On January 15, 1949, Field Marshal Kodandera M Cariappa took over from General Sir Francis Butcher to become the Indian Army’s first Commander-in-Chief.
The day has been observed as Army Day to recognise this, and to acknowledge the achievements and risks undertaken by Indian army personnel.
KM Cariappa:
KM Cariappa, who was fondly known as “Kipper”, was born in 1900, in Karnataka.
In 1919, he received the King’s Commission with the first group of Indian cadets and in 1933, he became the first Indian officer to join staff college in Quetta.
Subsequently, in 1942, Cariappa raised the seventh Rajput Machine Gun Battalion, which is now referred to as the 17th Rajput regiment.
He served as a member of the Army Sub Committee of the Forces Reconstitution Committee during the Partition, as part of which he oversaw the task of dividing the military between India and Pakistan.
He led the Indian forces on the Western Front during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947.
He is one of the only two Indian Army officers to hold the five-star rank of field marshal (an honorary rank).
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