Ref Blogpost: Field Marshal SMH Manekshaw
Dear Col Anand,
Thank you for your painstaking research on Field Marshal Manekshaw. I would however like to make a few observations so as to get the facts right.
Sam Manekshaw was never commissioned into the 8th Gorkha Rifles. He was commissioned into the 4/12 Frontier Force Regiment which is now in Pakistan. On Partition he was transferred to the 5th Gorkha Rifles(FF) which was also a Frontier Force Regiment.
He was posted to MO Dte as a Lt Col at Partition and was promoted in situ as a Col. Sam never commanded an infantry battalion and has never served with the 8th Gorkha Rifles.
Although he was on the panel of the 5th Gorkha Rifles(FF), he was not made Col on the Regt because there were officers of the Regt who were senior to him. Sometime after 1958, when Maj Gen AS Pathania, MVC,MC was made Col of the 5th Gorkha Rifles(FF) Sam was offered and accepted Colonelcy of the 8th Gorkha Rifles and that regiment thereafter became ' His Regiment'. I hope I have been able to help you in some small way.
Best wishes
Maj Gen Ian Cardozo (Retd)
Dear Brigadier Kamboj,
I read with interest the details about Sam Manekhaw compiled by Brig LK Anand. Without detracting from his splendid effort, I would like to submit a few corrections and additions. These are based on Sam’s biography that is part of my book LEADERSHIP IN THE INDIAN ARMY – BIOGRAPHIES OF TWELVE SOLDIERS. The draft was vetted by Sam himself, not once but thrice, so I think it should be accurate.
The name of Sam’s mother was Hilla, and not Heerabai.
Sam did his Senior Cambridge from, Sherwood Collge, Nainital. He then joined and Hindu Sabha College, Amritsar, to study for his F.Sc. He Joined IMA on 1 October 1932. Sam passed out on 22 December 1934. He was commissioned on 1 February 1935, with the date of seniority fixed as 4 February 1934.
Sam was commissioned in 4/12 Frontier Force Regiment (FFR) and not 8th Gurkha Rifles. In fact, he never serviced in a Gurkha unit. Shortly after Independence, while he was in MO, he was posted as CO 3/5 Gorkha Rifles. However, before he could move, fighting broke out in Kashmir and his posting orders were cancelled. He was promoted Lt Col and Brig in MO itself. He never commanded a battalion. In April 1952, Sam was given command of 167 Infantry Brigade at Ferozepur. IN December 1957, Sam was promoted Major General and posted as GOC 26 Infantry Division. He became a Lt Gen in November 1962 (and not Dec 1963, as stated) and given command of 4 Corps. In December 1963, he was appointed GOC-in-C Western Command
He was married on 22 April 1939, to Silloo Bode. He has two daughters, Maja and Sherry. As regards the anecdotes, there are just too many. A large number are there in my book.
Regards
Maj Gen VK Singh
Dear Brig Kamboj
The following Para from the biography of Sam Manekshaw (RMS 140/2011) illustrates that for want of this element alone in our chiefs, not only the Defence Forces, but also the whole nation is suffering the manipulations of babus and politicians. Courage, gallantry, bravery, valour and all such words which every general chants at meetings with juniors sound hollow after witnessing all that is going on in this country. We are not the sentries of the nation; we are the guardians of the nation.
Is Military Watchdog for the Looters?
"Sub Para(h) Professional Competence. Once a defence secretary made an observation on the note written by Manekshaw for the PM and the Defence Minister. He walked straight into Mrs Gandhi’s office. He politely told her that if she found the defence secretary more competent than him on military matters, then she did not have a need for him. The defence secretary was given a new job."
Col Ram Gulrajani
Dear Chander,
Dehradun remembered Field Marshal SMH Manekshaw on 3rd April his birthday by cutting cake and paying rich tibutes to this unique soldier by lighting candles before his portrait at Hotel Regent. arranged by Marshal School and Dehradun Ex Servicemen. Different Papers in the town published articles eulogising his traits to mark the occasion. One such article published Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw’s Birth Anniversary- click here. We can never forget this illustrous soldier and he will keep youngsters inspiring the great traditions of Army which he practically followed in his life and rose to achieve the highest position.
Regards
Gopal
Veteran Brig KG Behl
President DESL
Showing posts with label Gorkha Rifles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gorkha Rifles. Show all posts
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Great and Charismatic Indian Soldier Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw
Remembering a Great and Charismatic Indian Soldier Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw
Dear Brig Kamboj,
I am sending you an article which is a compilation of facts and figures on Field Marshall Sam Manekshaw. I have done it on his Birthday ie 3 April, so that our friends could derive inspiration from the great qualities of head and heart of this charismatic soldier. You may like to further disseminate it as per your discretion. There are a number of photographs also with this article, which somehow I could not include here. These however could be viewed in my blog "India of my Dreams" whose link is given below.
Regards
Col LK Anand (Retd)
THE FIELD MARSHAL NOT ONLY GAVE US BANGLADESH, BUT ALSO 28 YRS OF COMPARABLE PEACE- click here
Dear Brig Kamboj,
I am sending you an article which is a compilation of facts and figures on Field Marshall Sam Manekshaw. I have done it on his Birthday ie 3 April, so that our friends could derive inspiration from the great qualities of head and heart of this charismatic soldier. You may like to further disseminate it as per your discretion. There are a number of photographs also with this article, which somehow I could not include here. These however could be viewed in my blog "India of my Dreams" whose link is given below.
Regards
Col LK Anand (Retd)
THE FIELD MARSHAL NOT ONLY GAVE US BANGLADESH, BUT ALSO 28 YRS OF COMPARABLE PEACE- click here
Monday, December 27, 2010
Britain honours WWII Havildar Lachhiman Gurung, VC
The Telegraph Monday 27 December 2010
Havildar Lachhiman Gurung, who died on December 12 aged 92, won the Victoria Cross while serving with the Gurkha Rifles in Burma in 1945; in recent years he had been a prominent figure in the campaign led by the actress Joanna Lumley to allow former Gurkhas to settle in Britain.
At the end of April 1945, the 89th Indian Brigade of 7th Division was ordered to cross the Irrawaddy and destroy the enemy north of the Prome-Taungup road. By May 9 the Japanese, after a series of desperate attacks, had broken off contact and were withdrawing towards the Taungdaw Valley. “B” and “C” companies of the 4th/8th Gurkha Rifles were positioned to block their route at the village of Taungdaw, on the west bank of the river.
When the Japanese arrived, the two Gurkha companies were surrounded and their lines of communication cut. On the night of May 12, Rifleman Gurung was manning the forward post of his platoon almost 100 yards ahead of the main company.
At 1.20am, more than 200 Japanese attacked the company position. The brunt of the assault fell on Gurung’s section and, in particular, on his post, which dominated a jungle track leading up to his platoon’s position. Had the enemy been able to overrun it and occupy Gurung’s trench, they would have secured control over the whole of the field before them.
One grenade fell on the lip of Gurung’s trench. He quickly grabbed it and hurled it back at the enemy. Almost immediately another grenade came over. This one fell directly inside the trench. Again Gurung snatched it up and threw it back.
A third grenade landed just in front of the trench. Gurung attempted to throw it back, but it exploded in his hand, blowing off his fingers, shattering his right arm and severely wounding him in the face, body and right leg. His two comrades were also badly wounded and lay helpless in the bottom of the trench.
The enemy, screaming and yelling, now formed up shoulder to shoulder and attempted to rush the position by sheer weight of numbers. Gurung, regardless of his wounds, loaded and fired his rifle with his left hand and kept up a steady rate of fire.
The attacks came in wave after wave, but the Japanese were beaten back with heavy losses. For four hours Gurung remained alone at his post, calmly waiting for each new onslaught, firing into his attackers at point blank range, determined not to yield an inch of ground. His comrades could hear him shouting: “Come and fight a Gurkha!”
The following morning, of the 87 enemy dead found in the company’s immediate locality, 31 lay in front of Gurung’s section. The Japanese made repeated attempts to break through, but the 4th/8th held out until May 15, when they were relieved.
Gurung later said: “I had to fight because there was no other way. I felt I was going to die anyway, so I might as well die standing on my feet. All I knew was that I had to go on and hold them back. I am glad that helped the other soldiers in my platoon, but they would have all done the same thing.”
Gurung was invested with the Victoria Cross by Lord Louis Mountbatten at a parade at the Red Fort in Delhi on December 19 1945. The citation declared: “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.” Partiman Gurung, Lachhiman’s father, then aged about 74, was carried for 11 days from his village in Nepal to witness his son being decorated.
Lachhiman Gurung was born on December 30 1917 at Dakhani village in the Tanhu district of Nepal. He enlisted in December 1940 and after completing basic training was recruited into the 8th Gurkha Rifles. Of small build (he stood just 4ft 11in tall), he was under the minimum height and would not have been accepted in peacetime.
After the action in which he won the Victoria Cross, Gurung was evacuated to hospital, but lost his right hand and the use of his right eye. He continued to serve with the 8th Gurkha Rifles but transferred to the Indian Army after Independence in 1947. He retired in the rank of havildar (the equivalent of sergeant) in the same year.
Gurung married soon afterwards and had two sons and a daughter. Later, after the death of his wife, he had two sons from a second marriage.
He farmed a two-acre plot and owned several buffalo, oxen, goats and cows. In 1995 the VC and GC Association provided the Gurkha Welfare Trust with £2,000 donated by the Armourers and Brasiers’ Livery Company, and these funds were used to build a new house for Gurung and his family near the Gurkha Welfare Centre at Chitwan.
In August 1995 Gurung was received at 10 Downing Street by the Prime Minister, John Major, who presented him with a cheque for £100,500 for the Gurkha Welfare Trust.
In 2008 Gurung became closely involved in the campaign to allow Gurkhas to settle in Britain. The British government had refused entry to the 2,000 Gurkhas who had retired before July 1997, the date when their base was moved to the UK from Hong Kong.
Five claimants — including a Falklands veteran, Lance-Corporal Gyanendra Rai; a Gulf War veteran, Birendra Man; and a Gurkha widow — launched a legal challenge, supported by Lachhiman Gurung and a fellow winner of the VC, Honorary Lieutenant Tul Bahadur Pun, then aged 87. Both men had been told that they would not be allowed to settle here because they had failed to “demonstrate strong ties” to the UK.
In the High Court in September 2008, however, Mr Justice Blake said that the policy should be reviewed, referring to the “Military Covenant undertaken by every British soldier by which, in return for their pledge to make the ultimate sacrifice, they are promised value and respect”. He added: “Rewarding distinguished service by the grant of residence in the country for which the service was performed would be a vindication of this covenant.” As the judge rose after his ruling, Gurkhas and their supporters shouted their battle cry “Ayo gorkhali”.
In May 2009 the government announced that all Gurkha veterans who retired before 1997 with at least four years’ service would be allowed to settle in Britain. Even as this victory was secured, however, Gurung was appealing to the Queen and the Prime Minister for his 20-year-old granddaughter, Amrita, who had been facing deportation, to be allowed to stay in Britain to care for him.
“I have paid a great price for Britain,” Gurung said, “but I do not complain as I love this country as much as I love my family. However, in my last days I ask Her Majesty the Queen to help by allowing my granddaughter to be with me and at my side.” The Home Office relented, and granted her permission to stay.
In 2008 Gurung had settled at Hounslow, to which he was formally welcomed at a ceremony led by the mayor and the council; he was later made a Freeman of the Borough. He attended many functions of the Nepalese communities in Hounslow and elsewhere, and was honorary vice-president of the Chiswick branch of the Royal British Legion. He had recently moved into the Chiswick War Memorial Homes.
Lachhiman Gurung attended this year’s Remembrance Sunday ceremony at the Centotaph, and was also present at last month’s VC and GC Association reunion in the presence of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh.
One of Gurung’s sons subsequently became an officer in the 8th Gurkha Rifles. His second wife, Manmaya, survives him with his five children.
Havildar Lachhiman Gurung, VC
Havildar Lachhiman Gurung, who died on December 12 aged 92, won the Victoria Cross while serving with the Gurkha Rifles in Burma in 1945; in recent years he had been a prominent figure in the campaign led by the actress Joanna Lumley to allow former Gurkhas to settle in Britain.At the end of April 1945, the 89th Indian Brigade of 7th Division was ordered to cross the Irrawaddy and destroy the enemy north of the Prome-Taungup road. By May 9 the Japanese, after a series of desperate attacks, had broken off contact and were withdrawing towards the Taungdaw Valley. “B” and “C” companies of the 4th/8th Gurkha Rifles were positioned to block their route at the village of Taungdaw, on the west bank of the river.
When the Japanese arrived, the two Gurkha companies were surrounded and their lines of communication cut. On the night of May 12, Rifleman Gurung was manning the forward post of his platoon almost 100 yards ahead of the main company.
At 1.20am, more than 200 Japanese attacked the company position. The brunt of the assault fell on Gurung’s section and, in particular, on his post, which dominated a jungle track leading up to his platoon’s position. Had the enemy been able to overrun it and occupy Gurung’s trench, they would have secured control over the whole of the field before them.
One grenade fell on the lip of Gurung’s trench. He quickly grabbed it and hurled it back at the enemy. Almost immediately another grenade came over. This one fell directly inside the trench. Again Gurung snatched it up and threw it back.
A third grenade landed just in front of the trench. Gurung attempted to throw it back, but it exploded in his hand, blowing off his fingers, shattering his right arm and severely wounding him in the face, body and right leg. His two comrades were also badly wounded and lay helpless in the bottom of the trench.
The enemy, screaming and yelling, now formed up shoulder to shoulder and attempted to rush the position by sheer weight of numbers. Gurung, regardless of his wounds, loaded and fired his rifle with his left hand and kept up a steady rate of fire.
The attacks came in wave after wave, but the Japanese were beaten back with heavy losses. For four hours Gurung remained alone at his post, calmly waiting for each new onslaught, firing into his attackers at point blank range, determined not to yield an inch of ground. His comrades could hear him shouting: “Come and fight a Gurkha!”
The following morning, of the 87 enemy dead found in the company’s immediate locality, 31 lay in front of Gurung’s section. The Japanese made repeated attempts to break through, but the 4th/8th held out until May 15, when they were relieved.
Gurung later said: “I had to fight because there was no other way. I felt I was going to die anyway, so I might as well die standing on my feet. All I knew was that I had to go on and hold them back. I am glad that helped the other soldiers in my platoon, but they would have all done the same thing.”
Gurung was invested with the Victoria Cross by Lord Louis Mountbatten at a parade at the Red Fort in Delhi on December 19 1945. The citation declared: “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.” Partiman Gurung, Lachhiman’s father, then aged about 74, was carried for 11 days from his village in Nepal to witness his son being decorated.
Lachhiman Gurung was born on December 30 1917 at Dakhani village in the Tanhu district of Nepal. He enlisted in December 1940 and after completing basic training was recruited into the 8th Gurkha Rifles. Of small build (he stood just 4ft 11in tall), he was under the minimum height and would not have been accepted in peacetime.
After the action in which he won the Victoria Cross, Gurung was evacuated to hospital, but lost his right hand and the use of his right eye. He continued to serve with the 8th Gurkha Rifles but transferred to the Indian Army after Independence in 1947. He retired in the rank of havildar (the equivalent of sergeant) in the same year.
Gurung married soon afterwards and had two sons and a daughter. Later, after the death of his wife, he had two sons from a second marriage.
He farmed a two-acre plot and owned several buffalo, oxen, goats and cows. In 1995 the VC and GC Association provided the Gurkha Welfare Trust with £2,000 donated by the Armourers and Brasiers’ Livery Company, and these funds were used to build a new house for Gurung and his family near the Gurkha Welfare Centre at Chitwan.
In August 1995 Gurung was received at 10 Downing Street by the Prime Minister, John Major, who presented him with a cheque for £100,500 for the Gurkha Welfare Trust.
In 2008 Gurung became closely involved in the campaign to allow Gurkhas to settle in Britain. The British government had refused entry to the 2,000 Gurkhas who had retired before July 1997, the date when their base was moved to the UK from Hong Kong.
Five claimants — including a Falklands veteran, Lance-Corporal Gyanendra Rai; a Gulf War veteran, Birendra Man; and a Gurkha widow — launched a legal challenge, supported by Lachhiman Gurung and a fellow winner of the VC, Honorary Lieutenant Tul Bahadur Pun, then aged 87. Both men had been told that they would not be allowed to settle here because they had failed to “demonstrate strong ties” to the UK.
In the High Court in September 2008, however, Mr Justice Blake said that the policy should be reviewed, referring to the “Military Covenant undertaken by every British soldier by which, in return for their pledge to make the ultimate sacrifice, they are promised value and respect”. He added: “Rewarding distinguished service by the grant of residence in the country for which the service was performed would be a vindication of this covenant.” As the judge rose after his ruling, Gurkhas and their supporters shouted their battle cry “Ayo gorkhali”.
In May 2009 the government announced that all Gurkha veterans who retired before 1997 with at least four years’ service would be allowed to settle in Britain. Even as this victory was secured, however, Gurung was appealing to the Queen and the Prime Minister for his 20-year-old granddaughter, Amrita, who had been facing deportation, to be allowed to stay in Britain to care for him.
“I have paid a great price for Britain,” Gurung said, “but I do not complain as I love this country as much as I love my family. However, in my last days I ask Her Majesty the Queen to help by allowing my granddaughter to be with me and at my side.” The Home Office relented, and granted her permission to stay.
In 2008 Gurung had settled at Hounslow, to which he was formally welcomed at a ceremony led by the mayor and the council; he was later made a Freeman of the Borough. He attended many functions of the Nepalese communities in Hounslow and elsewhere, and was honorary vice-president of the Chiswick branch of the Royal British Legion. He had recently moved into the Chiswick War Memorial Homes.
Lachhiman Gurung attended this year’s Remembrance Sunday ceremony at the Centotaph, and was also present at last month’s VC and GC Association reunion in the presence of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh.
One of Gurung’s sons subsequently became an officer in the 8th Gurkha Rifles. His second wife, Manmaya, survives him with his five children.
Havildar Lachhiman Gurung, VC
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Indo Pak War 1971- Remembering our heros
Respected Veterans,Jai Hind.
Let us remember one Brave Soldier, every morning.
Lt Colonel Chittoor Venugopal was commanding a battalion of Gorkha Rifles during the operations on the Eastern Front. On 4 December 1971, the battalion came up against well fortified enemy defences at Utrali and Darsana. The position had a series of concrete pillboxes interconnected with elaborate communication trenches. Lt Colonel Venugopal planned the attack with great professional skill. Showing complete disregard for his personal safety, he led the attack and by his presence inspired his men to achieve the objective. After the capture of these two positions, the battalion relentlessly pursued the withdrawing enemy giving him no rest or time to regroup till Jhenida was captured three days later. Throughout, Lt Colonel Venugopal displayed conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty in the best traditions of the Army.
Regards,
Colonel SS Rajan
Maj Gen Chittoor Venugopal, MVC
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