Thursday, September 3, 2015

Company Havildar Major Piru Singh

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Another story of a soldier in this 10 day series..

Company Havildar Major Piru Singh

During the 1947-48 Indo-Pak war, Pakistan had captured the village of Tithwal in the hills of Kashmir. Pakistanis positioned themselves well with machine gun nests covering all possible points of approach. Major Piru Singh was part of Rajputana Rifles and his troop was ordered to recapture this post in July of 1948. The only path leading to the enemy post was a narrow ridge that would funnel his team in direct line of fire of the machine guns. On the other side of the ridge was a sheer cliff to the valley below.

On his way to the top, Piru Singh had lost half of his company from intense machine gun fire. This did not deter him from advancing and shouting “Raja Ramchandra ki Jai” all the while. This encouraged his remaining men to charge forward with him. Splinters from grenade attacks and gunfire had ripped his clothes. He was heavily wounded, but without the least regard for his safety he reached the top to the enemy position and emptied all his rounds. By the time he ran out of ammo, all his associates were dead. This escalated his rage to the next level as he hurled grenades at another trench and bayoneted the occupants. In the process, a grenade hurled at him exploded injuring half of his face. Blind from one eye and bleeding from his injuries, he still gathered enough courage to step out of his trench and hurl another grenade at the second enemy position when he was hit by a bullet in the head killing him. The grenade he threw took out the last enemy position and thereby accomplishing his mission.

He was awarded Param Vir Chakra posthumously.

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