Pakistan Army Armoured Corps

Pakistan Army Armoured Corps (Urdu: ﺁرمى ﺁرمرڈ كور) is a combatant branch of the Pakistan Army, tasked with armoured warfare. Equipped with more than 3,000 Main Battle Tanks, the corps is based at the old garrison town of Nowshera and is organized into two armoured divisions and a number of independent armoured brigades. The Pakistan Armoured Corps has a proud history going back to September 1773, when its oldest unit Governor General's Bodyguard was raised in British India. The corps maintains a number of legendary units on its order of battle, who earned fame in numerous wars and engagements of British Indian Army including the two World Wars. At the time of the independence, Pakistan inherited six armoured regiments from the old British Indian Army.[1]

Pakistan Army Armoured Corps
Cap Badge of the Armoured Corps
Active	1947-Present
Country	Pakistan
Branch	Army
Size	52 regiments incl. President's Bodyguard
Regimental Centre	Nowshera
Nickname(s)	Men of Steel
Colors	Red and Yellow
Engagements	Indo-Pakistani War of 1947 Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 Battle of Chawinda Operation Desert Storm
Commanders
Colonel Commandant	Lieutenant General Nadeem Zaki Manj
Notable commanders	Gen Zia-ul-Haq Gen Jehangir Karamat Gen Ahsan Saleem Hayat Lt. Gen Gul Hassan Khan (C-in-C) Lt. Gen Hameed Gul (DG ISI) Lt. Gen Mian Muhammad Afzaal (Shaheed) (CGS)

Since then, the corps has expanded into more than forty regiments. Many of these new regiments have also earned accolades for their performance in the wars fought with India. Seeing large scale action during the 1965 war with India, initially suffering massive reverses during the initial tank battles of Asal Uttar, Burki and Phillora. In all these battles, despite having qualitatively superior tanks in the form of modern Patton tanks supplied by the United States of America, the Pakistani Armoured Corps suffered highly disproportionate losses, losing 140+ tanks against 10 of India's at Asal Uttar, and often credited as the largest tank battle in the post World War two era, it lost 66 tanks against the loss of 6 Indian Tanks, and similarly, 84 against India's 4 at Burki, all the battles effectively opening up the way for the Indian counteroffensive at Lahore. After these battles the Pakistani Armoured Corps distinguished itself at Chawinda, another extraordinarily large tank battle, while not inflicting a decisive defeat, it was able to bring to a Halt to the Indian offensive, before the onset of the peace negotiation. Notable at the battle of Chawinda, the 25th cavalry was able to effectively blunt the Indian offensive at the Sialkot sector and ultimately halted any further advances of the Enemy. Ahmed, Lt Gen Mahmud. (2006). History of Indo-Pak War – 1965.

Among the many downsides of the war of Pakistan in 1965, was that the tank strength had been severely depleted by the time the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War began, seeing minimal action in the Eastern theatre, with one notable action being that at the Garibpur, where the Pakistan Armoured Corps lost 11 M24 Chaffees (8 destroyed and 3 captured) to superior Indian PT-76s of the Indian 45 Cavalry, who suffered no losses, but the Pakistani forces were able to inflict significant losses to the Mitro Bahini Infantry units in the battle. Similar to the 1965 war, massive armoured thrusts were attempted in the Western theatre, leading to several battles. These include the Battle of Basantar, where the Indians launched a spoiling attack against the assembling Pakistani forces, Pakistan lost 46 tanks to the loss of only 10 on the side of India. A humiliating defeat was at Longewala, where a Pakistani Mobile Brigade, which included an entire Armoured Regiment was held off by a single Indian infantry company, aided by only an RCL gun, and the Infantry possessing some PIATs. With the defensive action of the A Company, 23rd Battalion, Punjab Regiment. inflicting several casualties at minimal losses during the nighttime, and on dawn, the Indian Air Force was able to jump in Action (the Indian Hawkers lacked nighttime combat abilities), and were able to effectively wipe out the Armoured Regiment, and repulse the Paksitani Assault. Another notable action was at the Battle of Chamb, where the Pakistani forces were able to win a victory, inflicting disproportionate losses to the Indian Armour and Infantry.

The Pakistani Armoured Corps has seen no action in the conflicts thereafter, owing to the terrain induced limitation. However, it has played a crucial part in terms of deterrence when the Pakistani Army has mobilised repeatedly in the face of various Indian build-ups on the Border. These include Operation Brasstacks - A large scale Military Exercise by the Indians, the largest in the world in terms of numbers and scale. And during Operation Parakram - an Indian military build-up in the aftermath of 2001 terrorist attacks on the Indian Parliament.