Pakistan FDC: 50 Years Of Pakistan Ordnance Factories, Wah, 2001

Here is a beautiful First Day Cover (FDC) from Pakistan. The FDC was issued on 28 December 2001 on the eve of 50th Anniversary of Pakistan Ordnance Factories, Wah, Pakistan. The beautiful stamp falls into the military stamps category depicting charging infantry, moving tanks and various products of Pakistan Ordnance Factories including arms andammunition ofvarious calibres and weapons. 

The beautiful postmark used to cancel the FDC shows the monograms of three services of Pakistan namely Pakistan Army, Pakistan Air Force and Pakistan Navy. The top centre monogram is of Pakistan Army. It shows two crossed swords with an increasing crescent and a star onthe top. The bottom right monogram is of Pakistan Air Force depicting a flying falcon and a star on top; where as on the bottom left is the monogram of Pakistan Navy featuring an anchor in the middle and a crescent and a star on top.

Brief History Of Pakistan Ordnance Factories:-

During their colonial rule in India, the British raised 16 Ordnance Factories. At the time of creation of Pakistan in 1947, we were unlucky that all the sixteen factories fell to Indian share. Newly created Pakistan with fragile state apparatus and fragmented armed forces had absolutely no arms and ammunition manufacturing facility to meet the security challenges to its sovereignty. 

The first Prime Minister of Pakistan, Khan Liaqat Ali Khan immediately realized this imbalance and issued directive within four months of creation of Pakistan to establish an ordnance factory to manufacture 303 rifle and its ammunition in Rawalpindi. Subsequently, the foundation stone of four workshops was laid by the second Prime Minister of Pakistan Khawaja Nazim ud din in the small town of Wah in December 1951. This was the first step towards the establishment of mother defence industry in Pakistan.

Today by the grace of God Almighty, Pakistan has fourteen big factories at Wah which are taking care of almost 100% requirements of our armed forces. This modern defence industrial complex, which is the oldest & largest in Pakistan defence production industrial system, later helped many other sister defence production setups to flourish. Resultantly today Pakistan has a reasonably good defence production potential in which Pakistan Ordnance Factories occupy the central position.

India: 50th Anniversary Of 62 Cavalry

One of my personal favorites is this magnificently designed First Day Cover (FDC) from India.

The stamp and the FDC; featuring the king of the battlefield - A Tank; were issued to mark 50th Anniversary of 62 Cavalry - An armoured regiment of Indian Army.

The Rs 5 stamp and FDC were issued on 1 April 2006.
What do you think about this beautiful stamp and the cover?

Croatia: Barcelona Olympics 1992 Stamps On "Stop the War In Croatia" Cover

After a long time, I am sharing another magnificent item from my collection. It is a beautiful yet strange First Day Cover (FDC) from Croatia. The strange thing is that the FDC is issued for "Stop the War in Croatia" but the stamps used on the cover are not the same. The two stamps pasted in the top-right corner of the cover comprise of the complete set of stamps issued by Croatia to mark the event of Barcelona Summer Olympics 1992. 

Another Stamp in the bottom-center of the FDC is issued for Zrinski–Frankopan, which according to Google is another name for Magnate Conspiracy. It is 17th century attempt to throw off Habsburg and other foreign influences over Hungary and Croatia.

 This Croatian FDC is a nice mix of various items from 1992 and 1993, I believe. The postmark on the FDC is from some other sports stamp of 1993, but I could not find them.

 You can contribute and share your knowledge on the stamps, FDC or the Postmarks, if you know anything! I shall be obliged!

Pakistan FDC Featuring Nishan-e-Haider Winners

Here is one of my personal favorites from my collection. Its a FDC from Pakistan featuring two of the eleven (including Saif Ali Janjua who was awarded Hilal-e-Kashmir in 1948, which was afterwards made equivalent to Nishan-e-Haider) recipients of the Highest Military Award of Pakistan - Nishan-e-Haider.

 Both stamps are for Rs 4 denomination and were issued on 6 September 2002 - the Day being celebrated as the Defence of Pakistan Day every year. It was on this day in 1965 that India launched a dawn attack on Pakistan's territory without a war declaration BUT Pakistan Armed Forces fought valiantly and bravely. They beat back the attack and inflicted heavy losses over the attacker.

Nishan-e-Haider is awarded to military personnel for extraordinary bravery in combat. 9 out of 10 awards have been received by Pakistan Army while 1 has been received by Pakistan Airforce.

The stamp on the right features Sawar Muhammad Hussain while the stamp on left shows Lance Naik Muhammad Mahfuz. Here is a brief account of their heroic actions:-

 

 

• Lance Naik Muhammad Mahfuz (Shaheed), Nishan-e-Haider. 
  Born in Pind Malikan (now Mahfuzabad, Rawalpindi District) on October 25, 1944, Muhammad Mahfuz joined the Army on October 25, 1962. When war broke out in 1971, Lance Naik Mahfuz was serving in "A" Company of 15 Punjab Regiment deployed on the Wagah-Attari Sector. On the night of December 17-18, his company was assigned the task of occupying Phul Kanjri village located in the section. Platoon No. 3, to which Lance Naik Mahfuz belonged, was the forward unit in the assault and had to face torrential volleys of enemy fire from concrete Pill boxes. When the Company was about 70 yards from the Indian position, it was pinned down by unceasing frontal and cross fire from automatic weapons of the enemy. With the break of dawn, the enemy artillery also opened up. Fighting like a man possessed, Mahfuz, whose machine-gun was destroyed by an enemy shell, took over a light machine-gun from a gunner who had already fallen and advanced towards an enemy bunker from which automatic fire had inflicted heavy casualties on his Company. Wounded in the legs by shell splinters, he continued to fire, dragging himself forward. At the bunker he got up with almost superhuman effort and pounced on the enemy and was hit at point-blank range. His weapon dropped from his hand, but despite being unarmed and mortally wounded, he caught hold of an Indian Soldier and began to strangle him when another Indian bayoneted him to death.
  After the ceasefire, the Commander of the enemy admitted to his Pakistani counter-part in a meeting that the like of the courage and tenacity displayed by Lance Naik Mahfuz had seldom been witnessed before.
   
• Sawar Muhammad Hussain (Shaheed), Nishan-e-Haider. Born in Dhok Pir Bakhsh (now Dhok Muhammad Hussain Janjua) on June 18, 1949, Sawar Muhammad Hussain joined the Army on September 3, 1966 and was trained as a driver. When war broke out in 1971, he was in 20 Lancers. Though only a driver, he took active part in every battle his unit was engaged in. He would take over a machine-gun and fire on the enemy, unmindful of any danger no matter how grave. On December 5, 1971, he went from trench to trench delivering ammunition to our men in the Zafarwal-Shakargarh Area, braving intense shelling and direct fire from enemy tanks and infantry. On the following day, he went out with four fighting patrols and undertook most hazardous missions. On December 10, he spotted the enemy digging in near village Harar Khurd along our Minefield and informed the second- in-command of his unit. He moved, on his own initiative, from one anti-tank gun to another directing the crew to fire accurately at enemy tanks, and was thus responsible for the destruction of sixteen enemy tanks. At 1600 hours on December 10, while directing fire from one of our recoilless rifles, he was hit on the chest by a burst of machine-gun fire from an enemy tank and thus died in action.
  Sawar Muhammad Hussain had the distinction of being the first Jawan to be awarded Nishan-e-Haider.
  Source: Pakistan Post Official Website