Walong
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Walong is a small cantonment and administrative town in the Anjaw District of the state of Arunachal Pradesh in northeastern India. Anjaw was carved out of Lohit District in 2004. Walong's approximate position is 28 degrees 06 minutes North, 97 degrees East. It lies on the west bank of the Lohit River (a tributary of the Brahmaputra), approximately 20 kilometres south of the Chinese border. Just north of the border lies the Tibetan trading town of Rima. Walong is approximately 180 km. by road from the district headquarter town of Tezu. It had an Advanced Landing Ground (ALG) capable of taking Otters and Caribous which has now been abandoned. There is an operational helipad. The town is connected to Tezu by a thrice-weekly bus.
In autumn of 1962 Walong was the scene of the Battle of Walong when the outnumbered Indian Army 11th Infantry Brigade blocked the thrust of the invading Chinese. The Brigade put up a valiant and tenacious defence between 22 October and 16 November 1962 until it was reduced to pitiful remnants, and then withdrew down the valley to Hayuliang. The Chinese, who had suffered large casualties, did not follow up beyond Changwinty.
A canopied memorial to the Indian war dead of 1962 was erected long ago next to the airstrip with the following verses composed by a Walong veteran inscribed on it:
- The sentinel hills that round us stand
- bear witness that we loved our land.
- Amidst shattered rocks and flaming pine
- we fought and died on Namti Plain.
- O Lohit gently by us glide
- pale stars above us softly shine
- as we sleep here in sun and rain.
Next to this is a marker relating the history of Walong ALG, and nearby the wreck of a Caribou which crashed here. A new large memorial to the Walong war dead of 1962 has come up in 2002 on the road leading North to Kibithu.Two small temples have also come up on 'Helmet Top', a hill position some 18 kilometres away, which was so named because of helmets and other military gear found strewn there.
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