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"I was pulling out my gun again when our commanding officer, a short man, appeared and said, “Well done, Pun”. He asked if I was all right, and I replied that everything was not all right. I told him that there were quite a lot of enemies inside the trench.
He promised to send the flame-thrower, then vanished. On the lower side there was a British regiment which sent a flame-thrower. The flame even keeps burning on water, and if it falls on stone or iron it just turns them into soil. This weapon is best for trench warfare. The fire is so dangerous that if it falls on cloth or a piece of flesh, it just sticks to the skin.

Many enemies were roasted alive. Others fled through the passage that we had kept open. However, they didn’t get far. Most only took a few steps and then fell down. The enemy troops were wiped out and we entered the town.
There we saw that the enemy troops and our own men in hand-to-hand combat, making it impossible to fire powerful weapons. Some of the soldiers started firing, while others began fighting with their hands like people under the influence of alcohol and a few were buried under stones and bricks. A few were struck with sticks or rifle butts. There was a sense of the confusion one sees during a festival.

This was followed by the harsh sound of a whistle blown by their commander. They stopped fighting and ran away. A whole lot of soldiers who had been taking shelter in the town started escaping by jumping into the river. The water carried about half of them away, but the rest managed to reach the other side. For a while the whole river was covered with human bodies. The civilians had already abandoned the town, and following the flight of the enemy soldiers, we captured the town.

In the evening we had an assembly, when respective commanders discussed strategies for the next day and also assessed who had fought well and which tactics had worked. Reports were collected on who did best in that day’s capture of the town. Our platoon sergeant reported that except for two men, the rest of our platoon had been killed. He mentioned my name, and told them that I had done excellently during the siege of the bridge and also mentioned that I was the first to get into the enemy camp. The commander added that he was present at the time and had seen the event with his own eyes. A strong recommendation letter was written and dispatched to the war office.

On one day I had been assigned to bring the rations, which were carried by mules. When I arrived at the headquarters, a message had arrived from the war office. The clerk on duty took me aside and said, “Pun, one of the soldiers from your company has done an excellent job. I have collected the message. In all probability he will get a gallantry award.” He gave me the message and told me to give it to the company. I glanced at it, and saw my name on it.

The following day, the commander sent for me. I saluted him, and then he patted me on the back and told me he had received the reply to his letter. “Well done!” he said, “You will receive a gallantry award, but I can’t say right now what class of award it will be. Probably you will receive a very high order gallantry award.” At the time, I was an ordinary rifleman. He told me that I had been elevated to the rank of sergeant and asked me to collect soldiers and form a section.

Our assault on the town had taken place on 23 June, 1944. I was awarded the Victoria Cross for our assault on the town that day. Captain Elmond also got a Victoria Cross. A few months later, I received the gallantry award in Delhi from Lord Louis Mountbatten, who was the viceroy of India and the supreme commander of the allied forces in Asia at the time.

The day after the fighting, the camp was cleaned and an inquiry of how many were killed in the assault took place. The attack on the town had cost us the lives of 11 British officers, 17 Gurkha officers and 773 others below the rank of jamadar (Gurkha lieutenant). After this, we reassembled at Dehara Dun and then went home on a two-month paid leave."

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well if it don't I'll be bumping it 'till Friday

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He was 27 years old, and a Rifleman in the 4th Battalion of The 8th Gurkha Rifles, Indian Army during the Second World War when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC.
On 12 May-13 May 1945 at Taungdaw, Burma (now Myanmar), Rifleman Lachhiman Gurung was manning the most forward post of his platoon which bore the brunt of an attack by at least 200 of the enemy. Twice he hurled back grenades which had fallen on his trench, but the third exploded in his right hand, blowing off his fingers, shattering his arm and severely wounding him in the face, body and right leg. His two comrades were also badly wounded, but the rifleman, now alone and disregarding his wounds, loaded and fired his rifle with his left hand for four hours, calmly waiting for each attack which he met with fire at point blank range.

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He was about 24 years old, and a Rifleman in the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Gurkha Rifles, British Indian Army during the Second World War when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC.
On 5 March 1945 at Snowdon East, near Tamandu, Burma (now Myanmar), a section was pinned down by heavy enemy fire and was also being subjected to sniping from a tree. Rifleman Bhanbhagta Gurung killed the sniper and later when the section was again attacked, he dashed forward under continuous fire personally clearing four enemy foxholes and he also silenced a light machine-gun. With the help of a Bren gunner and two riflemen he then repelled an enemy counter-attack on the captured bunker with heavy losses. His action in clearing these positions was decisive in capturing the objective.

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May 27, 2007
A rape conviction is better than a VC if you want to stay in Britain
Rod Liddle

Here’s a quiz. Not a very good quiz because you will know the answer before you’ve finished reading the question. Whether you can comprehend it is another matter. An awful lot of immigrants are allowed into Britain these days and very few deported because they are undesirable. However, as a nation we must draw the line somewhere. So, using your understanding of How Britain Is, estimate which of the following four aspirant British citizens has been told to get out and stay out. And which three can stay?

1) Mouloud Sihali, Algerian. Lived at Finsbury Park mosque, breeding ground of Islamic terrorism. Described in court as “unprincipled and dishonest”. Illegal immigrant.

2) Yonis Dirie, Somalian. Drug addict, armed robber and burglar. Convicted of raping a young woman in London. Illegal immigrant.

3) Tul Bahadur Pun VC, Nepalese. Won the Victoria Cross for taking out a Japanese machinegun post in 1944 in Burma single-handedly. Now 84, of unblemished conduct, suffering from heart problems and diabetes and would like treatment here. Legal applicant.

4) “AS”, Libyan. Islamic extremist involved with Milan terrorist group. Court accepts that he is likely to try to kill us all again quite soon. Illegal immigrant.

You got it, didn’t you? Old Pun’s application was rejected because - and here’s another punchline, in case the first wasn’t funny enough - he “failed to demonstrate” that he had “strong ties with Britain”. How much stronger do you want? There can be hardly a soul who wouldn’t be happy to have Pun here. And not one who could make a case for allowing Dirie, the robber-rapist, say, to get preferential treatment. Some of us would have happily dispatched him back to Mogadishu strapped to a missile.

There is no great objection to immigration in this country; the objection is to how it is done and who benefits, exemplified by the cases I quote above.

I suspect the public feels there are people who should be allowed in - people to whom we owe a profound debt of gratitude (like Pun), or those whose countries we have let down in one way or another (such as the Hong Kong Chinese or the black Zimbabweans). And yet it seems we do precisely the opposite.

Libyan and Algerian extremists who feel the regimes in their home countries are not sufficiently rigorous are allowed to stay because we worry they might be bumped off at home - regardless of what threat they pose to us.

I would vote for any party that pledged to extricate us from the international legislation that insists on such absurdities.

By then, however, it will most likely be too late for Tul Bahadur Pun VC. The Japs couldn’t kill him - but we’re not making a bad job of it.

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Gurkha war hero's agony

By TOM NEWTON DUNN
Defence Editor

MUSEUM chiefs have broken a Gurkha war hero’s heart by refusing to let him see his treasured Victoria Cross one final time.

Fearless Lieutenant Tulbahadur Pun, 89, won the nation’s top medal for bravery during World War II.

Aged just 21, he single-handedly stormed two Japanese armed positions with his Bren Gun blazing from his hip after his comrades were wiped out in Burma.

Now the ageing hero — who lives in poverty in Nepal — has begged his old Army regiment’s museum to send him his medal so he can wear it with pride before he dies.

But museum bosses have refused, saying the VC no longer belongs to him.:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

Tulbahadur — one of only 12 winners of the VC still alive — is too unwell to travel to the UK.

He said he handed over the medal to the Gurkha Museum in Winchester, Hants, for safekeeping in the ’70s on officers’ advice.


He told The Sun: “Until 1995, I used to go to the UK and wear my Victoria Cross. Now I would like to wear it again before I leave the Earth — I can’t understand why they won’t let me.”

The grandfather of 15 is forced to spend all his VC pension on medicines for his heart problems.

London barrister Rebekah Wilson, who is representing him, said: “The medal is something he cherishes. Time is not on his side and I think it would be shameful if he did not get to see his medal again.”

But Gurkha Museum curator Gerald Davies said: “Tulbahadur Pun’s medal has been donated to the museum by his regimental association.

“We have a duty of care to ensure this medal is available to the public to see and it is secure.”

The citation for Tulbahadur’s VC praises his “outstanding courage and superb gallantry” in capturing the Japanese machine-gun posts and killing three enemies.

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