20th Lancers (Pakistan)
| 20th Lancers(PUNJAB)(HAIDRI) | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Active | 1922 - 1937; 1956 - Present |
| Country |
 Pakistan
|
| Branch | Army |
| Type | Armoured Regiment |
| Size | Regiment |
| Engagements |
Indian Mutiny of 1857 Bhutan War 1864-65 Second Afghan War 1878-80 First World War 1914-18 Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 |
| Battle honours | Charasiah, Kabul 1879, Afghanistan 1878-80, Neuve Chapelle, France and Flanders 1914-15, Kut al Amara 1917, Sharqat, Mesopotamia 1916-18, Persia 1916-19, NW Frontier, India 1915, Sialkot 1965, Shakargarh 1971. |
The 20th Lancers is an armoured regiment of the Pakistan Army.
As part of a reorganization of the British Indian Army, the original 20th Lancers was formed in 1922 by the amalgamation of the 14th Murray's Jat Lancers and the 15th Lancers (Cureton's Multanis).
The modern regiment was formed in 1956.
After the First World War, the number of cavalry regiments of the British Indian Army was reduced from thirty-nine to twenty-one. However, instead of disbanding the surplus units, it was decided to amalgamate them in pairs. This resulted in renumbering and renaming of the entire cavalry line. 20th Lancers was formed in 1921 by the amalgamation at Sialkot on 21 September 1920 - the 14th Murray's Jat Lancers, raised at Aligarh as the Jat Horse Yeomanry in 1857 during the Indian Mutiny and composed entirely of Hindu Jats, and the 15th Lancers (Cureton's Multanis), which was formed at Lahore in 1858 from Multani Pathans originally raised in 1857 as The Multani Regiment of Cavalry.
The new class composition of the regiment was one squadron each of Punjabi Muslims, Jat Sikhs and Hindu Jats. The uniform of 20th Lancers was dark blue with scarlet facings. The badge consisted of crossed silver lances bearing pennons with a crown at the intersection above "XX" and a scroll below. In 1937, 20th Lancers became the training regiment of 3rd Indian Cavalry Group at Lucknow. It was converted into a training centre in 1940 and transferred to India after Partition of India and Pakistan.
On 20 June 1956, 20th Lancers was re-raised by Pakistan Army as a Reconnaissance Regiment of Pakistan Armoured Corps and equipped with M24 Chaffee light tanks. The same year, the Indian Army raised an armoured regiment, named as 20 Lancers, as the successor of the pre-independence 20th Lancers. The honour to raise the regiment for the Pakistan Armored Corps went to Major Syed Azmat Ali Bokhari; Major Bokhari also commanded a squadron of the regiment during the 1965 war on the Sialkot front. At the time of re-raising in 1956, the original badge was retained with the exception of the crown.
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Wikipedia