A Batch of 300 Army personnel including 50 Officers left New Delhi on September 7 by special train for Barrackpore from where they would be flown to Indo-China by IAF Planes.

Sardar Surjit Singh Majithia, Deputy Defence Minister, Lt Gen S.M. Shrinagesh, acting C-in-C, Army, Major Gen Tara Singh Bal, Q.M.G., Army H.Q. Brig. Harbhajan Singh, acting Delhi Area Commander, and Brig. Aiyappa, Director of Signals were among the distinguished guests present at the platform to bid farewell to the troops.

The Deputy Defence Minister and the C-in-C walked along the platform and talked to Officers and Other Ranks bound for Indo-China. As the train slowly steamed out the bands of the Rajputana Rifles Regimental Centre and the First Guards played auld lang sine.

Another special train with the final batch of 50 Army personnel and about 300 tons of stores and equipments left a midnight for Madras.

Six months' reserve of ordnance stores for the Indian Army Services contingent in Indo-China left the same day by a special goods train for Madras on its way to Indo-China. A small ordnance Detachment, headed by Major D.C. Sehgal of the Ordnance Corps, will be responsible for the distribution and sale of these stores in Indo-China.

Only items of stores which are essential for the service contingent are being sent. The detachment will run a mobile Officers' shop which will have about 70 picked items of ordnance stores and clothing. Service Officers can obtain their requirements on payment. The officers' shop will travel round to all the Commissions' headquarters and make payment issues to officers on the spot. Stocks of ordnance stores will be replenished from India from time to time.

This is for the first time after independence that Ordnance Corps unit is being sent overseas. Even in Korea where a large Indian Force was sent, no separate ordnance detachment was established. Excepting a few specialised items of stores which were supplied through Service channels, the Indian Custodian Force was dependent for its requirement on the U.N. Command.

The small Ordnance unit, unlike a normal Ordnance unit, with its conventional role in the field wll be called upon to function in Indo-China as a multi-purpose unit. For example, besides its static role of supplying the troops requirements and the running of officers’ shops in the three States of Viet Nam, Laos and Combodia, the Ordnance detachment will also establish what may be described as a "flying officers' shop" carrying items of stores by air on demand to the Officers located in the remote corners of Indo-China.

The Indian Air Force commenced airlift of the main party of the International Supervisory Commission from India to Indo-China on September 3.

The Indo-China Airlift Committee was formed at Barrackpore (Calcutta), with Group Captain Y.V. Malse, the Station Commander, as its Chairman and a representative each of the Army, Ministry of External Affairs and of the Indian Airlines Corporation, to conduct the air transportation of over 800 personnel and nearly 70,000 lbs of baggage, equipment and rations of the ITSC main party. Preseding the airlift, two IAF Dakotas left Barrackpore for Indo-China, carrying IAF technical officers and ground crew with tool-kits and spares to establish aircraft servicing and maintenance posts at Rangoon Vientiane, Pnom Penh and Saigon.

Plans to establish at a later stage a self-contained IAF communication flight as a permanent feature for providing airlift facilities to the ITSC authorities within the Associated States of Indo-China are also being worked out.

The Indian Navy's L.S.T., I.N.S. Magar, is carrying heavy stores, equipment for the Indian members of the Indo-China Truce-Supervisory Commission to Indo-China. The ship is under the command of Lt. Comdr. H. Dubash, I.N.