1. C. Dasgupta, War and Diplomacy in Kashmir, 1947–48 (New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2002), p. 37.

2. The Kashmir Campaign 1947 (Rawalpindi: Pakistan Army GHQ, Restricted. 1971).

3. See also Alastair Lamb, Kashmir: A Disputed Legacy 1846–1990 (UK: Roxford Books, 1991) and (Karachi, Pakistan: Oxford University Press, 1992), pp. 124–125.

4. Akbar Khan, Raiders in Kashmir: Story of the Kashmir War 1947–48 (Pakistan: Pak Publishers, 1970), pp. 11–18.

5. In his book, Akbar refers to Sher Khan as “Brigadier and Director of Military Intelligence,” a rank and title that Sher Khan did not posses at the time of these activities.

6. Lars Blinkenberg, India and Pakistan: The History of Unsolved Conflicts (Copenhagen and Arhus, Denmark: Dansk Undensrigkppolitik Institut, 1972), pp. 82–83.

7. Akbar Khan does not give any specific dates for his meetings with the Prime Minister and others.

8. Pakistan GHQ archives Number 1497/60/CI (ii) Appreciation of the Present Situation and Possible Development [sic] in Kashmir, dated October 10, 1947 by Colonel M. Sher Khan, DDMI.

9. The Kashmir Campaign.

10. Ian Campbell-Johnson, Mission with Mountbatten (New York: Atheneum, 1985), p. 224.

11. Dasgupta (War and Diplomacy in Kashmir, p. 43), relying on the Mountbatten Papers refers to this telegram as emanating from the Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Army, Lt. Gen. Sir Douglas Gracey. At that time, however, Gracey was the Chief of General Staff. Messervy was the Army Chief. Campbell-Johnson does not identify the author of the telegram.

12. Dasgupta, War and Diplomacy in Kashmir, p. 42.

13. The official history of the Operations in Jammu and Kashmir, published by the Ministry of Defence of India in 1987 gives details of the first flights on October 27 that total 464 soldiers and officers transported to Srinagar, p. 28.

14. Lt. Gen. S. K. Sinha, Operation Rescue (New Delhi: Vision Books, 1977), p. 22.

15. Lt. General L. P. Sen, Slender was the Thread: Kashmir Confrontation 1947–48 (New Delhi: Orient Longman Ltd. 169), p. 84.

16. Sinha, Operation Rescue, p. 17.

17. Sher Ali Khan, The Story of Soldiering and Politics in India and Pakistan (Lahore: Bakhtyar Printers, 1983), pp. 116–117.

18. Sen, Slender was the Thread. ‘Bogey’ Sen was the acting Brigade Commander of 161 Brigade of the Indian Army that defended Srinagar and fought its way to Baramula.

19. Hand corrected typewritten draft in Pakistan GHQ archives.

20. Brigadier M. Sher Khan, Secret and Personal note of February 19, 1948, to the Prime Minister, carried by hand by Sardar Shaukat Hayat Khan to Karachi. Pakistan GHQ archives.

21. 494 MilSit, UK High Commissioner to CRO, February 28, 1948. Public Records Office, Surrey, UK.

22. An Analysis of the Kashmir Situation by “General Tariq,” dated April 5, 1948. Pakistan army GHQ, Rawalpindi archives.

23. Writing about the Poonch, or Punch as he wrote the name, operations, Lt. Gen. Russell stated that “It is really in the tribesmen's best interest to use their normal tribal that is, dispersal tactics. IN the Kashmir Valley, they tried to fight like regular troops. They gave us a good target, a solid objective and were completely thwarted. In future, they will eschew open country.” He thought the Tribesman was “far more difficult to deal with, when he is paying his own guerilla game in the hills and this is the game I see him playing in Punch, in strength and continuously. Should he do this, we would be landed with a permanent frontier commitment, which I might describe as a running sore [emphasis added], requiring us to lock up a large and increasing number of troops, from which we will get very few tangible results.” Cited in Sinha, Operation Rescue, pp. 42–43.

24. Later General and then Field Marshall and Chief of Army Staff.

25. In addition to regular oral briefings or conversations that the Indian Chief of General Staff and other senior officers had with the UK High Commissioner, the CGS routinely forwarded cyclostyled copies of the latest reports on the Kashmir War from the AHQ (I) Military Intelligence Directorate, signed by Brigadier Chand Das, whose own removal eventually and replacement by Brigadier Dubey also made the news reports to the CRO. Originals of these reports with the Compliments slip from the CGS, India are in the PRO, Surrey, UK.

26. Sinha, Operation Rescue, pp. 57–58.

27. Sinha, Operation Rescue, pp. 61–62. This poem is better known to all who memorized it in school as Horatius at the Bridge. Usman or Sinha clearly took some liberty with the words and the line structure of the fourth stanza of this epic poem which runs as follows

• Then out spoke brave Horatius, the Captain of the Gate:

• ‘To every man upon this earth Death cometh soon or late.

• And how can man die better than facing fearful odds,

• For the ashes of his fathers, and the temples of his Gods.

Brigadier Usman was killed by an artillery shell near Jhangar later on in the war and given a state funeral in New Delhi.

28. A timeline produced by GHQ Pakistan Army shows Jhangar being captured March 18, after “fourteen days fighting.”

29. Thimayya, known to all officers as Timmy (though the JCOs and soldiers called him Timmy Sahib) was later to become General and Chief of Army Staff.

30. Document No: 2014/58/DMO, Pakistan Army GHQ, Rawalpindi archives.

31. Pakistan Army GHQ archives.

32. Situation report on the Kashmir Situation, dated 17 May 1948, Pakistan Army GHQ, Rawalpindi, archives.

33. Sen, Slender was the Thread, pp. 72–75.

34. Akbar Khan, Raiders in Kashmir, p. 101.

35. For details of the history of the war and the UN role in the conflict see Josef Korbel (the father of US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright), Danger in Kashmir ( Princeton University Press, 1954 and 1966) and Blinkenberg, India and Pakistan.

36. My research into the archives at the Public Records Office in Surrey, UK indicated that routinely all operational reports were being copied and sent by courier from Indian Army headquarters to the British High Commission. A complimentary slip was attached to each report.

37. Humayun Mirza, From Plassey to Pakistan: the Family History of Iskander Mirza, the First President of Pakistan (New York and Oxford: University Press of America Inc., 1999), p. 163.

38. “The First Kashmir War: The Untold Story” by Lt. Gen. (retd) Habibullah Khan Khattak, The News, Lahore, Friday July 12, 1991.

39. Sher Ali, The Story of Soldiering and Politics in India and Pakistan, p. 119.

40. Humayun Mirza, From Plassey to Pakistan, p. 163.

41. Sinha, Operation Rescue, p. 134.

42. Habibullah Khan, The News, July 12, 1991.

43. “Lessons of Kashmir Campaign” by Comd 7 Div, File No K/18/Hist Sec, GHQ Pakistan Army archives

44. General M. Musa, Jawan to General: Recollections of a Pakistani Soldier (New Delhi: 1985), quoted in Operations in Jammu and Kashmir, published by the Ministry of Defence of India in 1987.