High Altitude Warfare School
specialized military training institution of the Indian Army
The High Altitude Warfare School (HAWS) is a defence service training and research establishment of the Indian Army. In 1948, the Indian Army established a ski school in Gulmarg that later became the High Altitude Warfare School, which specialises in snow–craft and winter warfare. It is located in an area which is prone to avalanches. Selected soldiers from the US, UK, Germany and other countries visit regularly for specialist training.
History
The birth of High Altitude Warfare School (HAWS) of Indian Army in 1948 can be directly attributed to the loss of Gilgit-Baltistan in the Siege of Skardu to Pakistan in 1947–1948 Indo-Pakistani War. The school was established in December 1948 by General K S Thimayya, then holding the rank of Brigadier. It was initially known as the 19 Infantry Division Ski School. During the winter of 1949–1950, the school was redesignated as a Command Establishment and renamed as the Winter Warfare School. On 8 April 1962, it was upgraded to a Category A Training Establishment and adopted its current name.
Training
HAWS offers two training programmes, the Mountain Warfare course and the Winter Warfare course.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “High Altitude Warfare School” is specialized military training institution of the Indian Army. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through High, Altitude and Warfare, not as a finished interpretation.
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Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q14956997. Authority coordinates are 34.291, 75.325. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1948, 1947, 1949 and 1950.
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This entry incorporates text from “High Altitude Warfare School” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.