सैम मानेकशॉ Sam Manekshaw
Sam Manekshaw was born in Amritsar in 1914 to Parsi parents. He joined the first batch of the Indian Military Academy in 1932 and won the Military Cross in Burma in 1942. He became Chief of the Army Staff in 1969 and led the army through the 1971 war that created Bangladesh. He was made Field Marshal on 1 January 1973 and died in Wellington in 2008.
Curated by Nikhil Sharma: a cadet from the first batch of the Indian Military Academy who survived machine-gun wounds in Burma. He told a Prime Minister when the army was not ready. He led India to its most complete military victory in 1971 and became the country’s first Field Marshal.
- 1932 First IMA batch: One of the Pioneers with the future chiefs of Pakistan and Burma
- 1942 Military Cross: Badly wounded leading a counter-attack in Burma
- 93,000 Prisoners in 1971: Approximate number taken after the surrender at Dhaka
- 1973 First Indian Field Marshal: Promoted with effect from 1 January 1973
The facts
- Born
- 3 April 1914 in Amritsar to Hormizd and Hilla Manekshaw. Both were Parsis from Valsad (Wikipedia: Sam Manekshaw)
- Training
- First batch of the Indian Military Academy in Dehradun. Known as the Pioneers (The Tribune (21 September 2015))
- Commission
- December 1934 into the 4th Battalion of the 12th Frontier Force Regiment (ThePrint (27 June 2019))
- Army Chief
- 8 June 1969 to 15 January 1973 (Wikipedia: Sam Manekshaw)
- Rank
- The first Indian military officer promoted to Field Marshal (Encyclopaedia Britannica: Sam Manekshaw)
- Honours
- Military Cross (1942). Padma Bhushan (1968). Padma Vibhushan (1972) (Wikipedia: Sam Manekshaw)
- Nickname
- Sam Bahadur. Given by Gorkha soldiers (Wikipedia: Sam Manekshaw)
- Family
- Married Silloo Bode on 22 April 1939. Two daughters (ThePrint (27 June 2019))
- Died
- 27 June 2008 at the Military Hospital in Wellington aged 94. Buried in the Parsi cemetery at Ooty (Wikipedia: Sam Manekshaw)
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