Indian Infantry Section Graphic (1967)
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This is an exemplar Indian Army Infantry Section as described by an officer cadet handbook from 1967, which one of my Patrons was kind enough to provide me an excerpt of. It is very similar to a British Army 10-man infantry section of the 1950s pre-SLR, just with SLRs.
It was classically split into a Rifle Group and Bren Group, with the Section Commander generally directly leading the Rifle Group in maneuvers and the Section 2IC leading the Bren Group. Naik and Lance Naik were the Indian equivalent to Corporal and Lance Corporal respectively and their positions mirrored the British.
Like the British before they adopted the SLR, the Indian Section Commander was armed with a machine carbine (Commonwealth lingo of the day for a submachine gun). The manual provided to me lists either the SMC (Sten Machine Carbine) or newer SAF (Sterling). Photos of both can be seen in use during the Indo-Pakistani Wars. Almost everyone else is armed with the 1A1, which was a local mix of metric pattern FN FALs and inch pattern L1A1 SLRs. The section automatic was a local copy of the British L4 LMG, which was a 7.62x51mm conversion of the Bren. The Indian 1A was a conversion of the .303 Bren Mk. III, the 1B was a new build 7.62mm Bren, and the 1C was a converted Bren Mk. I.
The most peculiar detail is Rifleman No. 3 (also called the Grenade Fire Rifleman) was armed with an SMLE No. 1 Mk. III in order to use the 2.5” cup discharger. This type of thing (issuing the legacy weapon to the Grenadier only) is very common when a new service rifle is adopted because often the rifle grenade attachments, grenade launchers, or adapters for the grenade launchers aren’t adopted at the very same time. For example:
The Australians bringing back the M79 before fashioning a jank M203 attachment for the F88
The U.S. Army keeping the M1903 bolt-action around during their initial involvement in World War II because the M7 grenade launcher for the M1 Garand wasn't ready
The U.S. Marines keeping the M203 mounted on an M4 Carbine around while waiting for the M320 to be issued despite everyone else in the team having an M27 IAR.
I explain this section organization a little further in this Patreon and Channel Member exclusive video:
