III Corps (India)

III Corps
Indian Army III Corps Formation Sign
Active	1915–1919 1941–1942 1985–present
Country	India
Branch	Indian Army
Role	Mountain (Holding) Corps
Size	Corps
Part of	Eastern Command
Garrison/HQ	Dimapur
Nickname(s)	Spear Corps
Commanders
Current commander	Lt Gen Abhijit S Pendharkar AVSM , YSM
Notable commanders	Lt Gen Johnson P Mathew Lt Gen Ram Chander Tiwari Lt Gen Rana Pratap Kalita General Anil Chauhan Lt Gen Abhay Krishna General Bipin Rawat General Dalbir Singh Suhag Lt Gen Zameer Uddin Shah General Bipin Chandra Joshi Lt Gen Raj Mohan Vohra Lt Gen Joginder Singh Bakshi

The III Corps is a formation of the Indian Army that was formed during World War I in Mesopotamia during its respective campaign. Prior to the reorganization of the British and Indian forces in Mesopotamia, it was designated as the Tigris Corps.

A new III Corps was formed by the Indian Army during World War II for service in Southeast Asia. The corps fought in the Battle of Singapore where it surrendered in February 1942. ^[1]

It is headquartered in the state of Nagaland of India in the city of Dimapur, at Rangapahar Military Station.

History

3 Corps was raised during World War I by Lt Gen Ahlmer and soon thereafter, the command was changed to Lt Gen Frederick Stanley Maud, who was appointed as the Corps Commander on 09 Dec 1915. 3 Corps was allotted the 6th (Poona) Division and 12th Indian Division along with a Cavalry Brigade and tasked with the defence of the Tigris Line.  The Corps thereby earned the sobriquet of "The Tigris Corps". 3 Corps played a major role in the Mesopotamian front, which was a campaign in the middle eastern theatre of World War I, fought between the Allies represented by the British Empire, troops from Britain, Australia and vast majority of British Raj, against the central powers, mostly the Ottoman Empire. The Theatre was vast and consisted of hot, inhospitable desert terrain.  Tank warfare had still not achieved its primacy and deserts remained primarily a no man’s land. The fight was concentrated along the course of Tigris and the Euphrates rivers where Ottomans had a head start. The British had realised that they needed to secure and control the delta of Tigris at Shatt-El-Arab and Basra to deny the Ottomans access to Abadan Refinery and the oil rich delta. It also provided the British with a bridgehead for the induction of troops through the sea route and to maintain their forces logistically during future operations in the north. Keeping this as the broad objective, the British dispatched the 6th Indian Division as the Indian Expeditionary Force to Basra in 1915.

The Corps was later split into two separate formations, namely 1 and 3 Corps.  I Corps moved northwards towards Mosul, while 3 Corps led a renewed offensive towards Baghdad, which finally fell to 3 Corps in 1916. The composition of 3 Corps was largely Indian troops and the credit for the swift capture of Baghdad was attributed to them. The Allied forces controlled a major part of Mesopotamia because of the fall of Baghdad, and most importantly, had direct access to the sea and the oldest refinery of Asia at Abadan.  In view of the strategic objective of bringing Mesopotamia under British control and liberation of Kuwait from Ottoman control being achieved, an armistice was signed between the British and the Ottoman Empire.

The military phase of the operations in the Middle East was over, paving the way for political and diplomatic overtures.  3 Corps which had played a great role in achievement perhaps did not get its due compared to similar forces fighting in the European Theatre. The Corps was finally demobilized in 1919, only to be resurrected in 1941 during World War II.

World War II

HQ 3 Corps was raised on 27 Apr 1941 with headquarters at Kuala Lumpur.  Lt Gen Percy Heath was placed in Command of the Corps.  It had two Divisions, namely the 9th and 11th Indian Divisions under command.

11th Indian Division which was tasked to defend Kuala Lumpur and withdraw towards Thailand was outflanked by the Japanese. The Division fought major battles at Jitra from 08-12 Dec 1941, Kampar from 30 Dec 1941 to 02 Jan 1942, Slim River from 06 Jan to 08 Jan 1942, Gemas and Muar River from 14 Jan to 02 Jan 1942 and gave a good account of themselves, despite debilitating logistic shortcoming and virtually no air support. 9th and 11th Indian Division suffered significant casualties without any significant reinforcements.

During the Malayan campaign, 3 Corps had borne the brunt of War, and men suffered from inclement weather and tropical diseases apart from enemy action.  Jungle terrain coupled with intolerable tropical weather and humidity made the conditions insuperable. Fighting here required the very best of human endurance, both mental and physical.  3 Corps had fought most of its battles in these virtually inhuman conditions, but there was little coverage of the same. While the trenches of Ypres, Somme, Alsace and Lorraine and those who fought in them were widely covered, the contributions of the anonymous Indians who died in Malaya remain un-recounted. 3 Corps virtually ceased to exist post Feb 1942.

Post-independence

After the independence of India, a new III Corps was raised by the Indian Army on 4 February 1985 and is spread over the North Eastern States of Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura and Meghalaya. At the time of its formation, it consisted of 8 and 57 Mountain Divisions, under its command, in addition to troops of Assam Rifles. The 8 Mountain Division was moved out to Kashmir in 1990. ^[2]

The corps is currently based at Dimapur in north east India, and consists of three divisions being responsible for eastern Arunachal Pradesh and the Myanmar border. It is tasked for use in any future Indian war against China.

Structure

Jane's estimates that it consists of: ^[3]

• 2 Mountain Division (Dao Division) - The division joined III Corps in late 2000s and is headquartered at Dinjan, Dibrugarh district, Assam. ^{[4] [5]}
  • 5 Mountain Brigade at Aalo (Along) ^[6] - the oldest infantry brigade in the Indian Army. ^[7]
  • 82 Mountain Brigade at Tezu in Lohit district ^[8]
  • 181 Mountain Brigade at Laipuli, Tinsukia ^[9]
  • 2 Mountain Artillery Brigade at Dinjan
• 56 Infantry Division - was raised at Zakhama, Nagaland and presently located at Likabali, North of the Brahmaputra, ^{[10] [11]} Responsible for guarding of northern borders, internal security situation and disaster management in selected districts of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam.
• 57 Mountain Division (Red Shield Division) - headquartered at Leimakhong. ^[12] Raised in 1966 for counterinsurgency operations in Mizoram. Until 1990, headquartered at Aizawl with III Corps. ^[13] Globalsecurity.org reports the 57 Mountain Division headquarters are at Masimpur near Silchar. ^[14] The formation and units of 57 Mountain Division are deployed in some of the remotest corner of Manipur and Indo-Burmese border. ^[15] 57th Mountain Division took part in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 as part of IV Corps. It also successfully conducted Operation Golden Bird in 1995 to eliminate rebels in Northeast India. ^[16]

Commanders

Rank	Name	Appointment Date	Left Office	Unit of Commission	References
Lieutenant General	Joginder Singh Bakshi	5 March 1985	30 March 1986	Jat Regiment	[17]
	Raj Mohan Vohra	31 March 1986	20 September 1987	4th Horse (Hodson's Horse)	[17]
	Vijay Madan	21 September 1987	6 May 1989	4th Gorkha Rifles	[17]
	Bipin Chandra Joshi	7 May 1989	17 May 1990	2nd Lancers (Gardner's Horse)	[17]
	B S Nalwa	18 May 1990	13 May 1991	Regiment of Artillery	[17]
	H K Kapoor	14 May 1991	15 December 1992	Corps of Engineers	[17]
	N S Malik	16 December 1992	29 October 1994	4th Horse (Hodson's Horse)	[17]
	Krishna Mohan Seth	30 October 1994	22 October 1995	Regiment of Artillery	[17]
	S S Grewal	23 October 1995	9 September 1997	Jammu and Kashmir Rifles	[18]
	Rustom Kaikhusro Nanavatty	10 September 1997	19 June 2000	8th Gorkha Rifles	[19]
	T S Shergill	20 June 2000	4 October 2001	9th Deccan Horse	[20]
	V K Jetley	5 October 2001	2 January 2003	Dogra Regiment	[17] [21]
	Rajinder Singh	3 January 2003	31 December 2003	Regiment of Artillery	[17] [22]
	Daljeet Singh	1 January 2004	22 September 2005	8th Light Cavalry	[23]
	Zameer Uddin Shah	September 2005	September 2006	Regiment of Artillery	[24]
	Manbir Singh Dadwal	September 2006	30 July 2008	Dogra Regiment	[24] [25]
	Rakesh Kumar Loomba	31 July 2008	August 2009	1st Horse (Skinner's Horse)	[26]
	Nand Kishore Singh	August 2009	March 2011	3rd Gorkha Rifles	[27]
	Dalbir Singh Suhag	March 2011	19 June 2012	5th Gorkha Rifles (Frontier Force)	[28]
	Arun Kumar Sahni	20 June 2012	August 2013	Regiment of Artillery	[29]
	Srinivasan Lakshmi Narasimhan	August 2013	31 August 2014	Madras Regiment	[30]
	Bipin Rawat	1 September 2014	22 November 2015	11th Gorkha Rifles	[31]
	Abhay Krishna	23 November 2015	31 December 2016	Rajputana Rifles	[32]
	Anil Chauhan	1 January 2017	8 January 2018	11th Gorkha Rifles	[33]
	Gopal R	9 January 2018	10 January 2019	8th Gorkha Rifles	[34]
	Rajeev Sirohi	10 January 2019	10 January 2020	The Grenadiers	[34]
	Rana Pratap Kalita	11 January 2020	10 February 2021	Kumaon Regiment	[35]
	Johnson P Mathew	10 February 2021	1 March 2022	Punjab Regiment	[36]
	Ram Chander Tewari	1 March 2022	6 March 2023	Kumaon Regiment	[37]
	Harjeet Singh Sahi	6 March 2023	10 Aug 2024	Rajput Regiment	[38]
	Abhijit S Pendharkar	10 Aug 2024	Incumbent	Assam Regiment	[39] [40]

Reference list

1. Ramakrishna
2. "3 Corps celebrates Raising Day". 2011-02-04. Retrieved 2021-07-11.
3. Jane's World Armies, Issue 19, 2006
4. Pike, John. "2 Mountain Division". www.globalsecurity.org. Retrieved 2017-05-14.
5. "Third battalion of Naga regiment be raised soon". 2009-10-16. Retrieved 2021-07-11.
6. "Army steps in to help school". 2011-12-11. Retrieved 2021-11-12.
7. Paranoia after Ulfa threat; Army steps up vigilance in upper Assam Archived 2012-10-24 at the Wayback Machine , The Telegraph, Calcutta, India, Thursday, December 20, 2007
8. "Indian Army to begin deploying light howitzers in eastern sector". 2019-10-07. Retrieved 2021-11-12.
9. "Ambush raises questions about security lapses". The Times of India . 2017-01-23. Retrieved 2021-11-12.
10. "Army's first mountain division for China in northeast kicks off !!". Chindits. 11 November 2009. Archived from the original on 13 October 2018. Retrieved 12 October 2018.
11. "Why mountain strike corps along the India-China border is important". 2013-10-07. Retrieved 2021-07-11.
12. Pike, John. "57 Mountain Division / Red Shield Division". www.globalsecurity.org. Retrieved 2017-05-14.
13. Conboy, Elite Forces of India and Pakistan, p.8
14. Globalsecurity.org, 17 July 2010
15. John Pike. "57 Mountain Division / Red Shield Division". Globalsecurity.org. Retrieved 2017-01-17.
16. Bhaumik, Subir (10 December 2009). Troubled Periphery: The Crisis of India's North East By Subir Bhaumik. ISBN   9788132104797.
17. "New #DGMO Lt Gen Anil Chauhan (R) handing over charge of all imp 3 Corps in Dimapur to Lt Gen Gopal R." 2018-01-09. Retrieved 2021-07-11.
18. "LT GENERAL SS GREWAL RETIRES". 2002-04-30. Retrieved 2021-07-11.
19. "Reviewing Internal Armed Conflict in India-Forging a Joint Civil - Military Approach" (PDF). Retrieved 2021-07-11.
20. "Army Top Brass Changed in N-E". 2000-06-11. Retrieved 2021-07-11.
21. "Lt Gen V K Jetley takes over as Master General Ordinance". 2003-01-31. Retrieved 2021-07-11.
22. "JS Verma visits Manipur". 2003-01-08. Retrieved 2021-07-11.
23. "Annual Report, 2005 – 2006" (PDF). Retrieved 2021-07-11.
24. "Lt Gen Manbir assumes charge as GOC 3 Corps". 2006-09-20. Retrieved 2021-07-11.
25. "Army Commander visits Manipur". 2008-05-15. Retrieved 2021-07-11.
26. "Lt. Gen. Loomba new Military Intelligence chief". The Hindu. 2009-08-31. ISSN   0971-751X . Retrieved 2020-11-06.
27. "Defence Minister Visits North-East". 2011-03-11. Retrieved 2021-07-11.
28. "Defence ministry seeks report on notice to Lt Gen Suhag". 2012-05-25. Retrieved 2021-07-11.
29. "GOC 3 Corps extends Vijay Diwas greetings". 2010-09-15. Retrieved 2021-07-11.
30. "Lieutenant General Lt Gen Bipin Rawat takes over command of Spear Corps". 2014-08-31. Retrieved 2021-07-11.
31. "Nagaland governor asks security forces to be careful in view of Naga accord". 2015-08-28. Retrieved 2021-07-11.
32. "Lt Gen Abhay Krishna takes over as GOC Spear Corps". 2015-11-23. Retrieved 2021-07-11.
33. "GOC 3 Corps Anil Chauhan Meets Arunachal Governor SV Shanmuganathan". 2017-01-04. Retrieved 2021-07-11.
34. "Lt. Gen Sirohi takes over as GOC 3 Corps". Nagaland Post. Archived from the original on 16 February 2020. Retrieved 23 July 2020.
35. "lt-gen-rana-pratap-kalita-appointed-as-goc-3-corps-first-assamese-to-don-corps-commanders-mantle". 2020-02-10. Archived from the original on 2020-02-13. Retrieved 2020-02-14.
36. Mathew, JP. "JP Mathew Spear Corps Commander". Archived from the original on 2021-06-12. Retrieved 2021-02-10.
37. "Lt Gen RC Tiwari takes over as General Officer Commanding of Spear Corps". 2022-03-03. Retrieved 2022-03-03.
38. "Lt Gen Sahi next GOC of 3 Corps | Nagaland Post" . Retrieved 6 March 2023.
39. "Lt Gen Abhijit S Pendharkar took over command of the Spear corps from Lt Gen HS Sahi". X (formerly twitter). 2024-08-10.
40. "Lt Gen Pendharkar takes charge as GOC 3 Corps". nagalandpost.com. Retrieved 2024-08-12.

External links

• Australian War Memorial: Remembering 1942 The fall of Singapore, 15 February 1942 Archived 20 August 2008 at the Wayback Machine
• III Indian Corps History & Personnel Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine
• http://www.orbat.com Archived 2018-11-16 at the Wayback Machine (History; Niehorster)