Throughout the Second World War, there were a number of heroic actions committed by different
soldiers who fought for the different armies.
German soldiers would be awarded the Iron Cross, and those who fought and belonged to
the British military could be awarded a Victoria cross.
There was one incredible Nepalese Gurkha soldier who fought for the British, and despite losing
his right hand to a grenade blast, he would manage to fight off and defend against around
200 Japanese soldiers in May 1945 towards the end of the war.
But what is the story of the one armed Gurkha that slaughtered dozens of Japanese soldiers.
Join us today as we find out, and remember to support our channel, please make sure to
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Lachhiman Gurung was born on the 30th December 1917 inside a village in Nepal.
He would in December 1940 enlist in the British Indian Army, and he was allowed to enlist
despite the fact he was only 4 feet 11 inches tall.
During peacetime this would have prevented him from fighting, but as a war was going
on he was accepted.
It was said that Gurung’s father had sent him out to go and get some cigarettes form
the local village shop, however he never returned as he had met his friend nearby and they had
gone to enlist.
The British at the time were urgently recruiting, and Lachhimann became accepted into a Gurkha
Rifles unit.
He would see action in Burma, which was targeted by the Japanese as they wished to cut off
an Allied supply route to China.
Also they wanted to reach the border of India and strike a rebellion against the British
inside the country.
But the Japanese would cause chaos in Burma, and in 1942 would advance throughout the lands
and take much of it.
The British and their allies tries to fight back, but thousands of prisoners of war would
be taken, and they were treated awfully being forced to create back breaking building projects
such as the Burma Railway.
But as time went on, there was more of a stalemate as the Allied forces fought back, and also
dug in deep.
Lachhimann Gurung had been drafted into part of the 89th Indian Infantry Brigade of the
7th Indian Infantry Division.
At the end of April 1945, they were ordered to go and intercept and destroy Japanese soldiers
who were withdrawing, and some units were ordered to block the Japanese treated.
Lachhimann’s group were forced to go and do this, and his regiment would make contact
with the enemy near to the village of Taungdaw.
However as they planned to block the retreating enemy, the platoon themselves were surrounded
by the Japanese and they were then cut off from the rest of the British forces.
They were heavily outnumbered, and things looked very bleak.
But Gurung’s soldiers and unit would prepare for a firefight and they would dig in.
On the 12th May 1945, Gurung was at the front and forward position of his platoon on a small
hill with two fellow soldiers.
It was in the night, and they were then attacked in a surprise ambush by up to 200 Japanese
infantry soldiers.
A grenade was thrown from the Japanese, and it landed near Gurung and then he managed
to throw this back before it exploded.
But then another grenade fell into the trench by his foot, and he then managed to throw
it back again.
But a third would land, and then Gurung would go to grab it, but the grenade exploded as
he had his hands on it.
He was badly injured as were his fellow soldiers, and Lachimann Gurung was bleeding heavily.
He was blinded in one eye by the shrapnel, and his arm was completely shattered, and
a number of his fingers were severed.
It was clear he was also now on his own, and that he could not really abandon his station
for medical help, so with one arm he had to fight on.
He would have had a decision to make, give up the fight and surrender having to suffer
at the hands of the Japanese forces, or to try and achieve a miracle on the battlefield.
If he would have surrendered, he would probably have been killed because of his injuries,
and he would have been denied medical treatment.
But Lachimann Gurung decided to continue to fight.
His good hand was a mess, and he fired and reloaded his bolt action rifle with his left
hand.
The Japanese attacks kept coming, and wave after wave of the attacks were held off, and
Gurung screamed ‘Come and fight a Gurkha,’ but for four hours he managed to hold out.
Over the next two days, the attacks continued, but Gurung with one arm managed to continue
the fight against the Japanese enemy.
He was incredibly brave, and this inspired his soldiers, and then reinforcements arrived
and they would finally repel the Japanese forces.
Gurung managed to survive the battle, and he had personally shot dozens of Japanese
soldiers with one arm and hand.
87 Japanese soldiers died in the battle, and LAchimann Gurung killed 31 of them.
He was then taken to hospital, and he lost his eye and also the use of his hand.
But then he was awarded the Victoria Cross in December 1945 for his bravery and incredible
actions fighting with one arm.
He was one of 13 Gurkha’s to receive this.
The citation for his award said, ‘...Of the 87 enemy dead counted in the immediate
vicinity of the Company locality, 31 lay in front of this Rifleman's section, the key
to the whole position.
Had the enemy succeeded in over-running and occupying Rifleman Lachhiman Gurung's trench,
the whole of the reverse slope position would have been completely dominated and turned.
This Rifleman, by his magnificent example, so inspired his comrades to resist the enemy
to the last, that, although surrounded and cut off for three days and two nights, they
held and smashed every attack.
His outstanding gallantry and extreme devotion to duty, in the face of almost overwhelming
odds, were the main factors in the defeat of the enemy.
After the war despite being injured, Gurung remained inside of the British Army until
the Indian independence.
He then went across to the Indian Army and served for some time before her went back
to Nepal, and he married twice in his life and farmed his father’s plot of land.
Despite being incredibly well decorated in the war, he remained poor throughout his life,
and his village was very cut off and hidden, and he found collecting his pension difficult
as he had to travel long distances.
But a new house was built for him from aid organisations in the 1990s.
He would later advocate for better treatment of Gurkha veterans who laid their lives down
for the British army, and he wanted the Gurkha military veterans and their families to be
able to settle in Britain, and this campaign was then successful.
Gurung was then allowed to come to London, and he settled in Hounslow despite being an
elderly man, and he was cared for by his grand-daughter.
But on the 19th November 2010, he was admitted to hospital suffering from pneumonia, He died
in London on the 12th December 2010.
Lachhimann Gurung’s actions during the Second World War were some of the most heroic and
incredible in the whole conflict.
His story like the Burma campaign is one that is often forgotten during the deadliest war
that the world has ever seen.
He would go on to say, ‘I had to fight because there was no other way, I felt like I was
going to die anyway, so I might as well have died standing on my feet.
All I knew was that I had to go on and hold them back.’
He is remembered in History as the man who with one arm managed to fight back the might
of 200 Japanese soldiers who were considered some of the most intimidating and brutal enemies
of the Second World War.
The Japanese would become synonymous with war crimes and horrific atrocities, but they
were no match for Lachimann Gurung and his rifle and determination.
His story is one which deserves to be known, and it is one of the most incredible in military
history.
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