III Corps (India)

III Corps
Indian Army III Corps Formation Sign
Active	1915–1919 1941–1942 1985–present
Country	India
Branch	Indian Army
Role	Mountain (Holding) Corps
Size	Corps
Part of	Eastern Command
Garrison/HQ	Dimapur
Nickname(s)	Spear Corps
Commanders
Current commander	Lt Gen Abhijit S Pendharkar AVSM, YSM
Notable commanders	Lt Gen Johnson P Mathew Lt Gen Ram Chander Tiwari Lt Gen Rana Pratap Kalita General Anil Chauhan Lt Gen Abhay Krishna General Bipin Rawat General Dalbir Singh Suhag Lt Gen Zameer Uddin Shah General Bipin Chandra Joshi Lt Gen Raj Mohan Vohra Lt Gen Joginder Singh Bakshi

The III Corps is a formation of the Indian Army that was formed during World War I in Mesopotamia during its respective campaign. Prior to the reorganization of the British and Indian forces in Mesopotamia, it was designated as the Tigris Corps.

A new III Corps was formed by the Indian Army during World War II for service in Southeast Asia. The corps fought in the Battle of Singapore where it surrendered in February 1942.^[1]

It is headquartered in the state of Nagaland of India in the city of Dimapur, at Rangapahar Military Station.

3 Corps was raised during World War I by Lt Gen Ahlmer and soon thereafter, the command was changed to Lt Gen Frederick Stanley Maud, who was appointed as the Corps Commander on 09 Dec 1915. 3 Corps was allotted the 6th (Poona) Division and 12th Indian Division along with a Cavalry Brigade and tasked with the defence of the Tigris Line.  The Corps thereby earned the sobriquet of "The Tigris Corps". 3 Corps played a major role in the Mesopotamian front, which was a campaign in the middle eastern theatre of World War I, fought between the Allies represented by the British Empire, troops from Britain, Australia and vast majority of British Raj, against the central powers, mostly the Ottoman Empire. The Theatre was vast and consisted of hot, inhospitable desert terrain.  Tank warfare had still not achieved its primacy and deserts remained primarily a no man’s land. The fight was concentrated along the course of Tigris and the Euphrates rivers where Ottomans had a head start. The British had realised that they needed to secure and control the delta of Tigris at Shatt-El-Arab and Basra to deny the Ottomans access to Abadan Refinery and the oil rich delta. It also provided the British with a bridgehead for the induction of troops through the sea route and to maintain their forces logistically during future operations in the north. Keeping this as the broad objective, the British dispatched the 6th Indian Division as the Indian Expeditionary Force to Basra in 1915.

The Corps was later split into two separate formations, namely 1 and 3 Corps.  I Corps moved northwards towards Mosul, while 3 Corps led a renewed offensive towards Baghdad, which finally fell to 3 Corps in 1916. The composition of 3 Corps was largely Indian troops and the credit for the swift capture of Baghdad was attributed to them. The Allied forces controlled a major part of Mesopotamia because of the fall of Baghdad, and most importantly, had direct access to the sea and the oldest refinery of Asia at Abadan.  In view of the strategic objective of bringing Mesopotamia under British control and liberation of Kuwait from Ottoman control being achieved, an armistice was signed between the British and the Ottoman Empire.

The military phase of the operations in the Middle East was over, paving the way for political and diplomatic overtures.  3 Corps which had played a great role in achievement perhaps did not get its due compared to similar forces fighting in the European Theatre. The Corps was finally demobilized in 1919, only to be resurrected in 1941 during World War II.

HQ 3 Corps was raised on 27 Apr 1941 with headquarters at Kuala Lumpur.  Lt Gen Percy Heath was placed in Command of the Corps.  It had two Divisions, namely the 9th and 11th Indian Divisions under command.

11th Indian Division which was tasked to defend Kuala Lumpur and withdraw towards Thailand was outflanked by the Japanese. The Division fought major battles at Jitra from 08-12 Dec 1941, Kampar from 30 Dec 1941 to 02 Jan 1942, Slim River from 06 Jan to 08 Jan 1942, Gemas and Muar River from 14 Jan to 02 Jan 1942 and gave a good account of themselves, despite debilitating logistic shortcoming and virtually no air support. 9th and 11th Indian Division suffered significant casualties without any significant reinforcements.

During the Malayan campaign, 3 Corps had borne the brunt of War, and men suffered from inclement weather and tropical diseases apart from enemy action.  Jungle terrain coupled with intolerable tropical weather and humidity made the conditions insuperable. Fighting here required the very best of human endurance, both mental and physical.  3 Corps had fought most of its battles in these virtually inhuman conditions, but there was little coverage of the same. While the trenches of Ypres, Somme, Alsace and Lorraine and those who fought in them were widely covered, the contributions of the anonymous Indians who died in Malaya remain un-recounted. 3 Corps virtually ceased to exist post Feb 1942.

After the independence of India, a new III Corps was raised by the Indian Army on 4 February 1985 and is spread over the North Eastern States of Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura and Meghalaya. At the time of its formation, it consisted of 8 and 57 Mountain Divisions, under its command, in addition to troops of Assam Rifles. The 8 Mountain Division was moved out to Kashmir in 1990.^[2]

The corps is currently based at Dimapur in north east India, and consists of three divisions being responsible for eastern Arunachal Pradesh and the Myanmar border. It is tasked for use in any future Indian war against China.

Jane's estimates that it consists of:^[3]

• 2 Mountain Division (Dao Division) - The division joined III Corps in late 2000s and is headquartered at Dinjan, Dibrugarh district, Assam.^[4][5]
  • 5 Mountain Brigade at Aalo (Along)^[6] - the oldest infantry brigade in the Indian Army.^[7]
  • 82 Mountain Brigade at Tezu in Lohit district^[8]
  • 181 Mountain Brigade at Laipuli, Tinsukia^[9]
  • 2 Mountain Artillery Brigade at Dinjan
• 56 Infantry Division - was raised at Zakhama, Nagaland and presently located at Likabali, North of the Brahmaputra,^[10][11] Responsible for guarding of northern borders, internal security situation and disaster management in selected districts of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam.
• 57 Mountain Division (Red Shield Division) - headquartered at Leimakhong.^[12] Raised in 1966 for counterinsurgency operations in Mizoram. Until 1990, headquartered at Aizawl with III Corps.^[13] Globalsecurity.org reports the 57 Mountain Division headquarters are at Masimpur near Silchar.^[14] The formation and units of 57 Mountain Division are deployed in some of the remotest corner of Manipur and Indo-Burmese border.^[15] 57th Mountain Division took part in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 as part of IV Corps. It also successfully conducted Operation Golden Bird in 1995 to eliminate rebels in Northeast India.^[16]

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (June 2021)

• Australian War Memorial: Remembering 1942 The fall of Singapore, 15 February 1942 Archived 20 August 2008 at the Wayback Machine
• III Indian Corps History & Personnel Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine
• http://www.orbat.com Archived 2018-11-16 at the Wayback Machine (History; Niehorster)