Jun 27 2008
India’s first field Marshal Manekshaw dead!
The 1971 Indo-Pak war hero and Former Army Chief Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw passed away on Friday at Military Hospital in Wellington in Tamil Nadu. He died around 00:30 am in midnight hours after getting slipped in coma early on the day. He was admitted to hospital some time ago for progressive lung disease, the Defense Ministry said on Friday. He was 94.
Manekshaw, the Padma Vibhushan and Military Cross awardee had led India to victory in Indo-Pak war in 1971. He retired as the Army chief in 1973. Manekshaw was conferred the honorary rank of Field Marshal for his stellar leadership during the Bangladesh campaign that saw the surrender of more than 90,000 Pakistani troops on December 16, 1971 in Dacca, then the capital of East Pakistan and which has now been renamed Dhaka.
He had developed “acute broncho pneumonia” with associated complications and his condition had been serious for the past four days.
President Pratibha Patil condoled the death of India’s first Field Marshal Sam Hormusji Framji Jamshedji Manekshaw along with Defense Minister A K Antony who said, “In his demise, the nation has lost a great soldier, a true patriot and a noble son.”
He was born in Amritsar on April 13, 1914. Manekshaw was commissioned into the Army from the first course of the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun, in 1934. He saw action in Burma, now Myanmar, during the Second World War and became the Indian Army chief on June 7, 1969.
Manekshaw assumed charge of the Indian Army, as the 8th Chief of Army Staff, on June 07, 1969. Born in Amritsar, Punjab in April 1914, he completed his schooling in Amritsar and Sherwood College, Nainital. He then joined the first batch of 40 cadets at Indian Military Academy (IMA), Dehra Dun on 01 October 1932. He passed out of the IMA in December 1934 and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Indian Army. He held several regimental assignments and was first attached to the Royal Scouts and later to the 12 Frontier Force Rifles.
For his selfless service to the nation, he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 1972. He was conferred with the honorary rank of Field Marshal in January 1973.
