{"id":29236111,"date":"2026-10-23T10:50:44","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T08:50:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/battle-of-longewala-1971-iaf-hunters-tanks-jaisalmer\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T10:51:54","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T08:51:54","slug":"battle-of-longewala-1971-iaf-hunters-tanks-jaisalmer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/battle-of-longewala-1971-iaf-hunters-tanks-jaisalmer\/","title":{"rendered":"Battle of Longewala 1971: Hawker Hunters Against a Tank Column"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style>\n\n\n\n<!-- mfsh:top -->\n\n<style>\n.mfsh-trigger{display:inline-flex;align-items:center;gap:10px;height:44px;padding:0 18px;margin:0 0 26px;border:2px solid 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Coming towards them was a Pakistani armoured column: dozens of tanks, infantry in trucks, an entire brigade aiming for Jaisalmer. The post at Longewala had no tanks of its own and no way to stop them.<\/p><p>The men stayed anyway. At first light, the <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/air-forces\/indian-air-force\/\">Indian Air Force<\/a> arrived, and what followed became one of the most lopsided air-versus-armour actions of the jet age. Indian pilots later called it a turkey shoot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"background:#f4f6f9;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:18px 22px;margin:28px 0\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 10px;font-weight:700;color:#0d1117;font-size:17px\">Quick Facts<\/p><p style=\"margin:5px 0;font-size:15px;color:#333\"><strong>Battle:<\/strong> Battle of Longewala, India-Pakistan war of 1971<\/p><p style=\"margin:5px 0;font-size:15px;color:#333\"><strong>Dates:<\/strong> 4-7 December 1971 (main fighting 5-6 December)<\/p><p style=\"margin:5px 0;font-size:15px;color:#333\"><strong>Place:<\/strong> Longewala post, Thar Desert, Rajasthan, near Jaisalmer<\/p><p style=\"margin:5px 0;font-size:15px;color:#333\"><strong>Defenders:<\/strong> A Company, 23rd Battalion, Punjab Regiment, about 120 men, under Maj. Kuldip Singh Chandpuri<\/p><p style=\"margin:5px 0;font-size:15px;color:#333\"><strong>Attackers:<\/strong> Elements of Pakistan&rsquo;s 18th Infantry Division with T-59 and Sherman tanks<\/p><p style=\"margin:5px 0;font-size:15px;color:#333\"><strong>Air power:<\/strong> Indian Air Force Hawker Hunters from Jaisalmer; HAL Marut fighter-bombers also took part<\/p><p style=\"margin:5px 0;font-size:15px;color:#333\"><strong>Pakistani losses:<\/strong> Around 36-37 tanks destroyed or abandoned, according to most accounts<\/p><p style=\"margin:5px 0;font-size:15px;color:#333\"><strong>Indian losses:<\/strong> Two soldiers killed, according to Wikipedia<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">A company, a night and a promise<\/h2>\n\n\n<p>The post was held by A Company of the 23rd Battalion, Punjab Regiment, with a few Border Security Force men and a camel detachment, under Maj. Kuldip Singh Chandpuri. Facing them were elements of Pakistan&rsquo;s 18th Infantry Division, with T-59 tanks of the 22nd Cavalry and Shermans of the 38th Cavalry. Pakistani troops crossed the border at about 1 a.m. and their tanks were in sight of the post by around 4.30.<\/p><p>Chandpuri chose to stay, telling his men that he had a written task and would carry it out until he received written orders to the contrary, and that anyone who wished to leave could do so. Through the night, his company and its recoilless rifles held off the column, helped by a Pakistani night attack that was slowed by darkness and soft sand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0 8px\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Y2rh8Qn-iwE\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div><p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin:0 0 24px;font-style:italic\">Hunters at Dawn: the air battle of Longewala, part one (Shiv Aroor).<\/p>\n\n\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Hunters at dawn<\/h2>\n\n\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/hawker-hunter\/\">Hawker Hunter<\/a> was not built to fly at night, so the defenders had to last until sunrise. At Jaisalmer, the base commander was Wing Commander M.S. &ldquo;Mini&rdquo; Bawa. The first pair of Hunters, armed with Matra T-10 rockets and 30 mm ADEN cannon, was airborne at first light, and by about 7 a.m. they were over Longewala.<\/p><p>What they found was a pilot&rsquo;s dream and a tank commander&rsquo;s nightmare: armour bunched together in open desert, with no Pakistani fighters overhead. The Pakistan Air Force was committed elsewhere and gave the column no cover. An Army air observation officer, Maj. Atma Singh, circled in a slow HAL Krishak, directing the jets onto targets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><div><em>&ldquo;They came when they were needed the most.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Maj. Kuldip Singh Chandpuri<\/strong> &mdash; commander at Longewala, on the arrival of the Hunters<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The Hunters flew wave after wave of sorties through the day, returning to Jaisalmer only to rearm and refuel. A full tank assault in the afternoon was broken the same way. By nightfall the desert around the post was littered with burning armour and abandoned vehicles, and the Pakistani column was pulling back. That night Indian troops pushed forward and took Manitwala post, about 10 km inside Pakistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/10\/battle-of-longewala-1971-iaf-hunters-tanks-jaisalmer-img1.jpg\" alt=\"Wreck of a Pakistani army truck preserved in the sand at Longewala\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">A wrecked Pakistani army truck, left where it was destroyed, is still on display at Longewala. (Photo: Sartaj2020 \/ CC BY-SA 4.0)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Who won Longewala?<\/h2>\n\n\n<p>The scale of the result is not seriously disputed: around 36 or 37 Pakistani tanks destroyed or abandoned, roughly 100 or more other vehicles lost and hundreds of men killed, against two Indian soldiers killed, according to the figures collected on Wikipedia and in The Tribune. The question that has divided veterans ever since is how much credit belongs to the men on the ground and how much to the men in the air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><div><em>&ldquo;The Pakistani thrust was blunted by air action alone.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>M.S. Bawa<\/strong> &mdash; then Jaisalmer air base commander, later Air Marshal, as quoted by The Tribune<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The 1997 Bollywood film Border, with Sunny Deol as Chandpuri, made the ground battle famous and gave the air force a small role, which many airmen resented. A 2008 dispute over credit even led Chandpuri to sue for a token one rupee. A book by Air Marshal Bharat Kumar, The Epic Battle of Longewala, argues that the Hunters decided the outcome; Army accounts stress that the company&rsquo;s stand bought the time for them to do it. Both sides, in fairness, needed the other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0 8px\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DaYpFPM1FvY\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div><p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin:0 0 24px;font-style:italic\">Air Marshal (retd.) M.S. Bawa on the air battle of Longewala and the film Border (Unsung India Foundation).<\/p>\n\n\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Longewala today<\/h2>\n\n\n<p>Chandpuri received the Maha Vir Chakra, India&rsquo;s second-highest wartime gallantry award, and later rose to brigadier. He died in Chandigarh in November 2018. In Pakistan, the Hamoodur Rahman Commission later recommended that the divisional commander be tried for negligence.<\/p><p>The post itself is now a war memorial and museum, with captured tanks and wrecked vehicles still sitting in the sand where they stopped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/10\/battle-of-longewala-1971-iaf-hunters-tanks-jaisalmer-img2.jpg\" alt=\"Longewala war memorial with a soldier statue in the Thar Desert\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">The war memorial at Longewala, Rajasthan. (Photo: Lakshmikanta Manna \/ CC0)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0 8px\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GNM7-40fJB4\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div><p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin:0 0 24px;font-style:italic\">The Battle of Longewala, 1971, animated (Prudentia Tech).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Sources: Wikipedia (Battle of Longewala), The Tribune (Brig I.S. Gakhal, 2021), Indpaedia (Times of India reports, incl. Air Marshal Bharat Kumar, The Epic Battle of Longewala), Hamoodur Rahman Commission<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<!-- mfsh:bottom -->\n\n<button type=\"button\" class=\"mfsh-trigger mfsh-bottom\" data-mfsh-placement=\"bottom\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\"><svg><use href=\"#mfsh-i-share\"\/><\/svg>Share this story<\/button>\n\n<!-- \/mfsh:bottom -->\n\n\n\n<style>.mfq{margin:34px 0 8px}.mfq h2{font:26px\/1.3 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117;padding-top:22px;margin:0 0 6px}.mfq .qa details{border-top:1px solid #5C91FF;margin:0;padding:0}.mfq .qa details:last-of-type{border-bottom:1px solid #e2e7ee}.mfq .qa summary{cursor:pointer;list-style:none;display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center;gap:16px;padding:22px 26px;font:18px\/1.7 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117}.mfq .qa summary::-webkit-details-marker{display:none}.mfq .qa summary::after{content:\"+\";font:24px Helvetica,sans-serif;color:#3568e0;flex:0 0 auto}.mfq .qa details[open] summary::after{content:\"\\2013\"}.mfq .qa details:hover summary{color:#3568e0}.mfq .qa .a{font:16px\/1.7 \"Gilroy regular\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#454e5e;padding:0 26px 24px}.mfq .qa .a a{color:#3568e0}@media(max-width:680px){.mfq .qa summary{padding:18px 14px;font-size:17px}.mfq .qa .a{padding:0 14px 20px}}<\/style>\n\n\n<section class=\"mfq\"><h2>Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2><div class=\"qa\"><details open><summary>What was the Battle of Longewala?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The Battle of Longewala was fought on 4-7 December 1971 at a border post in the Thar Desert of Rajasthan during the India-Pakistan war. About 120 soldiers of the 23rd Punjab Regiment held the post overnight against a Pakistani armoured column until Indian Air Force Hawker Hunters attacked the tanks at dawn.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>How many tanks were destroyed at Longewala?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Most accounts put Pakistani tank losses at around 36 or 37 destroyed or abandoned, along with roughly 100 or more other vehicles. Wikipedia breaks this down as 22 by aircraft, 12 by ground anti-tank fire and 2 captured, though figures vary between sources.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Which aircraft fought at Longewala?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Indian Air Force Hawker Hunters operating from Jaisalmer did most of the air attacks, using Matra T-10 rockets and 30 mm ADEN cannon. HAL Marut fighter-bombers also took part, and an Army HAL Krishak observation aircraft directed the strikes.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Who commanded the Indian post at Longewala?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Major Kuldip Singh Chandpuri commanded A Company, 23rd Battalion, Punjab Regiment, at Longewala. He was awarded the Maha Vir Chakra, later rose to brigadier, and died in Chandigarh in November 2018.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Why did the Pakistan Air Force not protect the tanks at Longewala?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The Pakistan Air Force was committed elsewhere and gave the armoured column no air cover. That left the tanks exposed in open desert to Indian Hunters flying repeated sorties from nearby Jaisalmer.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Is the film Border accurate about Longewala?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The 1997 film Border dramatised the ground battle but gave the Indian Air Force a small role. Air Force veterans such as Air Marshal M.S. Bawa have argued that air action decided the battle, while Army accounts stress the company\u2019s stand that held the post until the aircraft arrived.<\/div><\/details><\/div><\/section>\n\n\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"FAQPage\",\"mainEntity\":[{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"What was the Battle of Longewala?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"The Battle of Longewala was fought on 4-7 December 1971 at a border post in the Thar Desert of Rajasthan during the India-Pakistan war. 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That left the tanks exposed in open desert to Indian Hunters flying repeated sorties from nearby Jaisalmer.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Is the film Border accurate about Longewala?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"The 1997 film Border dramatised the ground battle but gave the Indian Air Force a small role. Air Force veterans such as Air Marshal M.S. Bawa have argued that air action decided the battle, while Army accounts stress the company\u2019s stand that held the post until the aircraft arrived.\"}}]}<\/script><div style=\"background:#f0f4ff;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:16px 20px;margin:32px 0 8px\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600;color:#333\">Related Posts<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/folland-gnat-tiny-sabre-slayer\/\">Folland Gnat: The Tiny Sabre Slayer<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/hawker-hunter-most-beautiful-jet\/\">The Hawker Hunter: Britain\u2019s Most Beautiful Jet<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/kargil-1999-operation-safed-sagar-mirage-2000-high-altitude-air-war\/\">The Air War Fought at 18,000 Feet<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/golden-arrows-75-years-no-17-squadron-iaf-mig-21-rafale-ambala\/\">Golden Arrows at 75: No. 17 Squadron, From MiG-21 to Rafale<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Share this story Just after midnight on 5 December 1971, a company of about 120 Indian soldiers at a lonely border post in the Thar Desert heard engines in the dark. Coming towards them was a Pakistani armoured column: dozens of tanks, infantry in trucks, an entire brigade aiming for Jaisalmer. The post at Longewala [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":29236088,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[666,664],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29236111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history-and-legends","category-military-aviation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Battle of Longewala 1971: Hunters vs Tanks | MiGFlug<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Battle of Longewala, 1971: 120 Indian soldiers held a desert post overnight until IAF Hawker Hunters from Jaisalmer smashed a Pakistani tank column.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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