I was ordered to attack a Pakistan’s-very strong defensive position, opposite me on the same night. It made no sense to me, particularly when my entire Brigade Sector was under intense shelling and Pakistan, having the initiative could attack that night. Under the then prevailing circumstances I was certain that lifting of troops from one of my forward infantry battalions would unbalance me and I, therefore, had no option but to refuse the GOCs order. He was livid and very angry and that led to my fighting Maj Gen E’Desouza rather than Pakistan during the fortnight of the War. For all my subsequent offensive actions, he refused to give me any additional troops from his reserve Brigade, which was located in my Sector only and that too without any ground holding responsibility or any other commitment. We, of course, did our best but that was not good enough. My Brigade would have achieved much more, if additional resources had been allotted to me by the GOC for specific tasks. In this bargain the Indian Army and the Nation lost a golden opportunity to capture real estate in POK. —Excerpt from the book

Lieutenant General KK Nanda was commissioned in December 1949 into the Regiment of Artillery. He is a graduate of the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington and the National Defence College, New Delhi. In 1971 he was promoted to the rank of a Brigadier and took over the command of 161 Infantry Brigade in the Kashmir Valley. He fought the Indo-Pak War of 1971 with this formation successfully.
In 1978 he was promoted to the rank of a Major General and commanded an Infantry Division in Rajasthan. In 1984 he was promoted again and appointed Chief of Staff, Central Command, Lucknow, in the rank of a Lieutenant General. He retired from there in 1987. During this period he was also the Colonel Commandant of Remounts and Veterinary Corps.
Actively associated with Think Tank of various reputed socio-cultural organization. A prolific writer, has several books to his credit.