Once upon a time, Pangong Lake Galwan was still a very distant place, but now everyone can say that it is very familiar, and it is inseparable from a series of border conflicts between China and India that occurred four years ago. On the occasion of the 4th anniversary of the Pangong Lake conflict, on May 11, the Western Theater released the latest situation of the "Kunlun sailors" at Pangong Lake, and with it, more information about the confrontation between the two sides was also unveiled one after another, when the tanks of the two sides were less than 500 meters apart, and senior officials of the Indian army also admitted for the first time that the front line was strongly demanding to open fire, the situation was very dangerous, and the war was about to break out.
According to the memoirs of Naravane, then chief of staff of the Indian army, at the time of the conflict, some of the decisions about the Galwan conflict and Pangong Lake can be seen. According to Naravane, on September 7, 2020, the Indian army launched Operation Snow Leopard, with the 254th Armored Brigade of the Indian Army, nicknamed "Snow Leopard", as the main force, suddenly occupied the area around the Rechin Pass. As a commanding height, you can overlook the entire Spangur Highway, and this road is also the only line of communication in our rear, so it can be said that the Indian army's move did not really make us uncomfortable in the early stage, so the two sides formed a confrontation in the Gangdis Mountains, which we call the Kailas Ridge.
As for the familiar incident, the West Sea Fleet carried out a "landing war" against the Indian army to make dumplings, and the two sides fought with cold weapons and captured more than 70 Indian troops, in fact, in May, more than four months have passed. The Indian army was very arrogant at the moment and did not bother to use cold weapons at all, when the Indian army had already deployed T-72 tanks, and later reinforced more advanced T-90 tanks. According to Naravane's memoirs, the muzzles of the tanks on both sides were pointed at each other, and the Indian army's front-line troops repeatedly asked for permission to shoot (possibly by putting gold in their faces).
Naravane said he was in close contact with Modi, India's National Security Adviser Doval, and Defense Minister Manmohan Singh, who had given him full authority at this tense time. After careful consideration, he decided that he could not fire the first shot, so he forced him to keep his senses, and finally avoided the outbreak of war between the two armies at an altitude of more than 4,000 meters. However, he also wrote in his memoirs that the new tank (Type 15) deployed by the Chinese side at that time was no match for the Indian medium tank (T-72), and that it was just a game of bluff.
Of course, as a personal memoir, of course, it is a good thing to say, for example, the so-called Type 15 is inferior to the T-72 in Naravane, which is actually the Spring and Autumn Period, because at the beginning, we did only have the old 88A tank of a certain division in Xinjiang (under special circumstances, the division was not changed to a brigade), and the situation was somewhat unfavorable, but then we transferred the 76th Army Corps' local tyrant armored brigade from Gansu, that is, the Type 99 tank of the "Dawn Xiongguan" 62 Brigade, also known as the heavy printing unit.
After entering the long-term confrontation stage, it was changed from 99A to a more flexible 15-type. It is not difficult to understand why the senior officials of the Indian army said that they would resolutely not shoot the first shot, and did he have the courage to face 99A? Of course, even if it is a Type 15, the T-72 has no advantages. With the ability to maneuver in Type 15, it is impossible to fight with Indian tanks in the mountain pass, but on the contrary, it will flexibly and actively fight and run, and a large number of Red Arrow tracked anti-tank missiles and anti-armor rockets in our rear are waiting for the Indian side to send "heads"? You must know that their T-72 is good, T-90 is good, but there is one less to fight.
At the same time as the confrontation here, on the north shore of Pangong Lake, another cold-weapon battle took place, that is, we withstood the unfavorable terrain of the 60-degree slope, braved the opponent's stones, and attacked the 5104 green-roofed heights on the F4 ridge. This also made up for the surprise attack we suffered at the Rechin Pass, and won more negotiating conditions and bargaining chips for subsequent negotiations.
Of course, the above is only one side of the Indian perspective, but it can be seen that the situation was still very tense at that time, although the tank did not fire shells, but both sides fired 100-200 shots. By October 2021, we had 30 artillery pieces, 4,000-5,000 men, and more than 130 tanks, 30 artillery pieces, and more than 2,000 people on the south bank. It can be said that at that time, if the Indian army dared to make a move, then there would inevitably be a rare armored battle at high altitude, and in the face of our systematic firepower superiority, the Indian army may have more than such casualties. In the end, I ended with a sentence from our soldiers' evaluation of the Indian army, when encountering casualties among teammates, the Indian army quickly retreated and did not care about the people in front of them, so it was crushed at the first touch, and 60 of us could chase after them and fight more than 200 people. This is probably the truest portrayal of the combat power between China and India.