General KS Thimayya – A Military Legend

Sharing an interesting piece from Brig Tejinder’s Blog (with his permission)

General KS Thimayya – A Military Legend

THINGS YOU DON’T KNOW

Please take a minute to read and reflect on the immense contributions of General KS Thimayya aka Timmy, a military legend.

His birthday comes up next week, on the 30th March.

General Kodendera Subayya Thimayya was an outstanding soldier, a natural leader with vision beyond his years.

He belonged to Coorg in present day Karnataka, a proud region with long martial traditions.

Gen Thimayya graduated from The Prince of Wales Royal Indian Military College, the present day RIMC, at Dehradun.

He was one of the only six Indians to be selected for officer training at Royal Military College, Sandhurst, UK.

However, later as an Indian Officer in the British-dominated Army, he had a running feud with his British officers over their snobbery and racism. He never gave in.

Some unknown aspects of his life, from yet unpublished documents, and some known aspects from his biography ‘Thimmaya of India’ by Humphrey Evans:-

1) He was the first Indian officer to ever command an Infantry brigade during World War II.

2) His elder brother Ponappa served in the INA, while his younger brother Somaiah was killed in action in Kashmir in 1948.

3) He wanted to quit the Army and join the freedom movement , was however dissuaded by Motilal Nehru.

4) During Quit India Movement he gave orders for troops not to fire on the protesters.

5) He oversaw the surrender of INA at Rangoon, his brother was one of the POWs.

6 ) After the Korean War, he played a major role in repatriation of POWs winning plaudits from the US Gen Douglas MacArthur.

7 ) During the first Kashmir War in 1947, personally led from the front in a tank to capture the Zozi La Pass. In fact, getting tanks to Zozi La which was proving to be impregnable, was a masterstroke, as never before the tanks were deployed at these icy heights.

8 ) He asked Pandit Nehru for just three months to beat back the raiders supported by Pakistan’s regulars in Kashmir, however latter referred it to the UN. We still don’t have the complete Kashmir.

9) As Army Chief from 1957-61, he had a running feud with the Defence Minister V.K. Krishna Menon over undue interference in Army, and had in fact resigned as the Army Chief, but was persuaded by the PM to withdraw his resignation.

10) Had the foresight to recognize the dangers from China much before any one with the possible exception of Sardar Patel.

11) His proposal to appoint Lt. Gen Thorat as Army Chief was shot down by Nehru, who instead appointed Gen Pran Nath Thapar.

He spent his last days in Cyprus, heading the UN Peacekeeping Force during the Civil War. Timmy passed away in Cyprus in 1965, due to a heart attack, aged just 59 years. No important person attended his funeral, he was buried in a nondescript site at Wilson Garden Cemetery. When the President of Cyprus, came to India, specifically to honour him, our government woke up, and hastily erected a memorial at ASC Centre, Bangalore. When General Thimayya died in Cyprus, the Cyprus Govt. declared 10 days of mourning , and flew their Flag was at Half Mast !!

No befitting memorials to General KS Thimayya exist today apart from the small Bangalore memorial, a memorial at Madikeri, Coorg recently renovated with public support, and his school RIMC naming the main gate as Thimayya Gate.

On his birth anniversary please do fwd this to as many as you can.
Jai Hind