Formed as a Bombay Army grenadier battalion in November 1779, the regiment won three Param Vir Chakras at Asal Uttar, Jarpal and Tiger Hill.
Asal Uttar: Counting the Tanks
At 8 am on 10 September 1965, Pakistani Patton tanks attacked 4 Grenadiers between Asal Uttar and Chima, in the Khem Karan sector. By 9 am they had got through the forward company positions. Company Quartermaster Havildar Abdul Hamid commanded a recoilless gun detachment, with the gun mounted on a jeep. He took it out to a flank and began firing.
How many tanks he destroyed is a question on which sources do not agree. Eight is the figure often repeated. His citation, as published, describes him knocking out the leading tank, setting a second on fire and engaging a third when he was mortally wounded. One account credits him with three on 10 September and two more on the afternoon of 8 September. What the record does establish is that he went on firing until he was killed. The Param Vir Chakra was announced on 16 September, and his widow, Rasoolan Bibi, received it from President Radhakrishnan on Republic Day 1966. Asal Uttar became a battle honour of the regiment.
Bombay, 1779
The Bombay Army had a grenadier company as early as 1684, and the first company of Indian grenadiers was raised in 1759. A composite grenadier battalion won the battle of Talegaon in 1778. Then, on 12 November 1779, an order formed The Grenadier Battalion, First Regiment of Infantry from the grenadier companies of the 1st to 6th Sepoy Battalions and the Marine Battalion. The regiment counts that as its beginning, though older battalions in its line have their own dates.
The 4th Bombay Grenadiers came into being on 1 March 1922 and were renamed the Indian Grenadiers in October 1945. At Partition the Muslim troops of the regiment were allotted to Pakistan. In the early 1950s the 1st Battalion left to become 2nd Battalion, Brigade of the Guards. Today's class composition includes Rajputs, Kaimkhanis, Hindustani Mussalmans, Dogras, Gujjars, Ahirs, Menas, Gujaratis and Jats. The badge is a brass grenade with the White Horse of Hanover, worn with a white hackle.
Captain George Murray Rolland won the Victoria Cross at Daratoleh in Somaliland on 22 April 1903, one of four the regiment records for its British officers. Later honours include Kohima and Meiktila in Burma and, after Independence, Gurais in 1948.
Jarpal
On 15 December 1971, 3 Grenadiers was ordered to establish a bridgehead across the Basantar in the Shakargarh sector. Major Hoshiar Singh was told to take Jarpal, a fortified locality. His company went in under heavy shelling and crossfire from medium machine guns and captured it after hand-to-hand fighting.
On 16 December the enemy counterattacked three times, twice with armour, and he moved between the trenches under fire. On 17 December a Pakistani battalion attacked with heavy artillery support. Hoshiar Singh was badly wounded by shelling, and when a medium machine gun crew was hit he manned the gun himself. The enemy pulled back leaving 85 dead, including their commanding officer. His citation records that he refused evacuation until the ceasefire. He received the Param Vir Chakra and his commanding officer, Lt Col Ved Prakash Airy, the Maha Vir Chakra. Jarpal is the honour the regiment carries for the action.
Point 4590 and Tiger Hill
In 1999, 18 Grenadiers won two battle honours in the Kargil War, Tololing and Tiger Hill. On Tololing on 30 May, Major Rajesh Singh Adhikari, a Mechanised Infantry officer posted to the battalion, was killed taking a spur at about 15,000 feet and received the Maha Vir Chakra. Balwan Singh of the battalion, later a colonel, was also awarded the Maha Vir Chakra, and Lt Col Ramakrishnan Vishwanathan received the Vir Chakra posthumously.
On the night of 3/4 July, the battalion's Ghatak platoon was sent against three bunkers on Tiger Hill, above a snow-covered cliff of about 300 metres. Grenadier Yogendra Singh Yadav, aged 19, volunteered to lead and fixed ropes for those behind him. Halfway up, machine gun and rocket fire killed the platoon commander and two others. Yadav was hit in the groin and shoulder and carried on climbing the last 60 feet. At the top he crawled to the first bunker and threw a grenade, then fought hand to hand with two others. His citation says he refused to be evacuated and continued the charge.
His Param Vir Chakra, the regiment's third, was first announced as posthumous. He was in fact recovering in hospital, and the soldier killed on the mission had shared his name.
At a glance
- Raised: 12 November 1779
- Regimental centre: Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh
- Motto: Sarvada Shaktishali (Ever Powerful)