On December 8, I971, 4 Sikh was camping on the outskirts of Jessore, a military cantonment in erstwhile East Pakistan. One month earlier, in November, through preliminary tactical operations, 9 Infantry Division of India had drawn forward Pakistan’s 107 Infantry Brigade out of the bastion of Jessore into a defensive arc 10 -15 kilometres to the West, to cover the three axes leading to the cantonment. These gaps were exploited using General Aurora’s operational strategy of ” leave the highways and take the byways”. After some intense fighting to clear selected defences, breakthrough was achieved on December 6 and Jessore was in our hands by December 7.