Battle Honour
1.
Recognition of gallant performance by grant of Battle Honours,
Theatre Honours and Honour Titles to units, reinforces motivation of
soldiers for collective acts of valour during war. It caters for
intrinsic and extrinsic needs of the arms in combat. Units will be
awarded the honours due to them for taking active and creditable
part for claiming an award of Battle Honours.
2.
Battle Honours are official commemoration of battles, actions
or engagements and are awarded to Regiments whose units or sub-units
have taken active and creditable part in these operations. Battle
Honours may be awarded in the form of 'Battle Honour, Theatre
Honour or Honour Title'.
(a)
Mechanised Forces. A unit will consist of one
complete Armoured Regiment/Mechanised Infantry Battalion or one or
more Armoured Squadrons/ Mechanised Infantry Companies integral to
that Armourd Regiment/Mechanised
Infantry Battalion.
(d)
Infantry. A unit will consist of Battalion of
the Regular Army or embodied Battalion of Territorial Army.
4.
Battle/Theatre Honours and Honour Titles so awarded will be
included in the title of a unit. Details of the award will be
published at the appropriate place in the Army List from time to
time.
5.
The policy regarding emblazonment of Battle Honours on
Colonelours has been laid down in Government of India. Ministry of
Defence Office Memorandum No F3/17/68/D(Ceremonials) dated 24
October 68 reproduced in AO 429/69.
6.
Only the Mechanised Forces, the Corps of Engineers and the
Infantry including embodied Units of the Territorial Army are
eligible to the award of Battle Honours and Theatre Honours. Honour
Titles can be claimed only by Artillery units including embodied
units of the Territorial Army, Air Defence Artillery Units and Army
Aviation Corps Units.
7.
Signal Regiments/Signal Units whose collective performance in
war merits due recognition will be eligible for award of Unit
Citation by COAS. The Unit Citation will be claimed in the same
manner as is being done in peace time. A separate committee will
examine these claims at the Army Headquarters as is being done
presently.
8.
(a)
The Units must have been committed to battle, action or
engagement listed in the tabulated list which will be issued
separately by Army Headquarters within the time limit laid down
therein, and have been actively engaged with enemy troops.
(b)
There is no question of an honour being awarded merely
because a unit was present at a battle. It must have taken active
part in it and fought creditably with distinction in the operation.
It is emphasized that heavy casualties, although they may indicate
heavy fighting, will not be considered as the sole reason for award
of this honour.
(c)
As a general rule, the Headquarters and 50 percent of an unit
must have been present in the battle. Three particular extensions of
this general rule will, however, be permitted : -
(i)
Infantry Battalions which on occasions had to fight on a
company basis independently, claims may be submitted where 50
percent of such sub units were engaged in an operation. Where a
battalion had sub-units committed simultaneously to different
operations at the same time, only one claim per unit may be
submitted to cover any one period of time.
(ii)
Where for operational reasons, a part of one unit was
combined with another unit to continue the fight as one unit, the
claims may be submitted by both units as under: -
(aa) by
the unit providing the HQ and its remnants.
(bb)
by the unit combining with the above provided its strength
was minimum of 50 percent.
(iii)
In very exceptional cases a squadron/company or equivalent
sub unit may be considered as a unit, if it took part in certain
operations independently of its parent unit and the strength of the
squadron/company concerned consisted of least 50 percent of its
personnel.
9.
Theatre Honour.
Units qualifying for the Battle Honour in a theatre will
automatically qualify for Theatre Honour, .They may submit for
theatre honour provided that a minimum of Headquarters and 50
percent of unit was present in the Theatre for at least one day and
creditably performed an allotted task, such as guarding airfield or
communication zone and the like. The Theatre Honour will not be
emblazoned on Regimental Colonelours.
10.
Honour Titles.
Artillery, Air Defence Artillery and Army Aviation Corps
units which have distinguished themselves in a battle by rendering
creditable service will be entitled to " Honour Titles" in
commemoration of that service, provided that a minimum of the
Headquarters and 50 percent of the unit was present in the battle.
Batteries may submit claims only where they did not form an integral
part of an Artillery Regiment. However, in respect of Air Defence
Artillery Units "Honour Titles" may be awarded for creditable
and distinguished service in defence of VAs/VPs; for this purpose
the stipulation of 50 % of unit strength will not apply. Units of
Artillery, Air Defence Artillery and Army Aviation Corps granted
"Honour Titles" will be entitled to write it with their
names.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
