When one of his troops was over run and captured, he acquired an armoured car left at the position and tried to drive the Italian tanks away which were encircling it.

With the Italian Armistice in September 1943 he escaped on 19 November;[5] however, he was captured again in January 1944 and imprisoned, this time in Germany, where he was transferred to Stalag Luft III, a high security camp for PoWs.

[9] Kumaramangalam was promoted to substantive major-general on 1 August 1958,[10] and appointed the Commandant of the Defence Services Staff College on 25 February 1959.

[16] General Kumaramangalam took over as the Chief of the Army Staff on 8 June 1966,[17] the first Indian gunner officer and paratrooper to reach this coveted appointment.

The tenure of General Kumaramangalam as Chief of the Army Staff was marked by an unpublicised but exhaustive re-organisation of the service, up-gradation of weapons, training and tactics based on the lessons learned from the 1965 War.

He was a member of the Marylebone Cricket Club, a fellow of the Royal Horticultural Society, and president of Indian Polo Association and Equestrian Federation of India.

On retirement as army chief, he was elected President of the World Wildlife Fund - India (WWF-India) during its formative stages.