Trivia of Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw
As an officer in British Indian Army at the Burmah Front in WW II, he almost died, and his superior officer awarded him a medal on the battlefront, while he was bleeding.
In 1947, he worked tirelessly to lessen the bloodshed of partition.
In 1962, he almost turned around the morale of Indian soldiers during the last leg of India-China border war.
He openly disagreed with Indira Gandhi and her cabinet about the timing, prepardeness of Indian Army, and the nature of Indian intervention in East Pakistan crisis in 1972, and he did prevail over all of them. At the first unconditional surrender after WW II in 1972, he asked Eastern Sector Commander, Maj. Gen. JS Aurora to be the face of the formal surrender ceremony instead of him. Maj. Gen. Aurora knew some of the Pakistani Generals from pre-partition days, and requested the ceremony be sombre, and with no outward show of humilation.
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