An ode to warfare

Beneath the blazing sun, over five dozen giant steel beasts stand frozen in silence – their gleaming guns aimed at a past filled with fire, dust, valour and sacrifices on the war fronts – at the sprawling Cavalry Tank Museum in Ahilyanagar.

Asia’s first and only such museum, it is steeped in India’s glorious history of wars over the past 100-years, brought alive by their rusted tracks, scarred armour plates and battle-worn turrets that once thundered through scorching deserts, grassy plains, or green hills, whenever-wherever the Bugle was sounded.

Located near the famed Armoured Corps Centre and School, the CTM is an open-air treasury of retired military machines and a living metal memorial to generations of India’s ‘tank soldiers’ – the brave-hearts who fought from inside these giants, braving claustrophobia, suffocating heat and cramped cabins.

Cooped inside, Indian soldiers fought many battles amid exploding shells, landmines and incessant enemy fire outside – surviving with mutual trust, team-work, split-second reflexes and well… their own nerves of steel – for, a single hit could turn the tank into a fiery hot hell-hole within seconds, with no chance to escape.

Set up in 1994, the CTM houses nearly 50 armoured fighting vehicles spanning the two World Wars, post-Independence conflicts as also enemy ‘trophies’ from Indo-Pak battles. Mute and motionless, each metallic brawny boasts a history of battles and bravery, how they served as brute field killers, while protecting their occupants and the country.

The CTM houses British Churchills and Valentine tanks; American-origin Pattons, Chaffees and Stuart tanks; Soviet PT-76 amphibious tanks; and of course, India’s own iconic ‘Vijayanta’ Main Battle Tank. Rubbing shoulders with these monsters are rare war vehicles from Germany, France and Japan; a century-old Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost armoured car - the oldest exhibit – all radiating the old-world military grandeur, duty, patriotism and making the ultimate sacrifice for the nation.

The other attractions are: minesweepers, amphibious tanks, bridge-laying vehicles, ammunition carriers, armoured cars and special battlefield machines - rarely seen outside military bases.

Three indoor galleries showcase cavalry history, battlefield maps, photographs, miniature tank models and thrilling war stories ranging from the World Wars to the Indian border warfare in the past nearly 80 years after Independence.

The prime exhibits include immortals like Lt. Col. Ardeshir Burzorji Tarapore and Second Lieutenant Arun Khetarpal – both officers of the Poona Horse Regiment whose heroism is the stuff legends are made of – and both were awarded the highest gallantry honour, the Param Vir Chakra – by a grateful India.

While the fearless Tarapore led the fierce 1965 Indo-Pak War tank battles before making the supreme sacrifice at the age of 42, 21-year-old Khetarpal fought with unparalleled bravery in the bloody Battle of Basantar in the 1971 Indo-Pak war, and died inside his burning tank after destroying an enemy armour machine.

Interestingly, Ahilyanagar - previously Ahmednagar - ranks among India’s sacred and historical military landscapes for over 500 years, having witnessed many bloody battles and wars and sieges.

Some of these were Battle of Kalyani (1543 and 1549); Sultana Chand Bibi versus the Mughals (1596); Battle of Bhatwadi (1657); Battle of Kharda (1795); second Anglo-Maratha War (1803) when the British captured the Ahmednagar Fort; the 1857 Uprising or the dawn of India’s Independence Movement, saw major skirmishes between the tribals and the British here.

Later, from 1942 to 1945, at the height of the Quit India Movement, top Indian leaders like Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Acharya Narendra Dev, Acharya J.B. Kripalani, Dr. Syed Mahmud, Govind Vallabh Pant and others were jailed at the Ahmednagar Fort.

Bollywood’s Crush

Several Bollywood films have featured armoured tanks, starting with “Haqeeqat” (1964) on the 1962 India-China War, and later many themed on the 1971 Indo-Pak war which saw the birth of Bangladesh.

The blockbuster “Border” (1997) featured Punjab Regiment Soldiers in the 1971 Battle of Longewala, fighting against Pakistani tanks. “Pippa” (2023) showed the Battle of Garibpur with Ishaan Khatter as Capt. Balram Singh Mehta of the 45th Cavalry Tank Regiment using PT-76 tanks to defend the country.

In 2026 came two films - “Ikkis”, a biographical on the Battle of Basantar in the 1971 war, depicting tank warfare and heroism of Arun Khetarpal - and “Border 2” exhibiting fierce tanks in different conflicts including the Battle of Basantar.