The new corps was still in the process of formation when the hostilities broke out in September 1965. In addition to the 1st Armoured Division under Maj. Chaudhuri, who created a new I Corps under the command of Lt. But he was overridden by the Chief of Army Staff Gen. Harbakhsh Singh favoured launching the campaign from Dera Baba Nanak using the 1st Armoured Division. The canal starts from the Marala Headworks on the Chenab River close to Pakistan's border with J&K, and runs to the west and south of Sialkot, eventually draining into the Ravi River near the town of Narang Mandi.

It called for relieving Jammu by advancing from either Samba (in J&K) or Dera Baba Nanak (in Indian Punjab) with a view to encircling the city of Sialkot along the Marala–Ravi Link Canal (MRL). The Sialkot campaign was part of the strategy of riposte that India had devised to counter Pakistan's advances into Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). The battle came to an end shortly before the United Nations Security Council mandated an immediate ceasefire, which would formally end the hostilities of the 1965 war. The initial clashes in Chawinda coincided with the Battle of Phillora, and the fighting here intensified once the Pakistani forces at Phillora retreated. It is well known as being one of the largest tank battles in history since the Battle of Kursk, which was fought between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany in World War II. The Battle of Chawinda was a major engagement between Pakistan and India in the Second Kashmir War as part of the Sialkot campaign. 1999 Pakistan Breguet 1150 Atlantic shootdown.

Largest tank battles in ww2