SHILLONG: On the occasion of the 239th raising day of the Army Ordnance Corps, officers and men of AOC on Tuesday remembered the heroic deeds of a handful of ordnance soldiers at Kangla Tongbi, in the Senapati district of Manipur, during the Second World War.
According to an Eastern Command release, a handful of ordnance soldiers belonging to the 221 Advance Ordnance Depot in March 1944 had repulsed for three consecutive days a series of attacks of Japanese forces fighting to open the road to Imphal. The time gained by the holding operation had helped in the moving back of 4,000 tonnes of arms and ammunition. For bravery, commandant of the depot Maj Boyd had been awarded the Military Cross. Now there is a war memorial at Khengjang village in the Kangla Tongbi area which is a revered shrine for soldiers of the ordnance corps. It is a tradition that all young AOC officers upon commissioning first to visit the memorial at Kangla Tongbi.