The Regiment was raised on 1 May 1965 at
Aurangabad as 59 Mountain Composite Regiment (Pack). The first commanding officer was Lieutenant Colonel BL Khanna. The Regiment had a headquarters battery, three mountain (pack) batteries and a heavy mortar battery. The troops belonged to
Rajput,
Dogra,
Ahir and
South Indian Classes.[1] The unit was converted to a Field Regiment and is currently a Medium Regiment. The Regiment presently consists of 591, 592 and 593 Medium batteries.
Equipment
The regiment has been equipped with the following guns[1] –
Indo-Pakistani war of 1971 – During the war, the regiment was deployed in the Eastern sector close to
Tripura. The regiment was part of 57 Mountain Artillery Brigade under
57 Mountain Division and equipped with 75/24 Pack Howitzers.[4][5][6] During the Bangladesh Campaign, the unit moved their guns with a great deal of innovation over the difficult terrain, which included wide rivers to keep up with the rapidly advancing infantry towards
Dhaka. This included dismantling the guns and getting air lifted by helicopter across the
Meghna River. On 12 December 1971,
Mil Mi-4 helicopters of the
Indian Air Force flew 27 sorties from
Brahmanbaria to Khatra near
Narsingdi. The regiment along with 82 Light Regiment provided
4 Guards with the punch required to capture Narsinghdi by 1000 hours on 12 December. On 14 December, the axis of advance of 73 Mountain Brigade was changed towards
Tongi to develop a threat to Dacca from the north. To support these operations, the guns had to move back to Narsinghdi. The unit used railway flats and bogies pushed manually by the troops and later by an engine, to move the artillery and to transport the heavy loads of 73 Mountain Brigade. This was nicknamed the ‘59 Combat Special train’. 593 Mountain Battery with 200 rounds of ammunition was first to travel in this manner. These wagons were manually pushed over 24 km on the night of 14 December to provide support to the Indian troops held up at Pubail due to heavy enemy resistance. In this operation, the regiment impounded an abandoned diesel locomotive and brought it to good use. The quick movement of artillery and equipment helped 59 Mountain Regiment and 150 Light Battery (of 82 Light Regiment) provide artillery fire to support
19 Rajputana Rifles capture Pubail.[7][8][9][10][11] During the war, 59 Mountain Regiment was instrumental in the raising of the
Mukti Bahini’s 594 Mujib Artillery Battery, which was equipped with 3.7-inch howitzers. This battery later became a nucleus for the raising of the first Bangladesh Artillery battalion and the Bangladesh Regiment of Artillery.[11]