side. He refused to go to hospital. He went on to a career in malaria research, directing India's malaria survey at Kasauli from 1925. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1946 and is the only Fellow to have held the Victoria Cross.

The Agra Levy, 1858

The regiment's older line goes back to the Agra Levy of 1858, a Bengal Army unit that later became the 38th Dogras. The 37th Dogras were raised in 1887 and the 41st in 1900. In 1922 the three were amalgamated as the 17th Dogra Regiment, with the 37th as the 1st Battalion, the 38th as the 2nd, and the two battalions of the 41st as the 3rd and the 10th (Training). The numeral was dropped in 1945.

The training battalion was named the Dogra Regimental Centre in 1943. The centre was established at Meerut in 1952 and moved to Faizabad Cantonment in June 1976. Class composition is laid down: half from Himachal Pradesh, a quarter from Jammu and Kashmir, and the balance from specified districts of Punjab.

Zoji La, February 1948

With raiders besieging Skardu and Leh the likely next objective, Major Thakur Prithi Chand of the 2nd Battalion, a Lahauli, volunteered to take a party over the Zoji La in mid-winter. They started up on 16 February 1948 in snow over twenty feet deep, without special winter equipment, carrying rifles and ammunition. His citation gives the party as 18 volunteers; other accounts give about 40. They reached Leh on 8 March. His cousin Major Kushal Chand and Subedar Bhim Chand, both of 2 Dogra, went with him.

At Leh he took command of two platoons of the Jammu and Kashmir State Forces and raised and trained a militia of about 200. By May the enemy had overrun most of Baltistan and Kargil and were moving up the Indus and Nubra valleys. He answered with raids and ambushes, over a very long front, on scant ammunition and a diet largely of sattu. Prithi Chand and Kushal Chand received the Maha Vir Chakra. Bhim Chand received the Vir Chakra and Bar.

Chand Tekri and Dera Baba Nanak

The 3rd Battalion captured Point 7702 on 6 September 1965 and received the battle honour Chand Tekri. On 2 November that year the 2nd Battalion attacked at OP Hill.

In December 1971 the bridge over the Ravi at Dera Baba Nanak was the objective of the 10th Battalion. Lieutenant Colonel Narinder Singh Sandhu led about 420 men against the position at the eastern end of the bridge at 1730 on 5 December. The assault began on 21 tanks, which bogged down in marsh along the river, and the men covered the last five kilometres on foot, charging from about fifteen metres. Sandhu went from bunker to bunker, was wounded in the leg, and reorganised the position once it had fallen. The battalion had 5 killed and 10 wounded, against 22 Pakistani dead and 14 captured. Sandhu received the Maha Vir Chakra, announced on Independence Day 1972.

Sandeep Shankla of 18 Dogra was killed on 8 August 1991 in a counter-terrorist operation at Jafarkhani village in Kupwara. He was awarded the Ashok Chakra posthumously.

At a glance

• Regimental centre: Faizabad Cantonment, Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh (since June 1976)
• Motto: Kartavyam Anvatma (Duty before death)
• War cry: Jwala Mata ki Jai