Free The Brave: Param Vir Chakra Stories by Rachna Bisht Rawat Page A

over 14, 000 feet. The lessons learnt from it were: good intelligence and war readiness are imperative to winning wars, good command at the senior level means generals be appointed on military merit and not sycophancy, politicians should not ignore the advice of military officers regarding military readiness, and that incompetent people who rise to the top mess up nations.
    The only shining stars of the ‘62 war were the brave soldiers of the Indian Army, who fought valiantly and often to death to protect their territories. The Indian soldiers lacked everything except courage, it has been famously said. These brave hearts fought in high attitudes and freezing temperatures. They used old and cumbersome. 303 rifles against Chinese automatics. They were outnumbered and completely mauled by the well-prepared Chinese Army but they continued to fight for the honour of their nation.
    Many brave stories of unassuming heroes in uniform came out of this war. Three of them were of Subedar Joginder Singh, Maj Dhan Singh Thapa and Maj Shaitan Singh. All three were awarded the Param Vir Chakra posthumously but miraculously Maj Thapa returned from the dead a few months after the Battle of Sirijap. He had been taken Prisoner of War by the Chinese.
    Their brave tales of unbelievable courage and fortitude tell us how soldiers don’t forget their responsibilities even if politicians do.



Dhan Singh Thapa
Battle For Sirijap 1, Ladakh Region
20 October 1962
    The Gorkha soldier is in his early 20s. He is firing from his trench. His slim fingers hold the. 303 rifle so close to his slight frame that it appears to be an extension of his body. A helmet covers his young face.
    It is freezing cold but there are beads of sweat on his brow. He is shooting at the Chinese, who are coming in a massive wave, their automatic rifles spraying bullets blindly at the men defending Sirijap 1. The post lies on the northern edge of the Pangong Tso and is manned by the Delta Company of the first battalion of 8 Gorkha Rifles.
    The soldier uses his bullets with care. He knows ammunition is running short and he and his comrades are completely outnumbered. There were 28 of them when the Chinese started shelling at 6 a. m. but nearly half of them now lie around him, some dead, others dying.
    Just then, a shell blows up a bunker that collapses right on top of Subedar Min Bahadur Gurung, the company second-in- command. Gurung Sahab crawls out of the debris, injured and bleeding, light machine gun (LMG) still in his hand. He starts firing at the enemy again, his mud-streaked face a mask of cold control. Major Dhan Singh Thapa, commander, D Company, continues to move from trench to trench, inspiring those left of his men to be brave.
    Just then a bullet hits the soldier in the hand. He drops the rifle and, screaming with pain, runs into the tent that still stands intact. Without losing a second, Maj Thapa reaches for the fallen gun and carries it inside. He finds the terrified soldier cringing in a corner, nursing his injured hand.
    Thapa walks across to him and pats him on the head softly. ‘Kafar hunu bhanda marnu ramro’ (It is better to die than be a coward), he says, handing the gun back to the young man. ‘If we have to die we’ll all die together, but kill a few before you die.’
    With that Maj Thapa turns around and quickly makes his way back to where a soldier lies dead with his LMG still in his hands. He pulls the gun and gets into the trench himself, positioning himself in front of the advancing enemy. From the corner of his eye he sees the injured soldier walking back with a determined look on his face and the rifle in his blood-stained hands.

    The battle that took place at Sirijap 1 in the Chushul sector of Ladakh is immortalized in military history for the dynamic leadership of Maj Dhan Singh Thapa. He was the man who inspired his brave Gorkhas to fight to the last.
    Sirijap 1 was one of the many posts established as part of the forward policy that had