Major Sonam Wangchuk of the Ladakh Scouts is not just one of the great warriors who wrested a key victory for the army from the enemy during the Kargil war, he is also a survivor. The Maha Vir Chakra winner accomplished a daring and dangerous mission but also managed to came back to his family as he had promised. Those who have met him would have felt that the soft spoken Buddhist from Khakshal in Leh (Ladakh) is an unlikely warrior but his bravery on the battlefield and the astute war strategy that went into his accomplishments during the Kargil War belie this.
Major Sonam Wangchuk and the Operation at Chorbat La
As a young second lieutenant, Sonam Wangchuk was commissioned to the 4th Battalion, Assam Regiment and later also served as part of the IPKF in Sri Lanka. He was later deputed to the Ladakh Scouts, Indus Wing. With his natural acclimatization to the region, local knowledge and experience in Siachen he was the obvious choice when it came to an operation involving the 18,000 feet high mountain ridge falls in the Chorbat La sub-sector of the Batalik sector. He and his 30 men were tasked with this important mission during the Kargil war which helped give the Indian army the foothold it sorely needed at the time.
According to his colleagues, the mission was a weeklong operation where Wangchuk and his men were completely cut off from the rest of the world save a tenuous wireless connection. Living off survival rations in incredibly harsh terrain and constantly subzero temperatures, the team managed occupy Ridge Line on the Line of Control in the glaciated area and thereby shut a crucial infiltration point denying the enemy any further access. During the mission, the company was ambushed by the enemy but retaliated with a counter ambush and managed to continue while losing one of their soldiers to enemy fire. Three bodies of the enemy and ammunition were recovered by Wangchuk and his men after the successful completion of the mission on 31st May 1999.
Major Sonam Wangchuk – Maha Vir Chakra
He had promised his young son that he would return for his birthday on June 11th 1999. Though he couldn’t attend the birthday he did return just a few days after as he had promised. A Ladakhi and Buddhist follower of the Dalai Lama, the Major, now Colonel recalls praying to the Dalai Lama during the more desperate moments of the operation and how he considers it god’s blessing that a mist came up to obscure the enemy’s visibility and give him and his men the chance they were looking for.
Author – Reena Daruwalla
This article is a part of a series on the brave hearts of the Kargil War – these are heroes India has either forgotten about or has never heard of. This series is our tribute to our country’s men and women in uniform ahead of Kargil Divas (26 July)
