Major Somnath Sharma's left hand was in a plaster cast when he led his company into Badgam on November 3, 1947. He had been wounded previously, and his arm had not fully healed - but the situation in Kashmir left no room for convalescence. Indian troops had only just begun flying into Srinagar's airfield, and tribal lashkars numbering in the thousands were converging on the city along three axes. One force of roughly 700 raiders was approaching through Gulmarg, heading straight for Badgam - and the airfield beyond it. If they seized the runway, the entire Indian airlift would collapse. Sharma's D Company of the 4th Battalion, Kumaon Regiment, was all that stood in the way.
The strategic logic was brutally simple. In late October 1947, Pakistan-backed tribal lashkars had invaded the princely state of Kashmir after the Maharaja's accession to India, triggering the first Indo-Pakistani war. India's response depended entirely on the Srinagar airfield - there was no overland route that could deliver troops fast enough. By November 3, only a weak brigade had been flown in, pulled from refugee protection duties in Punjab and hastily redeployed. These soldiers were spread thin across three positions: Srinagar airfield, Magam, and Pattan. A lashkar approaching from the Gulmarg route could bypass the Pattan defenses entirely, reach Badgam, and shut down the airfield before reinforcements arrived. The entire defense of Srinagar hinged on a company-sized force stopping a force seven times its number.
Sharma's company engaged the raiders at Badgam and immediately found itself outnumbered and under heavy fire. The Indian Air Force flew support sorties overhead, strafing the lashkar positions - the air strikes inflicted the majority of casualties on the tribal forces throughout the engagement. On the ground, Sharma's men fought from exposed positions, trading rifle fire with attackers who held the advantage of numbers and knowledge of the terrain. Sharma moved constantly between his sections, directing fire and encouraging his soldiers despite the cast on his arm. Then a mortar shell struck the ammunition dump near his position. The explosion killed him. His last radio message to Brigade HQ, received moments before the blast, reported the situation as desperate but urged his men to hold.
By the end of the fighting, between 15 and 22 Indian soldiers were dead, including Sharma, and 26 were wounded. But the lashkar had suffered far worse: over 200 tribal fighters killed, two of their officers dead, two junior commissioned officers lost, and more than 320 wounded. Critically, the tribal leader Khurshid had taken a bullet through his leg. Brigadier Sen ordered 1 Punjab to pull back from Magam to Badgam, where they took up blocking positions to secure the airfield. Night fell. The airfield was still technically vulnerable - yet the lashkar did not advance. The incapacitation of their leader, the punishing casualties from both ground fire and air strikes, and reports of Indian troop movements into the area seem to have caused the raiders to misjudge the tactical situation. By the time 1 Punjab recaptured Badgam, the moment had passed. Additional Indian troops flew in the next day, and all routes into Srinagar were blocked.
Major Somnath Sharma was awarded the Param Vir Chakra posthumously - making him the first-ever recipient of India's highest wartime gallantry decoration. The award recognized not just his courage under fire but the strategic consequence of his actions: his company's resistance at Badgam bought the critical hours that allowed the Indian airlift into Srinagar to continue. The battle was followed by the decisive Battle of Shalateng, which pushed the raiders further back from the city. Today, Badgam is a quiet district town in the Kashmir Valley, a few kilometers from the still-active Srinagar Airport. The airfield that Sharma's company saved remains one of the region's vital links to the rest of India, a piece of infrastructure whose continued existence traces back, in part, to a morning when one understrength company refused to yield.
Coordinates: 34.02N, 74.73E in the Kashmir Valley, near Srinagar Airport (VISR). The battle took place close to the airfield that is still the primary airport for the region. The Badgam area is visible on approach to VISR's runway. From 10,000-15,000 ft, the Kashmir Valley spreads visibly between the Pir Panjal and Greater Himalayan ranges. Wular Lake is visible to the north, and the Gulmarg highlands to the west mark the route the tribal lashkars used in their approach.