Pakistan's Combat Stars and War Medals

Brian Wolfe · February 26, 2014

Pakistan’s Combat Stars and War Medals

Pakistan and India fought two major wars, one in 1965 and another in 1971. These were not long and drawn out affairs though the seeds of the conflicts had been sown decades before; I will not get into those here. It would be simplifying the causes of the wars to say that they were merely ideological differences (Islam verses Hindu). However these differences certainly could be cited as the reason the fighting on both sides was so intense.

India gained independence in 1947 and simultaneously Pakistan formed its own independent state resulting in what is known as “Partition”. The two countries were never on good terms and border disagreements were bound to erupt. In 1965 India and Pakistan went to war over such a boundary dispute in the Region of Kashmir. The War was fought from April to September of 1965 and while, as stated, the War was not a protracted one it did generate a good number of military casualties. India suffered 3,000 KIA while Pakistan sustained 3,800 KIA.

In 1971 India supported East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) during the East Pakistan Liberation War. Fighting between the forces of the then West Pakistan and India broke out on India’s Eastern border in what is called the world’s shortest war; lasting from December 3^rd to 16^th. Even though the war was restricted to such a short time span it generated 194 KIA for India while Pakistan was 1,900 KIA. Civilian losses for both of the above wars are not figured into the totals.

The 1965 War generated the first of Pakistan’s two Combat Stars and accompanying War Medals. To clarify, the Combat Star was awarded to those actually serving in an area of combat activity while the War Medal was awarded to those who were serving anywhere during the conflict. The combat star is always accompanied by the war medal for the particular war they were awarded for. However the war medal can be found in groups alone.

In the case of the 1965 combat star you will find most of these officially named on the reverse. The war medals were not named for either war unless it was undertaken privately.

The 1971 War produced another pair of these combat stars and war medals. The combat star in this case is never officially named as is the war medal and again neither was the 1971 war medal.

As has been said many times, there is always an exception to any rule. In this case the 1971 War medal shown the recipient had his medal privately (unofficially) named.

The Sitara-i-Harb 1965 and 1971 (combat stars)

The correct names of the combat stars is, the Sitara-i-Harb 1965 and the Sitara-i-Harb 1971. At a resent show I attended I overheard a dealer tell a customer that the only difference between the two was the different ribbons. For me this was one of those jaw dropping moments brought on by an overwhelming feeling of disbelief in that statement.

True they both have ribbons with a black field with the 1965 star having one red stripe while the 1971 star sports two red stripes. Beyond differences in the red strips on a black field and that they are both stars there is a world of difference, at least to the educated collector. The medal suspension bars differ as does the method of affixing the star to the bar. The 1965 star is suspended so that two points of the star are horizontal while the 1971 is suspended by the tip of the star’s point.

We have already discussed that the reverse of the 1965 star was officially named while the 1971 was not. That’s seems easy enough but let’s take a look at the obverse of the two stars. While I cannot translate the writing one can plainly see there is a vast difference.

The Tamgha-i-Jang 1965and 1971 (War Medals)

The obverse of the 1965 and 1971 war medals is virtually identical so when viewed in a group, especially when the combat star is absent, the difference in this case is indeed the ribbons.

There is a vast difference when it comes to the reverses however. The 1965 has script in the center surrounded by script around the outer edge. However the centre of the 1971 is blank with the date written at the bottom. If you look closely at the 1965 I believe the script at the bottom is in Hindi while the balance of the script is possibly Urdu, Islamic or Arabic calligraphy. I apologize for my lack of knowledge in this area. The 1971 war star is missing the Hindi. As may be noted in the examples below the recipient of the 1971 medal has utilized the blank space to have the medal unofficially named, English lettering.

As mentioned above the star and the medal for each war are found either in pairs or within groups of medals. The medal can be found by itself in a group but the star is always, or should always be accompanied by the circular medal.

The first example of a group containing a medal without its star is shown below. The star and medal are for the 1971 War yet the recipient was serving during the 1965 War yet NOT within a combat zone, therefore the medal appears alone.

The reason for the seemingly missing Hijri Tamgha Medal (Gold ribbon with Black stripe) is that often we see this when the recipient had yet to actually receive the medal yet needs to show the place on the medal bar. This is quite common with Indian Medals as well.

The last example is of a very nice original group showing both 1965 and 1971 combat stars and their accompanying war medals. This group has quite the personal attachment for me. My brother and his wife were visiting her family in China one year. He had offered to keep watch for Chinese medals while there and I asked him not to due to the many fakes that abound. In our conversation I mentioned that I collected Indian and Pakistan medals. A street vender had this group of medals off to the side. I should call them a “glob” of medals as they were strung together on a wire so I had to mount them. My sister-in-law speaks the official language of Chinese street venders’; it’s called “negotiation” which led my brother to later confess that he only had to pay the equivalent of $5.00 American for the whole group.

For those who have yet not noticed the Tamgha –i- Jang 1971 is mounted with the ribbon on backwards. Oops.