The 19th Punjabis, while serving in Persia had the unique distinction of being actively engaged against the Bolsheviks in 1918 during the hard-fought actions at Merv, Kaka and Dushak in the Russian Turkestan.
One of the most serious of these occurred in the early morning of 21 June 1978, at 06:21 AM, when a Soviet radar site near the village of Bagir, not far from Ashkabad, detected four slow moving contacts which came from Iran and penetrated 15 to 20 kilometers into the Soviet airspace near Dushak, in Turkmenistan.
In February 1916, it moved to Persia, where it had the unique distinction of being actively engaged against the Bolsheviks in 1918 during the hard-fought actions at Merv, Kaka and Dushak in the Russian Turkestan.
The Transcaspian forces retired to Kaakha, while the Bolshevik forces retired with their trains to Dushak, but then pulled back further to Merv.
Dushak |
At Dushak, all the officers including the Subedar Major of the battalion were either killed or wounded, and the battalion was led by a Subedar.