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NO. 6 SQUADRON The No 6 Squadron is one of the ten senior squadrons of the Indian Air Force, raised before Independence. The squadron formed at Trichinopoly (now Tiruchirapally) on December 1, 1942 under the command of the redoubtable Squadron Leader Mehar Singh. The 'Dragon' emblem was initially carried on the B-24 Liberators of the Squadron. A modified version of this dragon is shown on the patch currently worn by the pilots of the Squadron. By representing its association with both the sea and the air and its motto, ‘Sada Satark’ ‘Always Alert’. A squadron veteran interested in heraldic matters informs us that the crest as originally designed violated accepted rules of heraldry, in having the dragon facing from left to right. (This is because when flown on a flag, crest designs conventionally show the flagstaff on the left, which would have resulted in the dragon moving backwards when the flag was marched.) The error was only noticed after the Presiden

6 MOUNTAIN DIVISION The 6 Mountain Division is unique in the Indian Army because it has been raised four times in sixty years. As the 6 (Poona) Division it originally raised in 1903 and came to a sad end in 1916 when it surrendered to the Turkish Army at Kut, in modern Iraq. Raised again in 1920 for Iraq duty, it was disbanded a second time. In 1941 it was re-raised and spent the war with 10th Army (Persia/Iraq) and disbanded in 1944. In its modern incarnation, it was raised March 26, 1963 at Nanital, Uttar Pradesh, one of the ten mountain divisions raised/authorized because of the Sino-Indian War 1962. Later it shifted to Bareilly, where it remains to this day. It was assigned to protect the mountain districts of the state, which later became the separate state of Uttarakhand. In 1990 the division formally became what it had been all along for the past 25 years, an Army HQ Reserve. The sleeve patch  of 6 Mountain Division has a golden yellow eagle  flying over w