What field guns, howitzers and mortars were used by the Indian Army and the Pakistan Army during the 1971 war?

Question

While the tank battles are better documented, the role of the field guns are not so well recorded (at least not in available documents). I know that 3.7 inch howitzers were part of the first artillery unit of the Bangladesh Army from this website. Beyond this it has been difficult to pinpoint the guns in action at that point of time.

Answer 1

Well, according to this article on DefenceNow, the Indian Army hasn't purchased any new field artillery since the 1970's.

The miserable record of the Indian Army in procuring artillery guns over the last 25 years, when not a single weapon was purchased to replace aging World War-II vintage and 1970s vintage guns for its artillery regiments has come in for a severe criticism at the hands of India's government auditors.

So, then looking at the Wikipedia page for the Indian Regiment of Artillery the following field guns are listed as being in service.

105mm Indian Field Gun
105mm Light Field Gun
122mm D-30 Howitzer
130mm M-46 Field Gun
155mm E1 Metamorphosis gun 45 Caliber Howitzer
155mm Haubits FH77/B Howitzer

We can immediately discount the 155mm Haubits FH77, as that wasn't produced until ~1978. I can't find much information at all on the "Metamorphosis", so I can't say with that. But the M-46 was first produced in the 1950's and the D-30 in the 1960's, so it is likely that those were used.

Where the 105mm Indian Field & Light Field Gun's are concerned, it seems likely that they are names for the L118 Light Gun as used by the British Armed Forces between 1961 and ~1975. It's quite possible that the Indian Field Gun is a locally produced version of the L118 and the Light Field Gun was an import.

It's also possible that the Indian Army had access to the Abott Self Propelled Gun by this point, as a version was produced by and sold to India, although I am not sure when this occurred.

The WW2 vintage artillery that was likely to be used by India - and reportedly up until the 1980s - was the Ordnance QF 25-Pounder which was used by the British Army and many Commonwealth Nations throughout WW2 and into the 1970s/1980s. I don't know if they were still in service with the Indian Army in 1971 but they were in service with the British Army well into the 60's and only stopped being used ceremonially in 1992.

Answer 2

I can't find a definitive list of Pakistani artillery in 1971. This is what I've pieced together based on the better documentation I've found for the 1965 war and what they were equipped with in 1990.

Both sides made heavy use of British WWII vintage equipment including...

• QF 25 Pounder, both sides possessed hundreds. Pakistan still makes ammunition.
• QF 3.7" Mountain Howitzers both sides had dozens in 1965.
• 5.5" Medium Gun was used by both sides and has been seen as late as 1999 in Kashmir.

Both sides also used American equipment.

• M-46 130mm towed field gun, a post WW-II design. Also a Chinese knock off known as the Type-59.
• M101 howitzer of WWII vintage.

In addition there was a grab bag of other artillery.

• Pakistan probably used the Chinese Type 56, a knock off of the Soviet D-44 85mm Divisional Field Gun.
• Pakistan still uses the American M7 Priest self-propelled artillery from WWII.