July 1, 2013 is an important date in the calendar of the Indian Army. It is the birth centenary of General P.P. Kumaramangalam, one of the best Chiefs of the Indian Army. Though he is not much spoken about, the shape he gave the Army during his tenure from June 1966 to June 1969 still forms the basis of our organisational structure, national war strategy and division level tactics. It is said that the remodelling of the Army that was done by him and the new thinking that was imbued under him formed the groundwork for the resounding success that was achieved by the Armed Forces during the 1971 war against Pakistan.

Kumaramangalam, who belonged to a well-to-do family of zamindars who went into politics, was born in his family estate at Kumaramangalam, near Thiruchengode, in Salem District. His illustrious father P. Subbaroyan was a freedom fighter, diplomat, Chief Minister of the Madras Presidency, a Minister in Nehru's Cabinet and Governor of Maharashtra.

After early education at home, he was sent at the age of 11 to a prep school in the UK from where he went to Eton College for his secondary school education. He was a graduate of the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. He was commissioned in 1933 and was the second Indian officer to be commissioned into the Regiment of Artillery. When he retired in 1969, he was the last of the line of King's Commissioned Indian Officers.

In September 1940, during the World War II, the Italians attacked Egypt which was then a British protectorate. They were beaten back and Tobruk in Libya was captured and held by Indian troops. In early 1942, Kumaramangalam was posted to the Artillery unit in Tobruk. In June 1942, Tobruk fell to the German Afrika Corps under Rommel. Kumaramangalam was taken as a prisoner-of-war to Italy. He escaped, but was captured again and sent to a high security prison in Germany called Stalag Luft III from where he was released in 1945 at the end of the War. During the War he won two important decorations – DSO and MBE.

In 1948, he became a Brigadier in the Indian Army. In 1963, he was a Lieutenant General, and that followed the assignment of General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Eastern Command. In the years, he was successively made the Deputy Chief and Vice Chief and finally on June 8, 1966 the seventh Chief of Staff of the Indian Army, the first Artillery officer to rise to that position.

It was as Chief that he was to exhibit his brilliance. He realised that India would have to be prepared to face war on two fronts – against Pakistan and against China. Whereas the terrain in the Pakistan front is plains, we faced the Chinese across the Himalaya with its torturing mountain peaks, ravines and high altitudes. The ability to use vehicles in such an area is limited due to lack of roads. Heavy vehicles and equipment cannot be used and men have to mostly move on man-pack basis. For logistics you have to rely on mules.

At the time when Kumaramangalam took over as Chief, the Government was considering creating two different armies, one for the mountains and one for the plains. Kumaramangalam did not agree with this because such an organisation would not only be expensive but also unwieldy. Further, formations from one area could not be employed in another area.

So, he hit upon the idea of having the infantry division as the normal fighting formation. The one organised to fight on the plains would be the Standard Infantry Division. The one designed to fight on the mountains would be designated as Modification 'M'. A Mod 'M' infantry division would have the same basic structure as the Standard Division except that heavy guns and equipment not portable and usable in mountain terrain would be removed and those usable in the mountain terrain, including extreme cold clothing and equipment, would be issued. Thus, within a matter of days a Standard Division could be converted into a Mod 'M' Division and vice versa and forces could effortlessly be shifted across theatres, depending upon the needs of war.

He was aware of the problems faced by the Indian Army in the Sino-Indian War of 1962 and the Pakistan war of 1965. He decided to rearm and re-equip the Army. For example, in the Pakistan war, the standard weapon of an infantry soldier was the .303 bolt action rifle. This weapon was heavy and had a very low rate of fire. He had it replaced with the 7.62mm Self Loading Rifle. He took up the case for importing sturdier Australian mules so that they could carry more load in the mountains.

He then caused all the military education books and manuals, called GS Pamphlets, to be revised so that new ideas could be taught to the men of the Army.

Kumaramangalam's genius lay in the fact that he prepared the Indian Army for the next war, a task not easily undertaken and accomplished by normal run-of-the mill Generals. India was lucky in that at the right juncture, when a man of outstanding ability was required to lift an Army that had not crowned itself with glory during two decades of independent India, we were blessed with a warrior son who understood the need and found scholarly solutions to meet our ends. In June 1969 he handed over the baton to another great soldier, Field Marshal S.H.F.J. Manekshaw who wielded this new Army to gain a resounding victory over Pakistan in 1971.

Even before the sword he had forged was tested in the fire of war in 1971, so sure was the nation of his achievements that he was awarded of Padma Vibhusan in 1970.

This soldier and intellectual passed away on March 13, 2000 at the age of 87.