• Source: Alan Macfarlane Sloan

Alan MacFarlane Sloan (1925–1948) was a British officer, who fought in World War II, and later for the Pakistan Army during the Indo-Pakistani war of 1947–1948. He was killed at the Battle of Chunj.




Early life


Major Alan MacFarlane Sloan was born on 20 April 1925 in Beckenham, in Kent. His was a lawyer. Sloan joined the Royal Engineers in February 1943.




Postings, courses and operations in India (1944–1947)


Sloan was transferred to India in 1944, where he was attached with many units and formations. In October 1945, he joined the Engineering Officer Training Institute in Roorkee, for training in specialised engineering, while there, he also learnt to speak Urdu, which was a prerequisite for any officer posted in India.
He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Engineers]and posted to Bengal Engineer Group (this was part of the Royal Indian Army before partition). Subsequently, Sloan was promoted to Captain and posted as second-in-command to the 68th Field Engineers Company in June 1947.




Joining the Pakistan Army


The Partition of India plan on the 3rd of June 1947 resulted into the division of the Indian subcontinent into two dominions, India and Pakistan. Consequently, all military assets were split into the relatively new Pakistan Army and the Indian Army
At independence there was a shortage of the minimum requirement of 4,000 officers in the Pakistan Army, of which there were only 2,500. There it was decided to overcome the problem by bringing former British soldiers into Pakistan Army service for almost a year, this proposal was taken to the high command of the British Indian Army, who accepted it. Following this, 474 British officers, including Sloan, volunteered to join the Pakistan Army.
Sloan contracted an illness which prevented him from coming to Pakistan in August 1947, after his recovery, he arrived in Pakistan and joined the 71st Field Company of Pakistan Army Engineers, on the 18th of October 1947. His services led to him being promoted to Major the very next month. It was at this moment in time, that India-Pakistan tensions boiled over, and signalled the start of the Indo-Pakistani war of 1947–1948. India had begun building up its army presence in the Jammu and Kashmir region since late October, so the Pakistanis had to rapidly organise their army units and move them to Kashmir to prevent the Indian invasion. Claude Auchinleck had told both governments, that in the event of war between the two newly formed dominions, British officers would leave.




The Indo-Pakistani War of 1947-48


In May 1948, the Indian 163rd Brigade launched an offensive towards Tithwal, and posing a threat Muzaffarabad. Due to this, the 10th Brigade of the Pakistan Army under Brigadier Iftikhar Ahmed was given the task to halt the Indian advance and hold Muzaffarabad. The mountainous terrain of the area further implicated the importance of the engineering units of the Army, and at that time, there were only 2 engineering brigades in the Pakistan Armed Forces, which were the 2nd and 71st Engineering Brigades, led by Major Tufail Ahmad and Major Sloan respectively.
The Tithwal sector had a strategically important mountain feature called the Chunj feature, consisting of two hills, either of which was important for further advances. The 17th Punjab Regiment was given the task to capture this feature from the Pakistanis. Due to this unexpected advance, the Pakistanis needed artillery support at Point 9444 (the higher of the two hills in the Chunj feature, the other being 7229). Hence, it was decided to move the 3.7'' Howitzer gun, nicknamed 'Shehzadi', to Point 9444 after dismantling it, owing to the absence of a paved or proper route. The 71st Engineering Brigade was said to have worked day and night to make the track fit for the artillery piece to be transported by mules. With the help of a sling and pulley, the dismantled gun was pulled across the Kishanganga (Neelum River) at Ghori. Shehzadi was reassembled in two days. After achieving this feat of engineering, the 71st Engineers set to work clearing mines and fixing paths for logistics.




Death and legacy


Sloan was leading his soldiers during a mine clearing operation, during which he lost his footing and fell down a slope, triggering a tripwire which blew up a mine, the Major received serious injuries, along with another Pakistani soldier, Lance Naik Aman Khan, which later proved to be fatal. Sloan died on the 10th of July 1948 in the line of duty.
His body was taken to the British Cemetery in Abbottabad and buried there with full military honours. He remains, to this day, the only British soldier to die in action, for Pakistan.




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