The company held the raiders off for some six hours until relief came; Major Somnath Sharma was killed, and the airfield was saved.
01The airfield in danger
After Maharaja Hari Singh signed the Instrument of Accession on 26 October 1947, Indian troops were flown into Srinagar from the next morning, while raiders from Pakistan pushed down the Jhelum valley towards the city. Everything depended on the airfield. On 3 November a patrol of 4 Kumaon under Major Somnath Sharma went out to Badgam, a few miles to the west, to look for raiders reported in the area. Sharma had a broken arm in plaster from a hockey injury and had insisted on going with his men.
02Not an inch
In the afternoon a raider force of about seven hundred, by the official account, came out of the village and attacked the company from three sides. Outnumbered many times, Sharma moved between his sections in the open, helping to load the light machine guns himself. His last message to brigade headquarters, recorded in the official history, said that the enemy was fifty yards away, that they were heavily outnumbered, and that he would not withdraw an inch but fight to the last man and last round. Minutes later a mortar bomb killed him. His men held on until relief arrived, and the raiders never reached the airfield.
Badgam kept the airfield open while India built up its forces in the Valley, and on 7 November the raiders were routed at Shalateng; Srinagar was saved.