[1] Harbaksh Singh was born on 1 October 1913 in a wealthy Madahar Jat Sikh family, the youngest of seven siblings, in Badrukhan village near Sangrur, the capital of the Jind State.

As a citizen of a princely state, he had to take the permission of the Governor of Punjab, Sir Geoffrey Montmorency to sit for the entrance examinations and enrol into the Indian Military Academy (IMA), which had been set up the previous year.

[4] Singh was commissioned on 15 July 1935 and started his career with a year's post-commission attachment with the 2nd battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, then stationed at Rawalpindi.

In September 1938, the battalion, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Charles Ford moved to Razmak in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP).

He was among the POWs in attendance at the Farrer Park address by Gen Mohan Singh of the First Indian National Army.

He was subsequently slated to be sent to the Death Railway but was sent to the Kluang airfield and handed over to the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service instead.

However, even before the rehabilitation was complete, the battalion was called out to fight the enemy who had crossed the snow-clad Pharikian ki Gali and had occupied Handwara.

On the night of 16 May, Brigadier Harbaksh Singh, leading his troops on foot, made a rapid advance through a very difficult terrain, including the crossing of the 11,000-ft. Nastachur Pass, and completely surprised the enemy who broke and withdrew in confusion and panic in all directions.

To keep himself in touch with Divisional HQ he made frequent trips on foot unmindful of the danger of being ambushed as the line of communication was still exposed to enemy infiltration.

In January 1959, he became the first foreign officer to go on attachment with German Army's first division to be raised after their disbandment at the end of World War II.

He led the Western Command successfully during victory against the Pakistan Army along the entire border in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965.

The agenda was not revealed but it started with him reading out the contents of Lt. Gen Harbaksh Singh GOC-in-C Western Command, DO (demi official note) to the forces.

The Army Commander had reviewed recent skirmishes in Rann of Kutch and commented that the Pakistanis were continuing with their belligerent attitude and spoke about cultivating a more aggressive spirit in out troops.

He also remarked pointedly “has the martial blood in the veins of the Indian Army soldiers dried up” or words to the similar effect.

The leadership of Lt Gen Harbaksh Singh had played a key role in boosting the morale of a defeated army turning it into a striking force within just three years of the Chinese encounter thereby ensuring a memorable victory in the 1965 war.